While I’m writing this review, there are two major seasons happening. The most important one is Easter, which will continue until Pentecost, and the other, which just started over a month ago but will continue until the end of October, is the 2025 Major League Baseball (MLB) season. While I do favor football and hockey when it comes my consumption of sports, baseball is, as the saying goes, a major pastime for me. If there is an opportunity to go to a game (especially in the middle of summer), I will take it. While I don’t have much enthusiasm this year for my team, which is the Tampa Bay Rays (I would explain why, but it would be a long rant), I’m always curious if or when any baseball movies come out to capitalize on the sport and, as luck would have it, one recently debuted called Eephus (2024).

If you haven’t of this baseball film before, then I don’t blame you. It’s a pretty niche movie that I discovered when I was looking up various title and my favorite independent theater, the Tampa Theatre, happened to be showing it. When I discovered Eephus, I tried everything I could not to watch any trailers or look up anything else about it as I wanted to go in completely fresh, a rare thing to do when we live in a world surrounded by trailers and advertisements. With that being said, and not much else to say about this film before going into the plot I was unfamiliar with to begin with, was Eephus the next great baseball flick or a something you can ignore completely? As usual, let’s find out.

Unlike a typical review where I would explain the plot and the characters introduced in the film, Eephus doesn’t really have one, nor does it have strong established characters that develop throughout the action. Instead, I’ll describe the premise and a few characters just to get you an idea of what it is about. In it, we are following two recreational baseball teams in a small Massachusetts town set in the 1990s, one being the Alder’s Paint Baseball Team led by Ed Mortanian (Keith William Richards), and the other the Riverdogs led by Graham Morris (Stephen Radochia). Not much history is given for these teams, though what we do know is that the playing surface that they are on, Soldier Field, is being torn down for a new school. Both teams are playing their last game ever in that ballpark on a Saturday in October. One character worth mentioning is Franny (Cliff Blake), who sort of plays the avatar for the audience as his character is, a spectator while keeping score like one would when going to a major league game and at one point, he becomes the umpire. 

If you’re wondering who Eephus is made for given that it’s just a bunch of guys playing baseball, I’ll tell you who: baseball fans. As far as movies goes, this is probably the simplest film that I have seen in a long time. In fact, I would be shocked if the budget was over $50,000 given how there are no names I can recognize right off the bat (no pun intended) and how it’s literally set on one location: the ball park.

You’re probably asking yourself, why do I want to watch a bunch of fictional guys play baseball when I can watch the real thing on television? One word: comradery. Unlike televised baseball games, the main focus of Eephus is the sense of community of the two teams as seen in various places such as the dugout, bullpen, and on the field itself. Their banter and witty dialogue were amusing, and given that it’s a fictional story, it wouldn’t surprise if most of the film was improvised. It is funny, though, that I was trying to figure out what it would be rated as it was labeled as “Not Rated” when I saw it. This is pretty normal when it comes to smaller, independent pieces that get distributed through smaller theaters and bypass the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) ratings system. If it had gotten a rating, however, it definitely would be “R” for language, which is not surprising given how it’s a bunch of guys ranging from late ‘20s to early ‘60s who curse like sailors. Treat this as a bit of a warning for those sensitive to language. 

While watching Eephus, I was trying to find a good Catholic approach that I can bring up in this review. Honestly, it wasn’t easy, but there is one. I will say, however, that it’s not a cautionary tale, which is recurring theme here on The Legionnaire. Instead, it’s about commitment. Without giving too much away about the “plot,” there’s a certain point in it where the goal of finishing the game is threatened. Guys are getting too tired to play, the umpire quits because the game is going too long, and it gets dark to where it’s hard to continue playing. If I was in that game and the leaders of the teams called it a day, I most likely wouldn’t hesitate to agree with such a decision. There is one character, however, that encourages both sides to finish due to the fact that it’s the last contest ever at that park. When I watched this film, it was right in the middle of the Lenten season and there were moments of temptation to the things I sacrificed, but knowing what Jesus had gone through in the desert for forty days kept me going to fulfill my vows. While Lent is currently over and occurs once a year, we do have to remind ourselves that once we’re committed to something, it’s our obligation to finish what we start. Even though the players could’ve easily called it quits, they find the needed motivation to go on. 

As you can tell from the review, Eephus isn’t a typical film, and there isn’t much to say about it in general without giving too much away. Still, if you love baseball and seeing something different, then this is might be something for you. I remember describing to family members that watching it is like viewing an average baseball at home by yourself. You can have it one in the background while doing other things and stop once in a while and focus on the scenes and characters playing the game. That may sound like a back handed compliment, but trust me, with a running time rounding up to an hour and forty minutes with not much of a plot, it’s honestly the best way to watch it. If you can, however, try and see it with a bunch of baseball fans. While the opinions of the film may differ from others, there’s no doubt that this is something fans of the sport will enjoy given how simplistic and engaging that characters are.