Long before I reached the nearly 2,000 reviews completed for The Legionnaire, I thought I had written about nearly every movie I had seen prior to starting the blog.  If you will permit a little reminiscing, this began as an effort to discuss new releases.  Then the world got COVID, and the film industry was virtually shut down.  That meant no visits to the cinema for yours truly.  Cameron felt this loss, too.  Not being ready to stop, I turned to titles with which I had a long familiarity, regardless of their age.  Then came the process of scrolling through streaming services.  While doing this today, I noticed the Fred Ward’s face, an actor who I am sure you have seen in many productions.  You may not recognize the name, but if you saw his picture, I would not be surprised if it was familiar to you.  Anyway, when I see him, strangely enough the first movie that comes to mind is one that (remarkably for me and maybe no one else) has yet to be covered: Summer Catch(2001).  If you need any further explanation, let us just say that it is summer and baseball season.

The baseball season in question in Summer Catch is the Cape Cod Baseball League, played in the title time of year on the distinctive, arm-shaped peninsula that juts into the Atlantic Ocean from Massachusetts.  One of its hopefuls, local left-handed pitcher Ryan Dunne (Freddie Prinze Jr.), narrates how the league attracts the top collegiate players from around the United States, making it one of the most competitive amateur divisions.  With the plethora of scouts from Major League Baseball (MLB) regularly attending the games, doing well here often leads to getting paid to play the sport.  Players from the area, however, rarely get a chance.  Not wanting to mess that up, he decides to sleep at the field.  His slumber is interrupted by longtime friends Augie Mulligan (Gabriel Mann), Augie’s sister Dede Mulligan (Brittany Murphy), and Pete (Jed Robert Rhein).  Instead of letting Ryan slumber, Dede, egged on by Augie and Pete, plies Ryan with beers and acts in generally inappropriate ways.  It adds up to Ryan being late for the Chatham A’s first practice.  As everyone goes outside to warm up, Coach John Schiffner (Brian Dennehy) takes Ryan aside and says “strike two.”  This is to indicate that Ryan is close to being kicked off the team before play commences.  The reason his tardiness is not “strike one” is because Coach Schiffner has learned about Ryan’s troubled past.  The young man had lost his mom, causing him to drop out of one school and get kicked out of another for fighting with a teammate.  Still, like anyone else who gets paid to evaluate talent, Coach Schiffner sees Ryan’s ability, which is why he has the chance.  There are some other factors working against Ryan.  First, though he lives in an affluent town, he comes from a family that caters to those with money, in this case being part of a father and son lawn care service with his dad, Sean Dunne (Fred Ward).  One of the houses that they maintain belongs to the Parrish family.  While Ryan is mowing the Parrish grass, he cannot help but notice their similarly aged daughter, Tenley Parrish (Jessica Biel).  Given the socio-economic distance between them, he is surprised when he finds her at the nearby watering hole, being properly introduced to her with his teammate and wingman, Billy Brubaker (Matthew Lillard).  Not all Ryan’s fellow Chatham A’s pitchers are as friendly.  Also on the team is Eric Van Leemer (Corey Pearson).  He is one of the best young hurlers around and is not shy about it.  Eric is aware of Ryan’s background and never lets the Chatham product forget it.  For now, despite an up and down performance, Ryan has enough to distract him with his relationship with Tenley.  Their romance continues to blossom until her snobby father, Rand Parrish (Bruce Davison), slowly learns that his daughter is spending time with someone like Ryan.  Because of dad’s attitude, she has yet to tell him about her involvement with Ryan, and Rand pointedly invites her ex-boyfriend to stay with them.  Showing up unexpectedly at her house on the eve of a big game, Ryan is hurt to find out about the other guy and that Tenley has yet to speak about him with Rand.  Ryan takes the mound in his next start and, though he does well for a few innings, eventually gives up the lead.  While walking away from the field, he tells his father that he has been relegated to the bullpen.  Ryan does receive some encouragement shortly thereafter.  The first comes when he is approached by Hugh Alexander (John C. McGinley), a professional baseball scout for the Philadelphia Phillies.  The other is the next morning when Ryan awakens to find Tenley outside his house mowing his own lawn.  Though this repairs relations, Rand delivers an ultimatum to Tenley’s suitor: Ryan must step aside so that she can fulfill the successful career that her father has set up for her.  Meeting after the next game, Ryan tells Tinley that she should listen to this advice and go to work in San Francisco as Rand expects.  As their conversation is reaching a conclusion, a fire breaks out in the field’s press box, having been started by Eric and another teammate who were goofing around with a couple girls and matches.  Ryan saves them in spite of their animosity, but Coach Schiffner is less forgiving.  Coach Schiffner kicks the two culprits off the team.  This occurs on eve of the last game of the season, which was supposed to go to Eric.  Instead, Coach Schiffner turns to Ryan.  Taking all the advice he had received throughout the summer, he is throwing a no-hitter.  The only thing that can take him off the mound is seeing Tenley leave.  Taking himself out of the game, he has Augie and Pete drive him to the airport in time for Ryan to declare his love for Tenley.  Close on the heels of this, Hugh arrives to inform the young pitcher that he has been signed by the Phillies.

As a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan, I doubt I would call getting to play for the Phillies a success as happens for Ryan at the end of Summer Catch, but I did not write the movie.  Had it been my fingers typing the script, I would have made a few changes.  I suppose that some allowances must be made for the behavior of young athletes who are far too aware of their talent and having an abundance of time on their hands acting the way they do.  That is a roundabout way of saying this Catholic does not approve of the carousing you see on display.  What is of more interest is how Ryan looks at his own athletic abilities.  There are many who play sports for a living who acknowledge that what they do on the field is a gift from God.  Unfortunately, there is none of that in the movie.  Still, there is something to be said about attitude.  The point is made that since Ryan’s mother passed away, he had been carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.  It reminded of something I read today in the Office of Readings from Psalm 33: 16-17, “A king is not saved by his army, nor a warrior preserved by his strength.  A vain hope for safety is the horse; despite its power it cannot save.”  One can look everything a player can do on the field as having an “army” of abilities at their disposal.  Yet, there are times a pitcher will throw a perfect toss and the hitter will put it safely in play, or worse.  That is why the lesson Ryan learns is that he needs the support of others.  It comes from his family, friends, and teammates, and as all they have done comes to him while he is turning in the performance of his life, he is successful.  Christians measure success differently.  Reliance on God comes first, but there is also a group of people that will help us, hopefully, to get to Heaven.  It may not be the best metaphor, but the material is a bit thin.

Yes, there are better baseball movies than Summer Catch.  As a fan of the sport, I always judge it by the way the actors play their given positions.  Prinze Jr. did not look comfortable on mound.  There are also some uncomfortable moments in terms of sexuality, not to mention a few blatant scenes of fat shaming.  In short, it is one of those date films that is better left in the era from which it came.