For Love of the Game (film)

For Love of the Game is a 1999 film about a washed up pitcher who flashes through his career as he is pitching a perfect game.
 * Directed by Sam Raimi. Written by Dana Stevens, based on the book For Love of the Game (1991) by Michael Shaara.

Billy Chapel must choose between the woman he loves and the game he lives for.

Billy Chapel

 * [Hearing Yankee fans boo and jeer him] I can always tell when I'm in New York.
 * [writing on a baseball] Tell them I'm through, "for love of the game", Billy Chapel
 * [repeated line - his trick for concentration] Clear the mechanism.
 * The game doesn't stink, Mr. Wheeler. It's a great game.
 * [to himself, pitching to Sam Tuttle] Sam Tuttle. I can't think of a better reason not to be a Yankee.
 * [consoling Mickey Hart after an embarrassing play in Fenway Park] There's a bunch of cameras out there right now waiting to make a joke of this, Mick. So you can either stop, give them the sound bite, do the dance. Or you can hold your head up and walk by, and the next time we're in Boston, we'll go out there and work the wall together. Don't help them make a joke out of you.
 * God, I always said I would never bother You about baseball, always seemed silly. But if You could make this pain in my shoulder stop for ten minutes...
 * [while helping a traded teammate, Davis Birch, move] I ain't carryin' no books. Where's the pillows?

Vin Scully
He's pitching against the future, against age... and, even when you think about his career, against ending. And tonight, I think he might be able to use that aching old arm one more time... to push the sun back up in the sky... and give us one more day of summer.
 * At 40 years old Billy Chapel is flirting with perhaps the greatest accomplishment in baseball and standing his way is Matt Crane hitting for Babe Nardini. Then Jesus Cabrillo and Ken Strout has a bat in his hands in the dug out and might very well get the call to bat for Jaimie Ruiz. And, you know, Steve, you get he feeling that Billy Chapel... isn't pitching against left-handers. He isn't pitching against pinch hitters.... He isn't pitching against the Yankees. He's pitching against time.
 * The cathedral that is Yankee Stadium belongs to a Chapel.
 * As so often happens in a ball game, there are so many other under currents, so much more that meets the eye… the owner of the beleaguered franchise selling their star player, and all the while, Billy Chapel had to make the biggest decision of his life…"

Gus Sinksi

 * You know, a lot of little bottles makes a big bottle, Chapy
 * The boys are all here for ya, we'll back you up, we'll be there, cause, Billy, we don't stink right now. We're the best team in baseball, right now, right this minute, because of you. You're the reason. We're not gonna screw that up, we're gonna be awesome for you right now. Just throw.

Mike Udall

 * “You’ve done it all; you’ve won every award there is to win. You’ve got a room a room reserved in Cooperstown. I don’t know how much more you have to prove. Even if you make it back, you won’t be 100%, you won’t even be 50… ”
 * Mike Udall, the Tigers’ trainer telling Billy why he should retire.

Dialogue

 * [Billy and Jane have sex in her bed for the first time, and Billy finds a flashlight by his feet]
 * Jane Aubrey: It's not mine.
 * Billy Chapel: You mean it doubles as a flashlight?


 * Jane Aubrey: I need a regular guy. Not the guy in the Old Spice commercials.
 * Billy Chapel: It was Right Guard.
 * Jane Aubrey: What?
 * Billy Chapel: It was Right Guard, not Old Spice.
 * Jane Aubrey: I was being metaphorical.


 * Jane Aubrey: Do you lose very much?
 * Billy Chapel: I lose. I've lost 134 times.
 * Jane Aubrey: You count them?
 * Billy Chapel: We count everything.


 * Heather: So, are you my mom's boyfriend?
 * Billy Chapel: I'm not sure.
 * Heather: But you've slept with her.


 * Jane Aubrey: What if my face was all scraped off and I was totally disfigured and had no arms and legs and I was completely paralyzed. Would you still love me?
 * Billy Chapel: No. But we could still be friends.


 * Jane Aubrey: So, when you're away, I'll live my life and you'll live yours. And none of this stupid bullshit "why didn't you call me?" crap. And "What you do when you're not with me has nothing to do with me" and vice versa. No questions asked, no worrying, no obsessing.
 * Billy Chapel: That sounded perfect.


 * Jane Aubrey: You ever gotten your heart broken?
 * Billy Chapel: Yeah. When we lost the pennant in '87.


 * Frank Perry: [Billy is warming up in the bullpen before the game] Well, since you're throwing bullets, I'm not even gonna mention the fact that you're an hour late, and I have been standing here trying to figure out who my starting pitcher would be if you didn't show up.
 * Billy Chapel: Have I ever not showed? In the 19 years, have I ever not showed?
 * Frank Perry: Well, that's true of everyone until the first time they don't show.


 * [Billy walks out to the mound for the 8th inning, and for the first time, he looks at the scoreboard, and sees the Yankees have no runs or hits and he pauses in realization that he's throwing at least a no-hitter. Gus jogs out to the mound]
 * Gus Sinski: How ya doing, ace?
 * Billy Chapel: Anybody been on base?
 * Gus Sinksi: [Shakes his head] No way.
 * Billy Chapel: [Surprised] Nobody?
 * Gus Sinksi: This, I ain't seen much of.
 * Billy Chapel: Me neither.
 * Gus Sinski: Chappie...I never have. [Billy hangs his head] What's the matter?
 * Billy Chapel: I don't know if I have anything left.
 * Gus Sinski: [sees the home plate umpire coming to the mound and waves him off before turning back to Billy] Chappie, you just throw whatever you got. Whatever's left. The boys are all here for you, we'll back you up, we'll be there. 'Cause Billy...we don't stink right now. We're the best team in baseball, right now, right this minute, because of you. You're the reason. We're not gonna screw that up, we're gonna be awesome for you right now. Just. Throw. Alright?

Cast

 * Kevin Costner - Billy Chapel
 * Kelly Preston - Jane Aubrey
 * John C. Reilly - Gus Sinski
 * Jena Malone - Heather Aubrey
 * Vin Scully - himself
 * Steve Lyons - himself
 * Brian Cox - Gary Wheeler
 * J.K. Simmons - Frank Perry
 * Michael Papajohn - Sam Tuttle
 * William Newman - Fitch
 * Bob Sheppard - himself
 * Daniel Dae Kim - E.R. Doctor