
- Choose a category from one of these: Television, Stage & Screen, Nightly News, Publishing, Lives & Times, Music
- Find 8 bits of trivia about your selected category
- Be sure to let me know when...ok, if...you decide to play along so I can see what you come up with. (You can do that just by clicking here!)
- You may tag, or simply offer the meme for borrowing or stealing as you like.

- The movie is based on the book, For Love of the Game, written by Michael Shaara and published posthumously in 1991 following his death from a heart attack in 1988. Shaara won the Pulitzer Prize in 1975 for his novel The Killer Angels which was about the Battle of Gettysburg and the source for the screenplay for the 1993 movie Gettysburg, another of my very favorites.
- The story is about Billy Chapel (Kevin Costner), a 40-year old pitcher, who is forced to re-examine his priorities in life when he is confronted with unexpected circumstances—not only is he being traded after 20 years as the heart and soul of the Detroit Tigers, but Jane Aubrey (Kelly Preston), the love of his life, is leaving him for a job in London. During the course of the movie, Billy flashes back on his last four years with Jane and his baseball career as he pitches a possible perfect game against the formidable New York Yankees in "The House That Ruth Built".
- The movie was shot in both New York and Los Angeles with a short stop in Aspen, Colorado for some off-season scenes. Most of the East Coast scenes were shot on the streets of Manhattan and Brooklyn along with five weeks at Yankee Stadium during one of the warmest Novembers in New York ever.
- The production used between 800 and 2000 extras for filming at the stadium along with cardboard characters and computer graphics to fill out empty seats in the stands to make it look like a typical packed-house game at Yankee Stadium.
- The shots of Billy Chapel's parents at the beginning of the movie are Kevin Costner's actual parents.
- Both the Tigers and Yankees management insisted that anyone who wore their uniforms had to be either a former or current member of their organization or an actor. Ultimately, every player cast was either a professional or an actor with at least some organized baseball experience. Even actual major league umpires Rick Reed, Jerry Crawford and Richie Garcia were cast in their real-life profession.
- The soundtrack features 15 songs and some of the best music from a movie ever featuring artists such as Lyle Lovett, Roy Orbison, Vince Gill, Steely Dan, and others. I suspect I've just about worn it down!
- My very favorite song from the movie does not appear on the soundtrack album - "It Don't Matter to the Sun" by Chris Gaines, a fictional alternative rock singer created as an alter ego for Garth Brooks. The song can be found on the CD Garth Brooks: In the Life of Chris Gaines or you can listen to it here!
Thanks, Travis, for this great new meme! It was really a lot of fun and I hope you get lots of people playing along with it. I'm not going to tag anyone in particular but come on people, you know you want to do this!
Thanks for playing!
ReplyDeleteI missed this movie when it first came out, and somehow I've never followed up with the DVD. I love a good baseball movie.
I've heard before that the Yankee organization has that restriction about the use of their uniforms. I wonder if other teams are the same way?
Thanks again!
A super description and review.
ReplyDeleteWOW. Well done. I'd better get movin' on this meme. I haven't even started. You did a fantastic job and very thorough.
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job on that Linda. :)
ReplyDeleteI've got to get this one done too. Another dungeon to deal with. I love yours. See you soon. :)
ReplyDeleteOK ... I thought I did a good job with memes, THIS ONE ROCKS!!!
ReplyDeleteMusic, video, great movie ... Shazam! Very nice Linda :~)
...ohh, can you redo my template to make my blog look as cool as yours too? (smiles)
Hello from Eric,
"SpeedyCat H"
You provided so much interesting info/trivia about this film, Linda.
ReplyDeleteOf course, being the recluse that I am, I never heard of it.
I need to get out more.
The song is beautiful. Thanks for teaching me something today.
I was rather unispired last few days (and busy in our backyard, too). But I think I will post mine version of Trav's meme tomorrow...
ReplyDeleteOh - almost forgot - great facts about this movie. I've seen it a couple of times already cause I like it :o)))
ReplyDeleteVery Well Done. Kevin Costner really has a thing about baseball. My favorite of his is Bull Durham which has what must be the sexiest scene on film where you see absolutely nothing but a hand.
ReplyDeleteI did this meme today as well.
Well I think I'm starting to understand this meme. Very interesting!
ReplyDeletei remember staying up late when i was a kid, just so i could see this movie :D I think its every little kids dream to make the major leagues.
ReplyDelete~Dan
Mutiny! It's everywhere! It's a conspiracy I tell ya...a conspiracy....
ReplyDeleteBy the way...are you packed yet?
ReplyDelete