Dave Faries here, realizing it has been 35 years since the release of the best baseball movie ever made.
For fans of the game, today is Opening Day. And a glance at Monterey County’s roster of current and former professional players reflects baseball’s rich history in the area. Born in Carmel, Atlee Hammaker hurled for 14 years in the majors, for Kansas City, San Francisco, San Diego and the Chicago White Sox. Pete Incaviglia, born in Pebble Beach but a Monterey High School product, belted 206 home runs in his career. Salinas High’s Xavier Nady hit .330 for Pittsburgh in 2008. And let’s not forget Harry Wolter of Monterey: A rookie in 1907, he spent four of his seven major league seasons with the New York Yankees.
Of course, the great Reggie Jackson made Monterey County his home, although he grew up in Pennsylvania. Pete Ruiz was raised closer—Grass Valley, California—and now lives here. The former pitcher is a real estate ace. But Ruiz never took the mound in the major leagues, instead spending eight years in places like Greenville and Salem and Portland. And it’s guys like Ruiz that Hollywood chose to feature in 1988, when Bull Durham appeared on the big screen.
There are other standout baseball films, such as 61*, 42, Field of Dreams and The Bingo Long Traveling All Stars and Motor Kings, among others. But with humor, humanity and a poignant thread, Bull Durham treads the fine line between the few who reach the top and the many almosts.
For every Jim Willoughby (born in Salinas, career 3.78 ERA in the bigs) or Mike Aldrete (MHS grad, 10 years as a major leaguer) there’s a Dennis Rockwell (Pacific Grove, three seasons in the minors), Eric Barstad (Salinas High, two years with Elizabethton in the Appalachian League) or Michaelangelo Guzman (Soledad High, wound up playing in Mexico).
The tale of Steve Raine is another of those melancholy what-ifs. While at North Salinas High, Raine was drafted in the second round by San Francisco. He couldn’t come to an agreement with the team, so opted to play college ball instead. Kansas City then drafted him in the first round—the fifth player selected overall in 1980. He showed that much promise. Unfortunately, while pitching for Jacksonville in the Class A Southern League, Raine tore up his shoulder. He died unexpectedly in 2019.
Bull Durham is the fictional story of Crash Davis (Kevin Costner), a minor league veteran who was once called up to the “show”—slang for the majors—for 21 days (“the 21 greatest days of my life,” he says). Davis is brought back down to A-level Durham in the Carolina League to help a young pitcher (Nuke LaLoosh, played by Tim Robbins) with a live arm and careless attitude gain the maturity necessary to make the jump to stardom.
Davis is treading water on the fringe of greatness. He has knowledge, but lacks that extra something. LaLoosh is vacant, but has all the tools—or will have, once the veteran passes along life lessons. In one of their testy exchanges, the young pitcher insists “I ain’t pissing nothing away. I got a Porsche already. I got a 911 with a quadrophonic Blaupunkt.” The catcher with a dozen years in the minors responds with, “Christ, you don’t need a quadrophonic blop pop. What you need is a curveball.”
The movie gives us something to consider. In baseball and in life, the gap between the successful and the rest is narrow indeed. As Costner’s character observes in a drunken soliloquy: “Know what the difference between hitting .250 and .300 is? It’s 25 hits—25 hits in 500 at bats is 50 points. There are six months in a season. That’s about 25 weeks. That means if you get just extra flare a week—just one…you’re in Yankee Stadium.”
I’ve seen business courses use this as a lesson in the value of constant effort and consistency over the long haul, or a lesson in always striving for that little bit more. I’m going to leave it as a nod to the likes of Jordan Casas (Palma High, three minor league seasons), Raymond Vegas (Salinas, topped out at Quad Cities of the Midwest League), Ryan Bitter (Pacific Grove, spent 2004 in the New York-Pennsylvania League, the next in the Midwest), Carmel’s Kyle Lloyd (pitched one game for San Diego in 2017) and the others who came within reach of the big time.
Play ball.