분야
hwp In baseball, you dont know nothing.
--Yogi Berra
??
Whoever wants to know the heart and
mind of America had better learn
baseball.
--Jacques Barzun
??
You could look it up.
--Casey Stengel
??
??
Titles over--
FADE IN:
A series of still photos. Black and white. Ancient.
BABE RUTH SWINGS -- An icon of American history. His giant
upper body balanced delicately on tiny ankles and feet. The
huge bat in an elegant followthrough...
DISSOLVE TO:
TY COBB ROUNDS THIRD -- The most vicious ballplayer of them
all, a balletic whirling dervish.
DISSOLVE TO:
JACKIE ROBINSON STEALS ROME -- Yogi Berra applies the tag.
Too late.
DISSOLVE TO:
JOE DIMAGGIO WITH HIS SON in the Yankee clubhouse. Walking
down the runway, Joe in uniform. Number five.
PULLBACK REVEALS:
A WALL COVERED WITH BASEBALL PICTURES behind a small table
covered with objects and lit candles. A baseball, an old
baseball card, a broken bat, a rosin bag, a jar of pine tar--
also a peacock feather, a silk shawl, a picture of Isadora
Duncan. Clearly, the arrangement is--
A SHRINE -- And it glows with the candles like some religious
altar.
We hear a womans voice in a North Carolina accent.
ANNIE (V.O.)
I believe in the Church of
Baseball.
(beat)
Ive tried all the major religions
and most of the minor ones--Ive
worshipped Buddha, Allah, Brahma,
Vishnu, Siva, trees, mushrooms,
and Isadora Duncan...
PAN AWAY FROM THE SHRINE across the room. Late afternoon
light spills into the room, across fine old furniture, to a
small dressing table. A WOMAN applies make up.
ANNIE SAVOY, mid 30s, touches up her face. Very pretty,
knowing, outwardly confident. Words flow from her Southern
lips with ease, but her view of the world crosses Southern,
National and International borders. Shes cosmic.
ANNIE (V.O. CONTD)
I know things. For instance--
(beat)
There are 108 beads in a Catholic
rosary. And--
(beat)
There are 108 stitches in a
baseball.
(beat)
When I learned that, I gave Jesus
a chance.
(beat)
But it just didnt work out between
us The Lord laid too much guilt
on me. I prefer metaphysics to
theology.
(beat)
You see, theres no guilt in
baseball...and its never boring.
ANNIE OPENS A CLOSET DOOR -- Dozens of shoes hang from the
door. She chooses a pair of RED HIGH HEELS, with thin straps.
She sits on a bench and
ANNIE
Which makes It like sex.
(beat)
Theres never been a ballplayer
slept with me who didnt have the
best year of his career.
(beat)
Making love is like hitting a
baseball--you just got to relax
and concentrate.
ANNIE SLIPS ON THE RED HIGH HEELS -- Smoothing her hands up
her calves as she does.
ANNIE
Besides, Id never sleep with a
player hitting under .250 unless
he had a lot of R.B.I.s or was a
great glove man up the middle.
(beat)
A womans got to have standards.
SHE HOLDS OUR HER LEGS DISPLAYING THE HEELS, side by side.
Like a little girl showing off her new shoes.
ANNIE
The young players start off full
of enthusiasm and energy but they
dont realize that come July and
August when the weather is hot
its hard to perform at your peak
level.
(beat)
The veterans pace themselves
better. They finish stronger.
Theyre great in September.
(beat)
While I dont believe a woman
needs a man to be fulfilled, I do
confess an interest in finding
the ultimate guy--hed have that
youthful exuberance but the
veterans sense of timing...
ANNIE STARTS PACKING A HUGE HANDBAG -- With fruit, an official
scorebook, binoculars, a radar gun, and lipstick.
ANNIE
Ysee theres a certain amount of
"life-wisdom" I give these boys.
(beat)
I can expand their minds.
Sometimes when Ive got a
ballplayer alone Ill just read
Emily Dickinson or Walt Whitman
to him. The guys are so sweet--
they always stay and listen.
(beat)
Of course a guy will listen to
anything if he thinks its
foreplay.
ANNIE TOUCHES PERFUME BEHIND HER EARS and, ever so slightly,
in her cleavage.
ANNIE
I make then feel confident. They
make me feel safe. And pretty.
ANNIE POSES IN FRONT OF THE MIRROR -- She smoothes her dress
along her hips. And puts on a flashy pair of sunglasses.
Stylish and slightly mad.
ANNIE
what I give them lasts a life-
time. What they give me lasts
142 games. Sometimes it seems
like a bad trade
(quickly rebounding)
but bad trades are part of baseball--
who can forget Frank Robinson or
Milt Pappas, for Godsakes!
(beat)
Its a long season and you got to
trust it.
ANNIE STARTS FOR THE DOOR and grabs her baseball glove
CUT TO:
EXT. ANNIES HOUSE -- DUSK
A frame house with porch and lots of trees--a Thomas Wolfe
house...with a 1959 faded red Volvo in the driveway.
ANNIE LEAVES ON FOOT, turning onto the sidewalk of a bucolic,
old Durham, North Carolina neighborhood. In the b.g. other
people are heading the same direction ANNIE PULLS A DURHAM
BULLS BASEBALL CAP from her handbag and pulls it on her head.
ANNIE
Ive tried them all--I really
have--
(beat)
and the only church that truly
feeds the soul--day in, day out--
is the Church of Baseball.
CUT TO:
EXT. THE CHURCH -- DURHAM BASEBALL PARK -- DUSK
Now visible In the late
