Saw this with a fully packed crowd at the Harvard Film Archive, a location that I know in many ways helped spawn the film I was watching. Carson Lund was in attendance and I was absolutely delighted to hear him reference in the post film discussion the films of Anthony Mann and Howard Hawks as references for Eephus. A hangout movie in the vein of Dazed and Confused but with ebbs and flows, stops and starts, quirks and oddities that America’s Pastime lends itself perfectly to. A rendition of Take Me Out To The Ballgame is performed by one of the players daughters in the seventh inning stretch - one of many breaks throughout the game that stop time like the entrancing floating Eephus pitch in mid air. It reminded me of one of my favorite scenes in cinema history, when Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson amidst an impending standoff backdropped by jaw dropping technicolor sunset perform My Rifle, My Pony and Me. The moment seems (in my imagination at least) suspended in time, encapsulating a camaraderie between men, between generations that spans all time, that transcends film itself; sort of like a game of baseball.