Baseball Movies: A Roy Scheider Double
A pitcher gets the hook and the mouse that saved Detroit.
Today we have two baseball films that could not be more different. One is all Disney heartfelt wish-fulfillment schmaltz. The other is nihilistic slasher sleaze. One is decidedly feel-good. The other is decidedly feel-bad.
Yet both are totally watchable for one reason: Roy Scheider. Yes, we’ll mention Jaws and JAWS.
After playing cranky Sheriff Brody in mega-blockbuster Jaws (1975) and in mega-disappointment Jaws 2 (1978), one would think Roy Scheider would have had his fill of beach-side law enforcement roles. But no. Typecasting be damned, Scheider plays cranky homicide detective Mike Seaver in Night Game (1989). Galveston replaces Cape Cod. A vicious serial killer replaces the giant shark.
While Jaws had Steven Spielberg and John Milius (the “USS Indianapolis” speech, probably), Night Game does… not.
As you can glean from the trailer, Night Game nails the 1980s slasher vibe it’s going for. Crazed murderer on the loose. Gore-iffic kills. Characters repeatedly choosing to walk the dark beaches, down lonely alleys, and into that creepy circus funhouse. Police, politicians, and federal agents arguing to the point of fisticuffs over who is really in charge here. Requisite nudity. Scheider nudity. The film has a pall of sordid sleaze that attracts/repels in equal measure.
Baseball plays a key role in the plot. Scheider/Seaver is a former minor leaguer. He and most of the Galveston residents we meet are Houston Astros fanatics. After some real MLB game action in the opening scene, baseball stays ever-present on TVs and radios throughout the film.
The primary narrative hook is the murderer’s mysterious modus operandi. He kills in regular intervals, but why? The victim’s stab wounds are unidentifiable, what could it be?
These questions are analyzed throughout the film, ad nauseam. Like any decent slasher film, the answers are not divulged until the killer reveals himself in the final minutes of the film. Scheider/Seaver figures it out at the same time and must rush to save his fiancé: The killer is a former MLB pitcher who lost his arm in an accident. He blames the pitcher who took his roster spot and kills the nights he pitches.
Apparently the marketing department didn’t deem the killer’s secrets all that important. Good for them, as this is undoubtedly one of the greatest baseball movie posters ever. Also… a bit of a spoiler.
Night Game is available on Amazon Prime and TUBI.
After that we need a palate cleanser. To Disney we go, for our cinematic sorbet.
Tiger Town (1983) touches all the bases (ooof, sorry) that a baseball movie requires. A long-suffering team looking for a spark. An aging star player desperate for one last run of success. A boy super fan with the faith that said aging star has some magic left. Real baseball folks making cameos (Sparky Anderson, Ernie Harwell). Tiger Stadium serves as a character in itself, filmed like a cathedral.
Check out this ad shown during the 1986 ALCS Game 4 (Boston Red Sox vs. then-California Angels). The Angels collapsed after this game, sending the Red Sox to the World Series where Bill Buckner became infamous.
Roy Scheider plays Billy “The Hawk” Young, a Detroit Tiger legend playing his last season. In the first scene, he comes up to bat and strikes out on three pitches. He looks washed-up and gets booed for it. Lots of slow motion. So much. The announcer cites his career stats.
.309 batting average
396 home runs
9 Gold Glove Awards
Those are impressive numbers, but is this an all-time great player? Let’s look. (Thank you Baseball Reference Stathead.)
149 players have finished with a .309 lifetime batting average (minimum 2000 plate appearances).
62 players have hit 396 home runs.
Only 7 players have done both. Here’s the chart. I love a chart.
Good list. Granted, the Gold Glove Award didn’t exist until 1957, but still, you add Gold Gloves to the criteria and you get exactly ZERO players who can match Billy “The Hawk”.
We do have comparables. Johnny Bench (10 Gold Gloves, 389 home .267 average). Brooks Robinson (16 Gold Gloves, 268 HRs,.267). Andruw Jones comes so close (10 Gold Gloves, 434 HRs, .254). Willie Mays (12 Gold Gloves, 660 homers,.301) can’t even cross those high bars.
Hall of Famer Al Kaline is the model here. Twenty-two season with the Tigers, 399 home runs, .297 career batting average, ten Gold Gloves. Not enough ink is dedicated to Mr. Kaline. He’s an all-timer. Second, however, to Roy Scheider’s fictional Billy “The Hawk” Young, who is a God among men. Jay Jaffe would have Scheider/Young at the top of his JAWS Hall of Fame metric.
Back to the movie, which oozes DETROIT. Our idealistic boy’s father is an unemployed auto worker and not looking so good. Despite everything, Dad takes his son out for diner spaghetti, which they can’t really afford. The phrase “Down on his luck” had to be used in every single review.
Our quixotic super fan, Alex, is played by Justin Henry, who really won the kid-actor jackpot. This performance was sandwiched between his sad-kid-of-divorcing-parents in Kramer Vs. Kramer (1979) and smart-alec-brother in Sixteen Candles (1984). Henry still holds the record for the youngest Oscar nominee at 8 years, 10 months old.
In a pivotal moment, Dad tells Alex, “If you believe in something, in all your heart, you can make it happen. Don’t ever stop believing, Alex. Ever. It’s all a person’s got.” Within 45 seconds of movie time, Dad’s dead; Alex is crying at a funeral. Apart from that one happy plate of pasta, every scene in this movie wallows in gray and brown depression. Even this Disney Channel TV-movie couldn’t escape the requisite 1970s oppressive sadness.
With nothing left to lose, Alex scrunches his eyes tight and wills Scheider/Young to hit home runs. And it works! Alex sneaks into Tiger stadium repeatedly, leaving encouraging notes in his locker, and even plays catch before a game with his hero.
Is a spoiler alert warranted, for a film you’ll probably never watch? Skip the next bit, if you want to be surprised (you won’t be). Alex is held up by bullies at school, taking his money and ticket to the last game of the season. The Tigers playoff chances are on the line. Alex has an epic journey to the stadium, but makes it just as Scheider/Young cranks a ball to center field. Alex has had no time to do his wishing and hoping act and yells (in slo-mo) “Nooooooo!”
The ball goes over the fielder’s head and Young goes for a game winning inside-the-park home run! More slo-mo. A dramatic superman slide… Here’s the tag…
An aside: I would love to compare the statcast sprint speed of 51-year-old Roy Scheider vs. knee-braced Sid Bream out-running Barry Bonds’ throw in the 1992 NLCS. A race surely measured not in feet-per-second, but in half-life.
It’s a bang-bang play at the plate… The umpire signals S A F E! The crowd goes wild. Balloons are released. The Tigers win the pennant. Young is the hero. Alex rushes the field and gets a thumbs up. Disney does Disney. And Alex learns he doesn’t not have mind-controlling powers. I guess that’s a good lesson?
There is a nice quiet coda that ends the film, with Alex being the last fan to leave the sun-dappled magic-hour stadium.
Tiger Town was the first-ever Disney Channel TV movie and won a CableACE award. Writer-Director (and Detroit native) Alan Shapiro was just 25 when the film was made.
The film is not on Disney+, but can be peeped on youtube.
Many of these posts make me think of time. How we spend it. How we perceive its passing. Glimpses of the Houston Astrodome in Night Game and old Tigers Stadium in Tiger Town will certainly pull nostalgic feelings out of any baseball folk.
The watching of these two movies certainly make time s l o w d o w n. But they have their moments. Each would make my list of top 100 baseball movies. They are worth the time of any baseball movie (or Roy Scheider) completists. For everyone else, file these under “Jay watched them so I don’t need to.”
If that makes me Baseball Movie Jesus, so be it. My time dies for the sins of mid-talent filmmakers, so yours doesn’t have to. No tithing necessary, just forward this newsletter to the baseball and/or movie fans in your life. Thanks.
When are you screening these for me?!!
Portraying realistic baseball activities, like running, throwing, hitting, (everything!) with actors is always a dicey proposition. How does Roy do in these activities?