Eephus

“You can tell when it's an eephus. It stays in the air forever. You get bored watching it. I get bored. And the hitter does, so he tries to swing at it like normal. But it's already past him, or it waits until he's done swinging. The eephus makes him lose track of time. It's pretty mean that way.” That monologue is devastating. Eephus as a whole makes me disturbingly sad. Adler’s Paint and the Riverdogs should be allowed to play ball at their park forever. A film about a men's recreational league should not make me feel such large amounts of distress, but here we are. The final shot of the dark parking lot and rustling leaves says so much, even with no dialogue occurring or characters on screen. Eephus is a masterpiece. I hope it becomes a baseball classic in the same realm as Moneyball and The Sandlot.