MovieChat Forums > The Bad News Bears (1976) Discussion > Why not put Kelly in to pitch?

Why not put Kelly in to pitch?

posted 13 years ago by gloops_new_account
8 replies | jump to latest

Great movie, but I never understood why Buttermaker kept going to Rudy Stein whenever Amanda couldn't pitch.

[–] trag-1 12 years ago

This is pure speculation, but I suspect there was an additional plot thread which got dropped from the script/film.

At the season opening ceremony, there is a memorial for a dead player.

In the championship game, Turner mumbles twice, "You could have killed him".

Kelly seems to hate baseball, but is always hanging around the field, and mid-movie the scene where Turner kicks Kelly out of the bleachers, they clearly seem to have some past relationship. Kelly clearly has a lot of experience playing baseball.

I suspect, that in the previous season Kelly threw the ball that killed the kid who was memorialized at the opening ceremony. That would explain his attitude and his being ostracized.

Given that background, he might be willing to play again, but he wouldn't be willing to pitch.

[–] timgdx 12 years ago

I wondered about that myself. Never mind Kelly, try Tanner or Toby. Rudi was a known quantity, someone who struggled to get it over the plate.

[–] jgroove007 12 years ago

Great observation! That would explain a lot! I've alaways wondered about all of those things. I wonder if it's in the Book?
I was watching "Breaking Training" last night wondering why they wouldn't have let Kelly pitch when Ronzani was stinking it up in the game with the New Mexico kids.

[–] jefgg 12 years ago

I thought the producers or whoever was calling the shots did not want to make Kelly the focal point of the movie.

[–] skohl632001 11 years ago

You nailed it-putting Kelly in to pitch would've thrown the whole focus of the film off. It would've, essentially, become HIS movie. They were saving that for the sequel.

[–] jayhn1111 11 years ago

Yeah but we never saw Kelly pitch, not that I remember. A kid can be a great ballplayer but that doesn't mean he can pitch

[–] jaltenbu 11 years ago

Late to the party, but when I was in little league, the two best athletes/baseball players on our team were lousy pitchers. One of them was the catcher and one was the shortstop. We had one good pitcher who started every game. The problem was that he would get tired with 1 or 2 innings to go and start walking people. You could tell that he had nothing left. Our coach would begrudgingly bring in the previous mentioned shortstop who would proceed to walk batter after batter after batter after batter. He could throw hard, but he had no accuracy whatsoever. We had numerous games where we built a 10+ run lead in the first 3 innings only to blow it and lose in the last inning or two.

The point is that Kelly may be the best player on the team, but it doesn't mean he's a good pitcher. He might not be able to get the ball over the plate.

[–] Sunflower64 11 years ago

Buttermaker was giving Rudy another chance to pitch. At the start of the movie, when Buttermaker asks the boys what positions they want, the first kid to speak is Rudy who wants to be pitcher. He turns out to be lousy, so Amanda takes over for him. By the time, Amanda can't pitch because she's injured, Buttermaker has come around to seeing that the important thing isn't that they win but that every kid gets a chance to play, so he puts Rudy back in.

A young girl passes / in a hurry. Hair uncombed. / Full of black devils. --Kelly Link