Bull Durham/Funny

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • After a weeks-long winning streak, the team is stressing out over a ton of issues and they all gather on the pitcher's mound to figure out what the hell they're doing. Coach Riggins sends the pitching coach (Robert Wuhl) to the mound to get the players settled down:

Larry: Excuse me, but what the hell's going on out here?
Crash: Well, Nuke's scared because his eyelids are jammed and his old man's here. We need a live... is it a live rooster?... We need a live rooster to take the curse off Jose's glove! And nobody seems to know what to get Millie or Jimmy for their wedding present. Is that about right?
the players mumble and nod
Crash: We're dealing with a lot of shit.
Larry: Okay, well, uh... Candlesticks always make a nice gift, and uh, maybe you could find out where she's registered, and maybe a place-setting or maybe a silverware pattern. (nods) Okay, let's get two!

  • Early on in the mentoring, Nuke shakes off Crash's call-sign. So Crash tells the batter which pitch is coming. The batter hits a home run. Crash then yells at the batter for just standing there and showing off ("Run, dummy!") before going back to the mound to let Nuke know exactly what he did. ("Boy, he really knocked the shit out of that one, didn't he?")
    • Later on, even after Nuke learns his lesson and follows Crash's advice, Nuke panics in the middle of his best night and shakes off Crash again.

Crash (talking aloud to both batter and umpire): This son of a bitch is throwing a two-hit shutout. He's shaking me off. You believe that shit?
(the umpire even nods to what Crash is saying)
(to the batter) Charlie, here comes the Deuce. And when you speak of me, speak well.

    • And after the home run:

Crash: Boy, that thing got out of here in a hurry. You'd think anything that flies that far oughta have a damn stewardess on it!

  • The "Lollygaggers" rant by the coach.

Skip: You guys. You lollygag the ball around the infield. You lollygag your way down to first. You lollygag in and out of the dugout. You know what that makes you? Larry!
Larry: Lollygaggers!
Skip: Lollygaggers. What's our record, Larry?
Larry: Eight and sixteen.
Skip: Eight... and sixteen. How'd we ever win eight?
Larry: It's a miracle!
Skip (sarcastic nod): It's a miracle. This... is a simple game. You throw the ball! You hit the ball! You catch the ball!

  • At the beginning, when Crash finds out he's been sent down in the farm system amongst the rookies, he gets frustrated enough to quit. About two minutes of ranting to himself outside the coach's office, he pokes his head back in. "Who do we play tomorrow?"
  • In his last game with the Bulls, Nuke pitches like shit because he's got nerves, pitching in front of his dad for the first time. Crash sets him straight: "Hey, he's your old man; he's just as full of shit as anyone else!"
  • After their first night of lovemaking, Crash and Annie have a conversation about past lives. Annie thinks that with her love of four-legged creatures, in a past life she was probably Catherine the Great or Francis of Assisi.

Crash: How come in former lifetimes, everybody is someone famous?
[a beat, then both start laughing]
Crash: How come nobody ever says they were Joe Schmo?

  • During a game in which Nuke is cruising through the other team's lineup, Crash meets him at the mound and tells him to throw the next pitch at the bull mascot. Nuke doesn't understand the instruction, but does as he's told, and it turns out Crash made him do that just to make the other team think he's crazy and stop crowding the plate.
  • The night after Nuke spends the night at Annie's house, Larry (assuming he slept with her) tells him that that's great; he's gonna have a good year.

Larry: So, is she as good as they say?
[beat]
Nuke: No, man, we didn't fuck. She read poetry to me all night; it was more tiring than fucking.