'Eephus' is the best baseball movie since ‘Moneyball'

In Carson Lund’s “Eephus,” two teams —the Riverdogs and Adler's Paint — gather on a neighbourhood field for a baseball game.

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The leaves are already starting to turn — “It’s getting late early,” as Yogi Berra said — and this is to be the final game for their adult rec league. The field is to be demolished. No one would confuse them for all-stars. A suicide squeeze unfolds in creaky slow motion. The rotund left fielder mutters “Mother McCree” under his breath when the ball is hit in the gap. But, regardless of skill level, they all care sincerely about the game.

“Eephus,” as leisurely as a late-August double header, simply unfolds along with their game. Except to chase a foul ball or two, the movie stays within the lines of Soldier Field, the non-descript Massachusetts baseball field they're playing on sometime in the 1990s. It spans nine innings, with dugout chatter and fading light. In this slow-pitch gem of a baseball movie — a middle-aged “Sandlot” — time is slipping away, but they're going down swinging.