As a baseball fan, a movie fanatic and a girl who lived in her share of Southern mill towns during the ’80s, I have to take to task Mr. Gearino’s idea that baseball and Durham were given the short shrift by the makers of Bull Durham (“Bullshitty,” July 2).
Mr. Gearino seems to have misplaced his sense of humor, something you have to possess if you are going to watch the film. Yeah, Kevin Costner, he’s not Marlon Brandobut he’s damn cute and he showed up for this film on time and in pretty good form. He was supposed to be an oaf! That was the whole point! And don’t even mess with Susan Sarandon; the woman is a goddess, and Annie Savoy was, well, how do I put this? She was a perfect combination of a lot of the cool Southern girls I knew way back when. And finally, “What’s that smell?” Oh pleeeeez, Mr. Gearino! Durham may be cool now, but 20 years ago it looked and smelled like many other Southern mill towns. When I watch Bull Durham, I remember what living in those places felt like: a little bleak, a little desperate. This movie wasn’t meant to be a serious portrait of Southern living and the art of baseball. Bull Durham was a funny fairy tale about baseball in a Southern town.
Shannon Woolfe
Hillsborough
