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Before Kevin Costner became the go-to guy for American epics, he was just an actor trying to prove he could swing like a pro. And for Bull Durham, he didn’t wait for the cameras to roll to show off his skills, he hit vodka, batting cages, and the parking lot to lock down the role of Crash Davis.
Writer/director Ron Shelton recalled the wild pre-filming ritual in an interview with The Ringer, Costner had already been brought onto the project, but he wasn’t exactly a household name. So, he decided to show, not tell, he had the grit and grace to play a washed-up minor leaguer with poetry in his soul and swagger in his stance.
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“We put a bunch of quarters in the slot,” Shelton said. “People were walking by him all the time. They didn’t know who he was yet.”
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Costner had baseball in his blood. He played in high school and still had the swing. That night, he took vodka shots with Shelton at a mini-golf joint in Los Angeles. Then they found a batting cage tucked next to fake castles and an arcade. That’s where Costner went full Crash Davis, hitting from both sides of the plate and making it clear: this guy could really play.
And he wasn’t done. The two tossed a ball around in the parking lot. No cameras. No lights. Just a future star working his tail off to prove he was the role. At the time, he didn’t get stopped for selfies. He wasn’t “Kevin Costner” yet. But he was about to be.
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Bull Durham hit theaters in 1988 and knocked it out of the park. The romantic sports comedy followed the struggling Durham Bulls and the tangled love triangle between Crash Davis, pitching prodigy “Nuke” Laloosh (Tim Robbins), and the baseball-loving, poetry-reciting Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon). Costner’s Crash was cool, seasoned, and just cynical enough. A catcher with a past and a whole lot of charm.
The film scored with audiences and critics alike. Shelton’s sharp writing and authentic baseball roots gave the story depth and dirt-under-the-nails realism. It also had laughs, heat, and plenty of heart. Shelton won a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay and snagged an Oscar nomination in the same category. The film also pulled in Golden Globe nods for Sarandon and the song When a Woman Loves a Man.
Costner’s vodka-and-batting-cage hustle paid off big. Bull Durham helped launch him into a league of his own. The guy who once hit balls in the shadows became the face of some of the most iconic sports and drama films of the late 20th century.
But back then? He was just a ballplayer in a batting cage, proving his swing was as real as his ambition.
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