Game 6 (2005) - full transcript

This could be it.

And if you're lucky enough
to have tickets

for tonight's game at shea,
better hit the road early.

Traffic's gonna be awful.

The Red Sox, with a chance to win

their first world series since 1918.

And now with a word on just how bad

it's gonna be out there,
it's the traffic man

lone eagle,
looking straight down at us.

Another day of traffic.

Traffic everywhere I look.



Cars stop and go and stop again.

People sit at the wheel,
thinking their thoughts,

day in, day out, red light, green light.

Traffic on the major arteries,

and traffic in the little veins.

Cars, vans, taxis, trucks.

12 hours to game time,

and there's something
you can't bear to face.

Is there a medication you can count on?

Does it prevent history from happening?

Limos, mopeds, bikes, and buses.

A menace looming in your life,
accident here,

gridlock there, something
washing slowly over you

down the years, through the decades,



birth, death, walk and don't walk.

Store this medication at room temperature.

Continue to take this medication

even if you're feeling well.

But when do you ever feel well?

Traffic, yesterday, today, and tomorrow,

bumper-to-bumper, soul-to-soul.

This is lone eagle, over and out.

Taxi, yo!

I used to drive a taxi.

I ate and I drove.

I wrapped my sandwiches in tin foil.

You are going where?

Across town.

Pretty bad today.

I had one of those big checkered cabs,
you know?

I was religious about my ashtrays, man.

I used to clean my ashtrays religiously.

I am sitting here five years in traffic.

It is one continuous
traffic since I arrive.

Why must it be?

Why must it be?

Laurel, honey, hey!

Wait, hey, keep the meter running, okay?

And try to stay abreast.

Keep up.

Hey.

Hi.

How come I don't see you anymore?

Where are you all day?

I'm at college.
Thought you knew.

Wanna get a coffee?

I don't drink coffee, daddy,

and this is not what we should
be talking about.

What do you wanna talk about?

I'll talk about anything you
wanna talk about. What's this?

I'm seeing your play tonight, remember?

Why do you need a radio?

So I can listen to
the ballgame at intermission.

Do you know that mother is seeing

a prominent divorce lawyer?

Don't talk like that.

Man.

How prominent, what are you implying?

She's doing like those Iranians.

I divorce thee, I divorce thee,
I divorce thee.

Okay, okay, look, look, look,

he has to hear it the same time I do?

What happened to family secrets?

Mother is, you know, totally upset.

So can we talk about it in private?

It's divorce, not incest.

Abulhassan, we're gonna be
getting out here.

Clemens was
hit hard here in game number two.

After a bout with the flu

and pitching on only three days' rest

for the third straight time...

- Nicky!
- Hey, George!

You don't come in for a while.
Everything's okay?

Everything's great.

Look at you, you're so healthy,
thick body.

I just wanna punch you right in the chest.

- This is my daughter Laurel.
- My pleasure.

I just wanna hear how it sounds.

I saw your picture in the paper.
Two papers.

Yeah, it means they're getting
ready to kill me.

That's not what I hear.

I got four or five actors working here.

It's the best play since yessiree Bob.

I'm telling you, they say this.

He doesn't wanna hear it.

Things the way I see it, hal.

Number one is pitching.

Number two is pitching.

And, don't be surprised,
but number three is pitching.

If lawyers for the mob are
called controversial,

why are divorce lawyers called prominent?

Because they get outstanding settlements.

Mother's determined this time
that there's no turning back.

I just talked to her this morning,
and she said not one word about this.

Because you refuse to
believe she's serious.

You've always refused.

Why are you so steely-eyed?

You know why, it's that course
you're taking in criminology.

Look, she wants you to stop
seeing what's-her-name.

Okay, finally, now and forever.

Do you think that's too much to ask
of your wife of 19 years?

- Look...
- Mother won't even tell me

how long you've been
seeing this person.

Okay, she's embarrassed to tell me,

so why don't you tell me?

Why do you always call her mother?

It sounds so tragic and unforgiven.

Whatever happened to mom?
How about mom?

I didn't turn her into mother, you did.

This person and I are a thing
of the total past, I promise.

You know what mother said to me?

That daddy's demons are so intense,

he doesn't even know when he's lying.

Jesus Christ.

I used to drive a cab.

Where you going, mister?

I loved driving a cab.

Loved it, loved my taxi.

I'd go 12 hours nonstop except to pee,
take pee breaks.

Pee under the Manhattan bridge,
peed in parks,

empty playgrounds, parking lots.

Peed many times under
the Manhattan bridge.

I used to be head of neurosurgery,

big hospital in the ussr.

This hospital, I'm not kidding.

Big, huh?

I opened thousands of brains.

What'd you find?

A big mess, every time.

Hey.

How are you?

Was I expecting you?

Spur of the moment kind of thing.

Alan albright called me
a handsome woman last night.

That's the second time he's done that,

the son of a bitch.

I heard Alan's sick.

Alan's very sick.

You know about Dell?

What about her?

She's dying.

She died.

I just talked to her like two days ago.

Well, apparently it didn't help.

- You know about Peter, of course?
- Our Peter?

Yeah, they figured out
why he can't remember his lines.

There's something living in his brain.

A parasite he picked up
in Borneo doing a movie.

Will he get through it?

They're watching him closely.

There's an emergency
rehearsal this afternoon.

They want you to be there,
bolster his confidence.

And that's not all, Nicky.

I've been backing your plays for 15 years,

and I have never been more depressed.

About what?

Steven schwimmer, the most ruthless critic

in town getting his first
crack at Nicky rogan.

This is another situation, right,

where you're trying to find a disaster

worse than anything I can come up with.

I'm not worried about this guy.

I just wanna get a haircut.

Yeah, well, ever since he started

reviewing Broadway, nobody's worried
about anything else.

Yeah, let 'em send their
brilliant boy critic.

I've got bigger things to worry about

than tonight's opening.

Red Sox.

I thought they were winning.

They are, three games to two,

but if you know anything about
the team's history,

you'll know there's
a tragedy in the making.

I've been carrying this
franchise on my back

since I was six years old.

It can't be that personal.

A team you followed all your life

and they raise your hopes, crush them,

and then lift them, and then crush them.

You want me to tell you what that's like?

That's like having your
whole childhood...

Die over and over and over again.

I mean, Nicky, really. No.

I've been waiting a long time
for you to write this play.

I'm really proud of it.

Of course, you were a lot sexier when
you were writing crap.

You didn't like me very much then,
did you?

No, I didn't.

You really don't like me very much now,
do you?

No, I don't.

See you tonight.

Red Sox blow a chance to win
their first world series since 1918.

You expect me to miss that for
an opening night?

I don't think so.

Yeah, I'll be there.

Makes me so mad.

Steven schwimmer, the exterminating
angel ready to strike.

It's all worked out.

They lose tonight,
they lose tomorrow night.

I see it with stunning clarity.

It's your best play, Nicky.

It's the most truthful work
you've ever done.

They're gonna lose 'cause they're my team.

He will absolutely hate it.

I'm gonna jump out here.

Elliot?

Nicky, I was thinking about you.

I went to the preview
of the play last night.

I don't wanna know.

A lovely piece of theater.

Small but important.

Shut up, Elliot.

Quietly effective.

Hey!

You know, we don't appreciate

what they've done for us.

We artists, we're just too dumb to know

that this is the peak of western culture.

You're an artist, I'm a craftsman.

Touch a button, they give us money.

Let's take a ride.

Come on, let's get haircuts.

Welcome back.

For Darryl strawberry and the mets,

this has been a season of
highs and lows.

Now, he's a man accustomed...

How's Lillian?
I haven't seen her lately.

- She wants a divorce.
- Oh, don't talk like that.

Yeah, it's over, it's finished, it's done.

Sounds so final.

But are we really surprised?

I'm completely stunned.

I don't want this to happen.

But didn't we know it would happen?

Don't needle me, Elliot.

Tell me how badly you feel.

We're supposed to feel badly together.

That's what friends do.

Joanna bourne, so rich, crisp.

This woman, she lets you touch her body,

put your hands on her personal parts?

I said don't needle me.

No, it's...

We must abandon.

Wha... what do you mean we must abandon?

- Ruptured steam pipe.
- Ruptured steam pipe?

Asbestos lining, do not inhale.

A terminating substance, very dangerous.

- Do not inhale!
- We must abandon!

Ruptured steam pipe!

Very dangerous.

Asbestos lining?

We must abandon.

- Do not inhale.
- Let's go.

I'm trying to remember.

When did you start looking so terrible?
'Cause you look awful.

Oh, I can tell you the year,

the day, the night, the minute.

You used to love life.

You don't exude this anymore.

- Hm? What do I exude?
- Suffering.

You exude a person who sits

in a small, dark apartment,
eating soft white bread.

Tonight, you'll see what
it's like to suffer.

Oh yeah, why, what's tonight?

Shit, they don't have the carrot soup.

Oh, you mean because what's-his-name.

You will suffer because
he is in the theater,

and you will suffer a dozen-fold
when that review appears.

- It's just a review.
- It's just a review.

Do not inhale.

Very dangerous.

I don't get it.

What's the fuss?

He reviewed that one act I did

at the fulton fish market.

We did this play at four in the morning,

outdoors, in the rain.

One performance, for fish handlers.

- And he was there?
- Steven schwimmer.

I memorized every line of this review.

That's awful.

I recite it to myself
with masochistic relish.

Yessiree Bob!

Yessiree Bob.

This man, he's just taken over my mind.

I mean, he's out there,
but he's in my head,

and I can't get rid of him.

I can't write one word without imagining

what his response is going to be.

I am paralyzed as an artist.

See, I don't have the problems
you artists have.

You've been saying that for years.

- What?
- "|'m just a professional,

I'm just a dues-paying
member of the guild."

You are afraid, Nicky.

That's the darkest part of you.

You don't think you're good enough.

Hey. You know, maybe.

Hey.
That's mine, don't, stay away.

- That's mine.
- You guys ready to order?

Paisley Porter, I didn't
know you worked here.

- Elliot?
- This is a very talented

young, out-of—work actress.

Elliot litvak?

Have you been ill?

And, Mr. Rogan, how nice.

Hi, how are you, nice to see you.

What's good today?

We have a very nice pasta today.

Alla puttanesca.

Mm. Say it again.

Alla puttanesca.

See, what did I tell you?

She's great, great talent.

Very nice.

Sorry.

I got a real good feeling about tonight.

- We got ojeda going.
- Yeah.

He pitched a beautiful game last time out.

And, plus, Darryl,
he's due for a big game.

- Of course!
- I hate the mets.

How come?

I can't respect them.

'Cause when the mets lose, they just lose.

It's a flat feeling,
there's nothing there.

But the Red Sox, now here
we have a rich history

of really fascinating ways
to lose a crucial game.

You know what I mean?

Defeats that just keep you awake at night.

They pound in your head
like the hammer of fate.

Yeah, you can analyze a Red Sox game

day and night for a month
and still uncover

really complex layers of feelings,

feelings you didn't even know
you were capable of having.

Yeah, that kind of pain
has a memory all of its own.

Six hours to game time,

and the traffic's getting tense.

Maybe you're a Red Sox fan.

You live here among us,
taking our parking spaces,

luring our women into your cars,

but there's a sense of impending ruin.

There's the thing that always
happens because it has to.

Maybe you don't take a medication.

Maybe for what you have,
they didn't develop anything yet.

Lone eagle, up and away.

"Elliot litvak put on his
theater of mediocrity

at the fulton fish market
at dawn the other day,

and the first issue we must raise
is cruelty to fish."

Gets funnier.

It gets funnier, see.
They chart the laughs.

This from a critic who lives
like a fallen monk

whose very address is
a carefully guarded secret.

Critic who has to disguise himself.

- What do you mean?
- To go to the theater.

He wears, I don't know what,
makeup, padding.

- Why?
- Because he's so deeply hated

by so many people in the business.

He has to disguise himself, Nicky.

For his own safety and piece of mind.

You wanna know what it was like

reading that review at the news stand

as trucks rumbled by,

street vendors facing mecca?

What was it like?

I said, "I'm dead, he killed me."

Excuse me.

- Stage.
- Hey, Renee, it's Nick.

Where are you? We need you.

I'm down at George's.
I got stuck in this asbestos...

Listen carefully to the panic in my voice.

Peter redmond.

Get here, Nicky, now.

Nicky, how ya doing?
You look good.

- I'm dying here.
- It suits you.

The new play, it's coming along all right?

To tell you the truth, giorgio, I don't...

Hey, good for you.

"Elliot litvak also writes
the way he looks.

He's grubby and shifty-eyed."

Yes, okay, that's it.

So you worked with Elliot?

I was in the fish market play.

What happened to him?

There was a review.

I think I remember.

So does Elliot.

Not one of Steven's finer moments.

Oh, so you know him?

A little.

He has finer moments now and then?

He has something, a funny little
quality that I find...

- Endearing?
- Engaging.

Elliot wants to kill him with
a railroad spike.

Steven's a complicate guy.

Say it again.

You know what.

Alla puttanesca.

One more time.

I hear really good things
about your new play.

Yeah, yeah, it's good.

It's got a little problem.

Peter redmond's an actor that
I admire enormously.

- Yeah, he's great.
- Yeah.

Wanna meet him?

He doesn't wanna meet some
out of work ingenue.

Sure he does.

I'm serious, I have to go to
the rehearsal right now with Peter.

- Really?
- Really.

Okay, sure.

Where are you going?

I've to go to the...

I have to go to the theater.

Is it safe?

- Is it ever safe?
- What about my haircut?

Claudio's, five o'clock.

I want my hair cut, I want my hair cut.

So is it true?

Is what true?

That he wears a disguise.

He goes to extremes to
protect his privacy.

No phone, no friends.

But you're his friend.

Sort of, sometimes.

He doesn't live the kind of life
you think he does.

He doesn't even have a toilet.

You're not building some kind of obsession

with Steven, are you?

I mean, I understand
opening nightjitters,

but you've got one of the great
American theater actors

starring in your play tonight.

I just can't take it any more.

He forgets simple lines,
he forgets where to stand,

and we tell him, and we tell him,
and we tell him.

I know he's a sweet man.

I love Peter.

I know it's not his fault,

but I have never worked on a show

where the leading man
has a parasite in his brain.

Christ.

Joanna remains optimistic.

Joanna?

Joanna bourne, our producer.

I was educated by nuns.

Yes.

I have excellent long term memory.

Yes.

I kissed Shirley felder on the teeth.

My parasite is consuming
all the new memory.

It's eating my lines.

You have to see the words.

Try to build a mental
picture of the script.

Imagine your lines highlighted
by a felt tip pen.

What color?

What was your favorite color
crayon as a kid?

- Burnt Sienna.
- Okay, mine was cobalt blue.

Ah, Nicky, this is all
your history, isn't it?

All around us.

My parasite is eating it.

I kissed her while she was laughing.

Oh dear god, my heart
was flying out of my chest with love.

I heard he got the parasite in Burma.

I heard Borneo.

Why do we blame the third world
for our parasites?

Maybe he got it in Denver or Minneapolis.

Maybe he got it in Borneo.

I feel shaky about one line in particular.

I think if I could get this line,

I could handle the last long speech.

- Which line, Peter?
- Huh?

Which line?

The son says to the father,
"this could be it."

And the father replies...

That's the line that I can't... I can't
for the life of me remember.

I just, I can't get it.

It's the same line.

The father simply repeats
what the son says to him.

"This could be it."

"This could be it."

I know it sounds easy,

but something happens between the time

that I hear the line and the time

that I'm supposed to repeat it.

"This could be it."

"This could be it."

Let's work on it.

Let's work on it.

Oh, boy.

I think what would be really good here

is if we just start from the top.

Do you think he can do it?

I don't know.

He's a very sweet man.

Yes, he is.

I gotta go.

So where you going now?

Home.

Is there someone waiting for you there?

No one's waiting for me there.

You know, there's a certain kind
of wounded young man

who uses his oddness to get laid.

Is that our Steven?

If I'm sleeping with him,

and I haven't said that I am,
then so what?

So what?
So, you know, everything.

So I start to think crazy things.

You wanna talk about crazy things?

Yes.

Never mind.

Wait, Paisley, come on.

Steven not only wears disguises,

he goes to the theater armed.

"This could be it."

"This could be it."

"This could be it."

- "This could be it."
- "This could be it."

"This could be it."

Steven?

Steven, open up.

Steven, open up.

It's me.

You've come to me.

I wanted to believe you would one day.

I haven't come to you.

I didn't understand until
today how much pain

and anxiety you've been causing
everyone with your reviews.

Steven, it's completely unfair.

- It's unfair?
- Yes.

The truth is always unfair.

Well, it doesn't have to be.

Why do you think I live this way?

Why do you think I'm taking electricity

- from a lamp post and hiding out, why?
- Because you choose to.

No, because people who write the truth

are the outcasts of society.

I can't live openly.

I can't live in a nice doorman building

with my name on the mailbox

'cause they'd come after me in packs.

Not if you wrote the truth gently.

But the truth is never gentle.

Listen to me carefully.

Each of us lives

in the thinnest possible wrapping
of wishes and dreams,

and truth is the force that
penetrates this wispy skin.

It hurts and it maims.

- Yeah.
- That's my job, and, look,

they hate me,
they hate me for writing the truth!

I have seen your victims, okay?

And that's why I thought I might be able

to come here and convince
you to reconsider.

And I thought, at last, she's here.

She wants me.

I don't want you, Steven.

Stay, stay, please.

Teach me how to be compassionate.

I'm going home to my machine.

Oh, hey, hi!

Oh. I... I'm just...

Sorry.

Taxi!

Laurel!

Laurel.

Excuse me, hey.

All the tickets are set, I double checked.

Oh, thanks, daddy, but I only need one.

Mother's not going.

- It's opening night.
- I know.

Why should a bitter divorce
interfere with tradition?

Rogan, Laurel.

There's also rogan, Lillian.

She doesn't need it, sell it.

Well, you take it, get a date,
take a date.

I... I don't have a date,
and I don't want a date.

And you blame me,
and it is 'cause we never talk,

so let's talk.

I can't, I have class, I'm late.

Okay, okay, so let's talk later.

- You gonna go to the party?
- I'm not sure.

Okay, so I'm gonna find you somewhere

after the show, okay?

Somewhere!

Okay!

Taxi!

Mets are ahead
three games to two, with two games left

with our best man out on the hill

with five days' rest going against

their man with three days' rest.

I mean, we should win.

A man is hit the other day
by another taxi.

I mean, he's flying.

Crashes right against my windscreen,

right in front of my eyes.

Blood is everywhere.

I never left the garage without my windex.

I was a barrister in Kenya.

So I said to him,
you have to get up from here.

I cannot drive with your body
on my windscreen.

I drove straight through 12 hours a day.

I just, you know, ate while I drove.

You've got to eat at the wheel.

You cannot get.

Well, that's the drama, isn't it?

I mean, we're waiting for
life to continue.

Ibrhim, where do you pee?

Under the Manhattan bridge.

That's where I peed!

That's where I peed.

Who is it?

I'm at the door.

Go away, I'll the cops!

Pop, will you let me in?

Where the hell are you?

I'm right here, I'm at the door.

What do you want?

It's me, Nicky!

Nicky comes on sundays.

Aw, gee, where are your gla...

Go... go get your glasses,
find your glasses.

If it's you, what are you doing here?

I'm on my way to get a haircut.

Where does Nicky get his hair cut?

Jesus chri... across ninth Avenue.

Same place you go to get your hair cut

for the last 50 years.

Same place uncle Billy and uncle Marty

go to get their haircuts,

same place Jim rorety shot a guy
for cheating at poker.

It was rummy, not poker!

I'll take a chance and let you in.

Jesus.

It's a constant shock to me
how small this place is.

How did we do it, pop?
Five people in these little rooms.

Fix yourself something to eat.

You must have been heroic.

Five's not so many.

There were families with seven kids,

a grandmother, a dimwit uncle.

Yeah, Lillian says to me once a week,

"why doesn't he just come live with us?"

You know the answer to that.

I do know the answer to that.

Hey, pop, let's go watch the game tonight.

Go down to Manny's.

They're only gonna lose.

Of course they're gonna lose.

We'll watch them lose together.

What good is heartbreak
if you can't experience it firsthand?

The Red Sox are your problem.

I've never understood
your thing with the Red Sox.

Everybody rooted for the Yankees.

1949, last two games of the season

were against the Yankees.

First, the Red Sox lose Saturday,

then they lose Sunday.

I cry for 24 hours.

Then I get in fistfights for
the rest of the week.

That's one thing for kids.

You get older, you got other things.

I could've been happy.

I could've been a Yankees fan.

Could've been a divorce lawyer.

Here, take these.

You're gonna need those for the play.

No, don't make me sit through
one of your plays.

You know what, pop?

I know you hate the commotion
of opening night.

This means a lot to me, okay?

It's new territory for me.

I really wanna know what you think.

Since when did that matter?

Do we have to talk about that?

My back is killing me.

Where's your elastic brace?

I can't find it.

You gotta wear the brace.

I lost it, I lose everything.

All right, you know what?

I'll go get you another one.

You have to wear the brace, all right?

Hey, take a good look at this face.

So I know who I'm letting in.

Exactly.

Two hours to game time.

Never mind the traffic.
We 're not interested in that.

We 're interested in history.

Lost games, lost dreams.

Possible side effects of this medication?

If your erections seem to speak
to you in broken English,

if you develop bodily marks
that correspond

to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus.

Maybe you don't take a medication,

but you get the side effects anyway.

This is lone eagle, in your face
and out of your life.

"Why doesn't he come live with us?"

Because everything is here.

I know, pop.

I'm lucky they don't
knock the building down.

It could happen any time.

Everything worth
remembering is right here.

I think the building's okay,

at least for the time being.

You didn't think it was okay
when you lived here.

You wanted to get out so fast,

I thought you were running a marathon.

A normal boy's ambitions.

I like coming back, you know that.

You'd tell your friends your father
used to work the docks, calloused hands,

but you had an attitude
when you were growing up.

Wasn't easy for your mother
and me to understand.

I was in a hurry to do big things,

make big mistakes.

Any mistake was okay
as long as it was big.

Hey, pop,

they're getting ready
to kill my play, starting tonight.

There's a guy out there
who's gonna rip it apart.

It's about us, who we are,
where we come from.

So, what are you gonna do about it?

What should I do about it?

Show him who we are.

He carries a gun.

Then you should carry a gun.

Yeah, I used to carry a gun
when I drove a cab.

- Where is it?
- I gave it away.

I figured, I'm a writer now.

That was a big mistake.

You should always carry a gun.
In this city?

If he carries a gun,
you have to carry a gun.

I'm not a lonely, spooky writer like you,

nursing 100 grudges.

I'm a man who loves life.

I'm talking about something
deeper than grudges.

How do you respond to personal attack?

In this city, and you don't carry a gun?

This is your best play, Nicky.

He'll hate it then.

He'll kill it.

He'll write a review so devastating

it will shatter your career.

It will cause the most
unmanageable psychic grief.

What about your apartment
in east river, hmm?

Your home in Connecticut,
where you watch things grow?

Yeah, we were thinking of
putting in a pool, too.

You know...

"Elliot litvak is a one-man cult
of the tragically third rate."

I'm telling you as a friend.

- What?
- There are things

that speak to us from the past.

In this city, you don't walk out your door

five feet, and there's somebody
ready to take what's yours.

Your truth is locked up in the past.

Find it, know it for what it is.

Shoot him, Nicky.

Shoot him?

The American theater doesn't
need people like that.

"Shoot him, Nicky."

Hey, I know you know we're just talking,

but where does he live?

47th and the river.

I followed our friend Paisley there.

How do you like your sideburns?

Elegant and refined.

Hi, everybody, I'm vin Scully,

and welcome to game six.

The last time the Boston Red Sox
won a world series,

the doughboys were dug in...

I'm looking at you,
trying to think,

put your face in the mirror.

I know I recognize you from somewhere.

Oh yeah?

You are Frankie lazarro,
the gangster from Rhode Island.

Matthew, look at him.

When I lived in roxbury,
the media followed

this man everywhere.

He was bigger than 10 movie stars.

Where's your white Lincoln limo,
Mr. Lazarro?

Some kid stole my hubcaps.

The most charming gangster in new england.

So why do you have the kid with you?

Matthew's my grandson.

Oh, you're a grandmother?
God bless you.

Yes, he does bless me each and every day.

Matthew's mother works the night shift

at the hospital, so I pick
him up from school.

- Oh yeah?
- We have a meal usually around this time,

and he gets experience meeting people.

But we've never had
a famous mobster before.

Nope.

Today's your lucky day, kid.

This is one charming crook,

if shooting people is charming.

Ah, well, now that's
a complicated subject.

It's a simple subject.

So, where we going tonight, Mr. Lazarro?

So, is this where you wanna be, Frankie?

Is this where I wanna be?

It's dinnertime for you,
it's game time for me.

Let's get out of here and go to Manny's.

What do you say, Matthew?
Drink some beer and talk baseball.

- Cool.
- All right, let's go.

An unexpected guest
at shea stadium.

What happens if somebody comes in here

right now and shoots you?

This place becomes famous.

Tour buses, blind people feeling their way

around the walls looking for bullet holes.

You see what you're doing, don't you?

- What am I doing?
- You're charming the boy.

Hey, Toyota, he asked me a question.

Frankie lazarro coming down

the courthouse steps in the media.

Children see this, they think
you're the secretary of the treasury.

No, that's my cousin Angelo.

- Ahh...
- "This could be it."

"This could be it."

"This could be it.“

"this could be it."

"This could be it."

"This could be it."

Does that feel comfortable?

Does what feel comfortable?

"This could be it."

"This could be it."

Ooh, food, thank you.

What's it like to shoot somebody?

I respect a kid who does
his homework in a taxicab,

but I'm trying to watch a ballgame here.

Oh, go on, tell him, tell him the truth.

Tell him how you feel about shooting

a piece of hot metal into somebody's flesh

who was once a child,

who was once the same age as this boy,

somebody whose flesh was innocent once.

What is that?
It's a strike, come on!

It's complicated.
I mean, it's a whole life, isn't it?

A person doesn't just commit
a violent act out of nowhere.

There are strong forces at work.

There goes your boy.

High drive up the alley
in left center field.

Dykstra heading for the wall...

Dykstra plays it.

One run will score on a double by Evans,

and rice holds at third.

We got a ballgame here.

So Dwight Evans
hits the left center field wall

for a long double and a run batted in,

and with first base open,

it's the left hand-hitting rich gedman
coming up.

The ball is well hit, but played
perfectly by dykstra.

He gets the...

Hits the cutoff man...

Rice at third.

So for the mets, who on...

You a family man, Frankie?

Wife and daughter.

My father's still alive.

And how many years does it take a person

to make sure his family's safe
and secure and happy,

and then one dumb moment, what does he do?

I don't know, Toyota, what does he do?

And the people he hurts the most
are the ones who love him,

despite who he is or
what he does for a living.

We always say we wanna
take control of our lives.

You don't wanna take control,
you wanna lose control.

Jesus knows it.

Yeah, well, that's a complicated subject.

That's a simple subject.

Excuse me.

Your father said you might be here.

Hey, we're up by two in the fourth.

I've been looking for you because

I want to let you know
what's been going on

so you don't have to read about it
in the gossip column.

We've stranded five runners
in the first two innings.

Boy, that's gonna come back to haunt us.

I want to be fair-minded, Nicky.

All right, all right.

Okay, what's going on?

I've been talking to
a prominent divorce lawyer.

How prominent?

He has his own submarine.

I'll be getting everything that matters.

I'll get New York, I'll get Connecticut.

Uh, I'll just have whatever she's having.

I don't wanna be responsible for his food.

I'll have a green salad and a Perrier.

Gimme, uh, gimme the bay scallops
with Mercury poisoning.

Yessiree Bob.

Breaking ball...

Opening night, Lillian?

Who the hell cares?

You know what?
This whole thing has been my fault.

I've taken unfair advantage

of your Patience and your understanding.

You understand me.

That's always been my problem.

And you've been extremely patient.

You know why, don't you?

Because I am patient,
chain-smoking Lillian.

You smoke because I smoke.

Hey, we were falling in love, remember?

I would go see certain movies
because you had seen them.

I wanted to see what you saw.

- I'd forgotten that.
- Yeah, I went because you went.

You smoke 'cause I smoked.

It's very lovely, actually.

Hey, Laurel wants us to be

more open and honest with each other.

Be open with me. I'd like that.

All right, now, I might say some things

that, you know, you might not
really wanna know.

I wanna know.
We haven't talked like this in years.

Okay.

I had an affair.

You sure you wanna hear this?

- Joanna bourne?
- Alma wetzel.

Nicky, no, that's insupportable.

How could you do that?

Well, I'm a man, and she's,
you know, a woman.

She's my gynecologist.

I'm really deeply sorry, I am.

That violates so many trusts.

I... it wasn't, you know, it wasn't...
There was no intimacy.

It was an animal thing.

I never thought of Dr. Wetzel
as having sex outside the office.

Well, uh, we had it in the office.

- Huh?
- She... I... she didn't wanna have it

in her apartment. She thought it was
too impersonal, I guess.

Okay.

I'm... I'm glad we've had this talk.

Hey, I love you.

Rice goes!

Sinker is hit down to second and...

Here, let me get you a cab.

Safe at second, out at first.

You look awful.

Get a haircut.

And get a lawyer.

To show you how long ago it was

when the Red Sox won a world series,

look at what it cost to buy things.

The last time the Red Sox
won the world series,

1918, congress enacted legislation...

Great game, Red Sox are winning.

Red Sox are always winning till they lose.

Your problem is, you wanna
take the easy way out.

Losing is easy.

No, winning is easy, losing's complicated.

Losing's a lifetime's work.

Clemens has a blister.

Look, they're pinch-hitting for him.

Roger goes seven innings,

and goes out winning three-two,

but right now, here's Mike greenwell.

24-game winner,
pitches seven solid innings.

We scratch out a one-run lead.

Of course he gets a blister.

Sure, of course you put greenwell up

when you've got baylor
sitting on the bench.

Of course greenwell strikes out.

Goddamn it!

You made him strike out.

You wished it on him.

You wanna lose.

It's too hard for you to
believe in something.

It's hard to have faith.

It's hard work to trust somebody.

It looked extremely rocky
for the Boston nine that day.

You're afraid to risk believing.

Believe in them.

Believe in yourself.

Take a risk.
It'll humanize you as a person.

You think I don't wanna believe?
I wanna believe.

If you believed, you wouldn't
be walking around

with a handgun in your belt.

What does that tell me?

You wanna make the night come down.

Three-two Red Sox,
top of the eighth, two out.

I always thought a night's sleep

was what you get for a hard day's work.

These last weeks, I lie there, helpless,

hour after hour.

Come close to praying for the first time

since I was your age.

Pray to god, put me out.

I talked to the doctor again, pop.

He said she's not getting any better.

How bad is she?

This could be it.

Three and oh.

Swung on and lined to left,

right at rice.

Tagging up is mazzilli to score.

Down to third goes dykstra.

Let's go mets, let's go mets,

- let's go mets!
- It's a brand new ballgame.

With Howard Johnson staying
in the game at shortstop,

Dave Henderson will lead it off.

Now, it's three-three in the tenth.

Henderson has flied to left,
flied to center,

grounded to short, and singled to short

on a bad hop that struck
Kevin elsner on the left arm.

Say it and you'll believe it.

Life is good.

Say it.

Look, I really want to say it

because, quite frankly, my whole life

may depend on these next few moments.

Then say it.

Life is good.

Speak it like it's real.

Matthew.

Life is good.

Life is good.

And what are people?

I don't know.

- Matthew?
- People are dependable.

I don't know if I can say that.

People are dependable.

People are dependable.

Let's see what Henderson does.

And a drive to left.

Going back on it is mookie Wilson,

- and this one is gone.
- Yes!

Henderson has done it again.

And another, Rick Aguilera.

- Yes!
- People are dependable.

Life is good.

Baseball is life.

Enjoy your ice cream, Matthew.

Because when you're an old man,
it's all gonna come back to you,

that same deep, sweet, soft, toothy taste.

You're gonna remember where you were,

and you're gonna remember
exactly what you saw.

And it is four to three, Red Sox,

on the lightning-like home run
of Dave Henderson.

He knew when he touched it off,

and what a difference in the swing

between this one on Aguilera and ojeda.

A strike to spike Owen,
who's three for three.

And it's hit into center, base hit.

Still charging, here comes boggs.

He will score.

Backed up by Aguilera,
and Barrett goes to second.

And it is five to three, Red Sox.

And what a big run that was.

This is something
no one has had the privilege

to see in 70 years.

There are very few people alive today

who can say they've seen

what you're about to see, Matthew.

Boston Red Sox win the world series.

This is deeply and intensely personal.

All the mistakes I've made,
all of the fear,

all of the envy, all of the violence,

encased in this little
envelope we call the body,

washed away in the next few minutes.

Your grandmother knows
what I'm talking about.

Because god loves a winner.

Oh yeah.

He used to love losers,

but the laws of physics changed.

Calvin schiraldi, trying to finish off

the mets and the 1986 baseball season.

Oh and two to Wally backman.

Little poke job to left, rice got over.

Backman flies to right.

That's like a beautiful song lyric.

J“ backman flies to right j“

there you go.

And that's hit to dead center,

with Henderson gonna run it down.

And the mets are down to their last out.

All the times I died when they lost

an important game they should've won.

All the horrible things I said

to my mother and father about
life in the gutter.

Washed away.

'Cause life is good.

Because faith is rewarded.

Washed away.

One more out, one more.

Roger clemens hoping for that last out.

One more.

Lined into left field.

Base hit for Carter,
and the mets are still alive.

Curve ball, and that's gonna
be hit to center field.

Two out in the tenth inning,

the tying runs are aboard.

It's all right, Frankie.

It's just a little touch of suspense.

Life is good.

Baseball is life.

One nubber, pop-up, anything.

All yearlong, thousands of outs.

Come on, give me one more, come on.

And that's gonna be hit to center field.

Here comes Carter to score,

and the tying run is at third
in Kevin Mitchell.

Don't worry, it's a test.

He's also going to the bullpen.

He wants Bob Stanley...

- It's a test, all right.
- Pitch to mookie Wilson.

They're bringing in Stanley.

39 times they've...

- It's Stanley!
- From behind to win.

It's the steamer.

Fate has spoken to this man
in the depths of the night.

What did it say?

A thousand sinister things.

The tying run 90 feet away
in Kevin Mitchell,

and the possible winning run
at first in ray knight.

Mookie, mookie, mookie, mookie.

You're hurting my head.

Mookie, mookie, mookie.

- Sorry.
- Mookie, mookie, mookie,

- mookie, mookie, mookie.
- And here's mookie.

Mookie, mookie, mookie.

Fouled off.

- Yes!
- Away, two and two.

And now with the mets down to
their last strike,

this could be it.

Kevin Mitchell at third, two and two

- to mookie Wilson.
- This could be it.

- This could be it.
- 55,078 here at shea,

and they have really been
put through the wringer.

This could be it.

Here comes Mitchell
to score the tying run!

It's all right, it's a tie game.

We can still win in the next inning.

Mookie, mookie, mookie, mookie, mookie.

This is the time, trust in people,
believe in life.

Faith is hard work, don't give in,
don't give up!

Life is true.

Life is real.

Trust your team!

Little roller along first.

- Great game.
- Unbelievable.

- Classic.
- Scintillating.

I still don't believe it.

Yeah, well, I better hurry back.

Hurry back, hurry back for what?

Eleventh inning, what else?

I think you're a little confused.

Nothing personal, friend.

What are you talking about?

What are we talking about?

Yeah, what are you implying?

Game six is history, pal.

You're not making any sense.

We're not making any sense?

Did you see mookie hit the ball?

Yeah, of course I saw mookie hit the ball.

Did you see the winning run score?

You're not making any sense.

Make some fucking sense.

What are you implying?
You're implying something,

that I missed something.
What did I miss?

You missed the boat,
popeye the sailor man.

Oh really? You bluto motherfucker.

Hold him while I zip up.

Baseball is life.

Life is good.

The winning run is at second base

with two out, three and two
to mookie Wilson.

Little roller up along first,
behind the bag!

It gets through Buckner!

Here comes knight, and the mets win it!

He 'ii absolutely hate it.

Show him who we are.

Show him who we are.

Shoot him, Nicky.

Shoot him, Nicky.

The American theater doesn't
need people like that.

Why won't you tell me your name?

It's only our first date.

I'm willing to tell you my name.

I know, but names are incredibly intimate.

We... we barely know each other.

Trust me on this one.

You have to tell me what
you thought of the play.

Well, first, you tell me.

Really, really moving.

What else?

- Packs an emotional wallop.
- Mm-hmm.

What else?

Flat out hit.

Come on, you majoring in
theater criticism?

Criminology.

Oh, if you're wondering
about that firearm.

- Sorry.
- Yeah.

It's just that the building is...

Not secure.

Goes way back.

Pesky whirling a throw,
slaughter racing for home.

I was barely a boy yet,
four or five years old.

Something like that,
but I remember it very clearly.

World series,
game seven, pesky whirling a throw.

Pesky hesitates.

Slaughter racing home.

Why won't you just tell me your name?

Like, what's shocking about a name?

We are strangers in the night.

The last thing we want is honesty.

40 years, it's almost to the date.

Pesky was just getting ready to throw.

October 15th, 1946.

Indelibly marked on the little
reptile part of my brain.

Slaughter racing home.

What?

I... I have this thing where I feel

like I need to know that someone

is being truthful with me before,
you know, I can...

Even if the truth requires
a certain adjustment?

His real name wasn't even pesky.
It was paveskovich.

If he would've kept that name,

it would have never even happened.

He'd've done something different
with his life, something in yugoslavia,

and all of our lives would be different.

Nine months in the womb,
four years on the earth.

Pesky whirling the throw.

Pesky looking into
the brooding drama of fate.

And he hesitates.

He hesitates.

Like fucking Hamlet.

Steven schwimmer!

Laurel?

That's my daughter!

I don't think he knew, daddy.

I'm sorry, I had no idea who he was,
once I saw his face...

Am I really so deeply repugnant?

- Yes!
- Go home, Laurel.

Tell your mom I'm gonna be late.

You are so dead.

You're so fucking dead!

Dad, stop!

Honey, I'm so sorry you keep running
into dishonest men.

You're 18, there's time to turn it around.

Yeah, except I'm not gonna
have a father anymore.

I'll see you all the time.

I'm gonna get a place nearby,
one room, no distractions.

We'll talk.

You're so fucking dead!

Yeah, well, what...

What are we gonna talk about?

Everything.

Dad, stop it!

I'm not gonna believe you
when you say something to me.

I got nothing left to lie about.

Stevie schwimmer.

You're dead.

I see your body on a morgue slab,
drained of all fluids.

You're dead.

Daddy, wait.

Then they lost.

What's the matter?

Well, if they lost tonight,
they'll lose tomorrow.

It's all over.

What do you care?

They're my team.

No, no, that's not your team.

That's my team.

They're my team, too.

I grew up on boylston street,
right by Fenway park.

I went to 50 or 60 games a year,
all by myself.

One of those kids who was scabby,
always called out to the players,

"look over here, hi, I'm Steven,
my parents are divorced."

I went to school in Boston,

just so I'd be near the sox.

Yeah. My wife's from Boston,
Lillian ziegler.

Red Sox are my world.

I surrounded my existence to a team
that couldn't win the big one.

If you're such a devoted fan,

why didn't you go to the game tonight?

You could've gone to
the theater last night.

There was no game last night.

I know, I can't bear to watch.

When they lose, I die inside.

It's like some person named little Stevie

just crumples up and dies,
so I wait for the scores.

I mean, I die hearing the scores,

but, you know, it's over in a second.

I can't survive the game pitch-by-pitch,
inning-by-inning.

I've done it too many times.

I can't fucking do it anymore.

Pity and terror.

Pesky whirling the throw.

Yeah, right.

You weren't even born yet.

You weren't even remotely born.

Slaughter racing home.

When I traveled through Asia this summer,

I went to tremendous trouble and
expense to rent a car with a phone

so I could call up
sports phone in New York,

you know, get the scores.

I drove through a war in,
what, Afghanistan, right.

Soviets against somebody.
I never got it straight

because I'm calling up sports phone
like every hour on the hour for updates.

What about my play?

Yeah, no more evasive tactics.

It's your best play, Nicky.

I've seen it twice.
I went back again tonight to be sure.

It's a brave and honest piece of work.

Artistry, sensitivity
you've never shown before.

You're not just saying that
'cause I, you know,

I got the gun in my hand?

Well, no, you're out of bullets.

See, daddy?

And Peter redmond helped immensely.

Boy, those pauses,
they were exquisitely timed.

Well, we worked
really hard on those pauses.

Ah, ah, there it is.

I had to call sports phone
from Lhasa, Tibet, right?

Freezing in my little rented fiat

in, you know, whatever cheap,
on the hillside,

this rocky debris dating back
millions and millions of years

from the time the himalayas thrust up

and the plates of India and Asia collided.

Red Sox three, white sox two,

Buckner drives in the winning run.

We love Buckner.

- Don't we, hon?
- We do.

A moment in the history of the world.

They're gonna run this play over and over.

Jesus.

Faster, daddy!

Another night of traffic.

Taxis slipping through the neon.

Taxis racing in the gloom.

People come out of all-night parties and

can't find their cars.

Uptown, downtown, headlights, taillights,

cars weaving down the avenues,

sleeping people at the wheel,

sirens in the chilly distance.

The planet turns, the traffic rolls.

This is lone eagle, over and out.

J“ take me out to the ballgame j“

j“ take me out to the crowd j“

j“ buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks j“

j“ I don't care if I never get back j”

j“ let me root, root, root
for the home team I

j“ if they don't win, it's shame I

j“ for it's one, two, three strikes,
you're out I

j“ at the old ballgame j“

Go on now, go on.

J“ take me out to the ballgame j“

j“ take me out to the crowd j“

j' buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks j'

j“ I don't care if I never get back j”

j' let me root, root, root
for the home team j“

j“ if they don't win, it's a shame j”

j' for it's one, two, three strikes,
you're out j'

j' at the old ballgame j

J' take me out j“

j“ baby j'