About this episode

The episode discusses the film 'For Love of the Game' and its balance between romance and sports, featuring guest Jacki Krestel.

57th on the 1999 box office chart, For Love of the Game marked director Raimi’s first foray into big-budget, mass-market filmmaking (which would ultimately pave the way for being handed the enormous task of finally bringing Spiderman to the screen in 2002) But love and baseball was very different territory for Raimi, and his inexperience in the realm of pop movie making (as well as in directing romance) proved to be a hindrance. For Love of the Game is, unofficially, the third and final entry in Kevin Costner's baseball trilogy, following 1989's Field of Dreams and 1988's Bull Durham. The film tries to balance its dual nature as a romance and a straight sports movie, and while it occasionally hits the mark, most critics agreed: For Love of the Game is pretty great when it's about the game, and not so great when it's about the love. But it's baseball season, and this was by far 1999's biggest baseball-themed movie, so we asked friend of the show - and White Sox diehard - Jacki Krestel to help us call some balls and strikes on this one!

People in this episode

Hosts: John Brooks, Julia Sirmons

Guest: Jacki Krestel

Topics covered

• baseball
• romance
• film analysis
• 1999 movies
• sports movies

Keywords

• For Love of the Game
• Jacki Krestel
• baseball movies
• Kevin Costner
• Sam Raimi
• 1999 box office
• romantic sports films

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: For Love of the Game, Field of Dreams, Bull Durham

More episodes of 1999: The Podcast

• TOY STORY 2 (Revisited) · July 21, 2026 · 1h 20m
• (Rerelease from 6/25) - AUSTIN POWERS: THE SPY WHO SHAGGED ME - with Siri Dahl · July 7, 2026 · 1h 36m
• See Also: HARDBALL (2001) - with Jacki Krestel · June 23, 2026 · 1h 22m
• VARSITY BLUES - with Jacki Krestel · June 9, 2026 · 1h 29m
• See Also: PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE (2002) · May 28, 2026 · 1h 7m
• MAGNOLIA (Revisited) - with Holly Brown · May 12, 2026 · 1h 28m

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