- Wow, fifty grand I get it on the first take.
- [Cameraman] Take one.
[clapperboard shutting]
- 'Sup, I'm Joc Pederson.
- Justin Turner.
- Walker Buehler.
- And this is The Breakdown for GQ.
[electronic music]
All right let's start with "Bull Durham", then.
- How do you call for curveball?
- Singular sign.
- That is definitely Buehler on the mount right there.
- Yeah that's what I was thinking too,
looks just like him.
I want the cheese!
- This is 100% Buehler self-talk, right here.
[players laughing]
- 100% that's realistic.
- He's not out there talking to himself
or talking himself into shaking him off,
he's just shaking them off.
- Before you even get on the mount,
you know what you wanna throw.
So him talking through it is not realistic at all.
- [Interviewer] Does the pitcher just take the instruction
from a coach to throw what the coach wants to throw?
- As you're growing up playing baseball
that's probably more realistic but now,
we do our own scouting and have meetings
and all this long-term like preparation stuff
that leads to what pitches he would put down.
- There are occasions when they call a pitch
and the pitcher shakes and then they call it again
because that's what the catcher really wants
and they'll shake again
and then finally the catcher will be like, "Oh okay."
- Like give in.
- You know, so that does happen though.
- And those hats aren't fitted.
- [laughs] Those are snap backs.
[Walker laughing]
Probably helps him breathe through his eyelids.
- Fast ball.
- Oh such a bad throw.
[players laughing]
Hold on, I'm gonna play that back.
[tape rewinding]
- It's really bad.
- There's a reason that ball went so far.
- That looks like Joc's swing.
[players laughing]
- Hey there actually is a bull in Durham,
that's for real, except it's in left field,
it's not in right field.
- "Hardball".
- Ooh I love "Hardball!"
- Baby Jean, where's Baby Jean?
- Yeah, I love it when you call me Big Poppa.
[players laughing]
- You've never seen this movie?
- No.
- [mumbles] you've done you, [mumbles].
- That's what happens when you bring 12-year-olds
into this stuff, you know?
- You know you're walking?
- Realistically, that has happened.
[Joc laughing]
[dramatic music]
- That's a better throw than Nuke.
- Yes.
- He's obviously about good rhythm.
- It's a significantly better throw
than the last clip.
[Justin laughing]
- [Umpire] Strike, out!
- Oh, good punch out there too.
You point the swing, then call the strike.
Yeah, it looks like a real little league game.
- Yeah, more realistic than "Bull Durham"
I think because little league they have two ear flaps
on the helmet, the snapbacks.
- Yeah, they've got more room for error, too.
'Cause it's like youth.
"Bull Durham" is supposed to be like a triple A game,
so it should be a lot.
- The more raw it is here,
the more real it looks.
You know what he's listening to?
♪ I love it when you call me Big Poppa ♪
[Justin laughing]
- [Interviewer] What do you guys listen to before a game?
- Maybe I'm gonna start "Big Poppa."
Or just--
[Justin laughing]
No, I don't know, I like Justin Timberlake.
A lot of rhythm.
- Everyday, Justin Timberlake.
In the cage, hitting before the game.
- Yeah I'm basically the hitting version of that pitcher.
[Justin laughing]
- We play all kinds of music though, in the clubhouse.
So we have like a pre-game mix
and then after we win, there's a post game mix.
- What do listen to, Buehler?
- Yeah, like all that kind of--
- You just changed it.
- No, it's Bulls On Parade.
[Walker grunting]
Listen to some Korn.
- He's homered the only two times he's faced one.
One, from the wind up.
- That's actually a good throw.
Charlie's got a good throw.
- I think this is the most accurate,
one of the most accurate baseball.
[players laughing]
- [Interviewer] Does the catcher ever really
talk to the batter?
- Not in that.
- If you know the catcher,
sometimes you'll have some dialogue
and talk and not talk about pitches.
That's kinda bush.
Oof, that's good arm action.
I think the worst part about this
is the umpire starting to punch him
before the ball even gets there.
Unless he's moving out of the way of the pitch.
- Hey, JT, rewind that.
[tape rewinding]
So he threw his bat there, seen it, felt it, played it.
- Yeah, played with a lot of guys who've done that.
- [Interviewer] What happens when you do that?
- The worst thing that could happen is the umpire
gives you an equipment violation
and you get like $100 fine or something.
- Yeah.
- 'Cause you've had a few of them [laughs].
- I've had a few.
I guess the worst case would be it richochets
off the ground and hits the umpire,
that's really bad.
But yeah, just an equipment fine
and then you can donate it to charity,
so it's not terrible.
- [Interviewer] So what do these symbols mean?
- You know, when there's a runner on second,
you give multiple signs, so the runner on second
can't like try to relay it to the hitter.
But apparently, Jake Taylor just shit-canned the multiples,
said everyone knows he wants to throw the fast ball,
and he just put down the old number one.
- Normally, a fast ball's one,
a curve ball's two, and like a slider would be three,
a change up would be four, for most guys.
So what he's doing there is like disguising it, right?
So if he goes two to three, two,
you don't know which one is actually like meaningful,
or what pitch he wants.
- So in the sets, they can go like,
"Hey, we're gonna use the first one."
Or, "We're gonna use the last one."
- [Interviewer] So why do need to disguise it?
- Just because the runner at second, obviously,
if you're just doing something super simple,
could do something to try and indicate
what the pitch is coming to give the hitter
kind of a leg up,
so it's pretty accurate to disguise it
to kind of avoid that stuff.
- We saw what happened in "Bull Durham",
when the hitter knew what was coming.
So trying to avoid that.
Oh "The Natural."
- Ooh.
- [Interviewer] Have you guys seen this one?
- Yeah.
- Yeah, Wonderboy.
- That's a pretty good throw [mumbles].
- Yeah, it's just weird 'cause, obviously,
the actor wasn't a very good punter
'cause they brought the shot in super tight,
where you didn't even see the ball hit the bat.
All the sudden, the catcher's just like
standing underneath it.
Clearly someone just tossed a ball up,
and he caught it.
That part of it looks like it was manufactured.
- [Interviewer] When you bunt a ball,
can it pop directly up in the--
- Oh yeah.
- 100%.
- Oh yeah.
That definitely can happen.
- [Interviewer] What about the placement of his hands?
- It's not terrible.
I think that's--
- Well, it is terrible because he's got
his hand over the bat so--
- He's just waiting to get one off the knuckle.
- Yeah, I don't know if they threw
two-seamers back then, but if one runs in,
hits you in the fingers, you're gonna break your fingers.
So usually you like kinda make a thumbs-up,
hold it that way so you protect your fingers.
Bad technique, that's why he didn't get it down.
That's why he popped it up.
[dramatic music]
Oof, that's low effort juice [laughs].
- I like how the camera people are on the field.
- Right?
Yeah, the camera guys' right there,
that's pretty unrealistic.
But I'm sure they got great shots
[Walker laughing]
from that vantage point [laughs].
- [Announcer] Quickly, come on, time.
[Walker mumbles]
- [laughs] That's actually Beuhler's
warm up routine, right there.
- That's Kenta's.
- Kenta.
- Howard, you're in.
[players laughing]
- JT, play that one again.
[tape rewinding]
I mean, that's fairly accurate.
To have two guys like throwing at the same time,
and things like that, but for the most part,
it's pretty boring if the starter's doing their job.
- [Interviewer] And then this guy calls
him from above.
- I like--
- The pitching coaches right there, right?
He'd be the one that would tell you he's coming in the game.
- Yeah, that's kind of an odd looking,
it's just kind of a weird set up,
so it makes it kinda weird for them to do.
Normally, it's just like a phone call.
And the pitching coach would tell whoever.
But that's not like crazy inaccurate,
it's just probably in not many stadiums
or set up like that.
- Yeah, sometimes if like the cell phone
or the phone is way behind the catcher,
the pitching coach is normally standing by the pitcher
and like has water and extra balls just in case
they scuff one.
So if like the phone rang and there was two people,
then it was like, they'd have to relay it somehow.
So it just so happens that they're standing on a perch.
- His throw's horrible.
[Justin laughing]
[players laughing]
- It's like a shot put [laughs].
All right, last up, we got "42."
- [Announcer] [mumbles] on a rainy day,
[mumbles] goes in with his wind up--
- It's not a bad swing.
- Yeah, it's a nice play.
- The spinning throw, that's not it.
He's not gonna spin on that ball.
He's just gonna come up, field it to his left,
and then turn and throw.
But that does happen quite a bit.
- [Interviewer] What about this swing
right here, does it look?
- For the time period it's pretty accurate, no?
- It's actually a good job of him,
it looks like he's like hitting
a ground ball to the left side.
I feel like that one was actually a live shot.
They didn't doctor that.
- Yeah, and you can see the ball going down and stuff, so.
Accurate.
- Oh, that was it, guys.
Hope you enjoyed watching some baseball movies with us,
and we'll see you next time.
[electronic music]