Summer Catch is a 2001 American romantic comedy film directed by Michael Tollin and starring Freddie Prinze Jr., Jessica Biel and Matthew Lillard.
The next day, the A's have their first game of the season where rival Van Leemer shines pitching a shut-out, while Ryan is told to walk the stands for donations.
Eric Van Leemer and Dale Robin are kicked off the team not only for their bad behavior, but also for accidentally burning down a press box, so Ryan is designated to start the final game, as he has the freshest arm and the most rest.
Phillies players Mike Lieberthal, Doug Glanville, and Pat Burrell, along with outfielder Ken Griffey Jr., make appearances at the end of the film.
Other notable cameos in the movie include Kevin Youkilis, Curt Gowdy, Hank Aaron and Carlton Fisk.
The baseball players had to attend a four-week training camp during which they learned how to ignore the cameras on the field and to feel and act more as a team.
The website's critics' consensus reads: "A clichéd and predictable sports comedy that's mostly devoid of excitement or laughs, Summer Catch is strictly bush-league.
Then bury the whole thing under a mound of standard-issue parent-child conflicts and enough self-help clichés to drive Polonius to the aquavit barrel at Elsinore.
"[3] Joe Leydon of Variety was more forgiving with his analysis, but explained, "With its haphazard mix of boisterously crude comedy, romantic entanglements, class-conscious clashes and intensely competitive hardball, pic plays like it was inspired by a late-night channel surf through Major League, Bull Durham, One Crazy Summer and some late-’50s wrong-side-of-the-tracks meller."
He praised George Fenton’s score and the film's humor, singling out Matthew Lillard, Brittany Murphy and Beverly D'Angelo.
[4] Marc Savlov of The Austin Chronicle gave the movie one and a half stars out of five, adding, "Baseball, summer, apple pie, and Freddie Prinze Jr.'s bare butt – what could be more American?
Toss in a brief glance at Matthew Lillard's equally nekkid behind and you've got a better-late-than-never entry in the clichéd teen love-story genre that, while generally inoffensive, is nonetheless so cloyingly heartfelt that it's all you can do not to giggle every time someone makes a prophetic, lovestruck proclamation (of which there are many).