In the about to be released film "Fever Pitch," Red Sox fanatic Ben Wrightman (Jimmy Fallon) is at a restaurant with friends when he sees several Boston players having dinner.
Ben's friends are aghast. It is following a third straight playoff loss to the Yankees, and the Red Sox are acting, well, normal. They're actually smiling and talking. But seeing the players taking things so routinely, Ben begins to understand there might be something more important than the Red Sox.
Ben notes that unlike them, for the players "it's their job, it's not an obsession."
Which may be the overriding if unintended truism of the film: There's really no shortage of fanatics, just a shortage of perspective.
The movie is a romantic comedy that pits Ben's girlfriend, Lindsey Meeks (Drew Barrymore) against his devotion to the Sox. Is there actually room for both love and baseball in a true fan's life? Is owning a half-dozen team jerseys really how mature adults should act?
"Sometimes," explains Ben, "I like being 11 years old."
This much is certain: Twentieth Century Fox got lucky. When filming began, there was no inkling the Red Sox would cooperate by winning the World Series after an 86-year wait. Afterward, the writers made a few changes and soon it was ready for release at the start of the 2005 season, complete with a fairy tale ending.
Boston winning the World Series? Pure Hollywood.
Red Sox have become famous in their suffering — to the point that they can be annoying. They've worn their "long-suffering fans" persona so long, they're nearly as boorish as their arch enemy, Yankee fans. In this film, though, the fanatics aren't supposed to be boorish. They're supposed to be lovably preoccupied.
Ben is a thirtyish single guy who grows up attending Sox games with his uncle. When the uncle dies, the season tickets go to Ben. He meets Lindsey and things go terrifically, even after she discovers his apartment has so much Red Sox memorabilia "it's like you live in a gift shop."
Eventually, though, there are problems. She wants him to meet her parents, but he's headed for spring training. She wants him to go with her to Paris, but the Yankees are in town.
Lindsey realizes in dismay that she's in second place. That fact starts dawning on her when Ben appears on ESPN during spring training and ranks life's priorities in this order: Red Sox, sex and air.
This all may seem like over-the-top stereotyping, but not so.
There are actually people like that out there.
I taught a college class on sportswriting in which one of the students was a Red Sox fan. By happenstance, Game 7 of the ALCS last fall was the same night as the mid-term. The day before the test, the student/fan e-mailed me, asking if he could be excused from the test and take it at a different time because, well, it was Game 7.
When I suggested he tape it, I may as well have been suggesting he perform a self-lobotomy. After I explained I couldn't give him the test at another time, in fairness to other students, he wrote, ". . . you have to do what you have to do. I'll take a zero on this one and hope I can come through on everything else! This is a once in a lifetime experience, a chance to see history, I can't miss it!!!!"
That's right. He used four exclamation points.
He took a zero, too.
Ben Wrightman would have been proud.
As it turned out, the test was over by the time the game was in the second inning. Didn't matter. If you're a Red Sox fan, you have to be there at the ballpark or in front of the TV for the first pitch.
In the film, Lindsey's friends want to know at first just why Ben is still available. All they know about him is he is smart, good looking, funny and agreeable.
Observes one: "There's a reason this Ben guy is still single."
I don't know if it's coincidence or not, but so was the guy in my class.
E-mail: rock@desnews.com