Rewatchables Reference

• Bill: the entire final championship game – the bench-clearing brawl, Coach Turner hitting his kid, Buttermaker's realization to play everybody leading to the Lupus catch, and the rally ending with 'Hey Yankees, you can take your apology and your trophy and shove it straight up your ass.'
• Van: the '42 errors' scene where Buttermaker tells Ahmad that Hank Aaron made 42 errors – lying to a kid to teach a lesson.

• Kelly Leak's entire rebel character.
• The overbearing youth sports parent theme (Roy Turner).
• Chris Barnes/Tanner – 'Macaulay Culkin crossed with Bill Burr.'
• Tatum O'Neal's pitching being legitimately impressive.
• The Carmen (Bizet) theme music.
• Ogilvie being ahead of Bill James/'Moneyball' with baseball stats.
• Kentucky Fried Chicken in the big bucket.
• Mid-70s Los Angeles as a location.

• The language/slurs – 'it's 1976, it's part of the movie.'
• Tatum O'Neal/girl pitcher as a gimmick was huge in 1976, not as impactful now.
• Walter Matthau being 56 and looking much older by modern standards.
• Little League pitching overuse – Amanda pitching every game with no innings limits.

• Bill: the end shot panning back from the celebrating kids to see the full field.
• Van: the opening shot.

Kelly Leak's first home run – takes batting practice, hits it, and the Carmen opera music kicks in.

• Bill: Buttermaker being mean to Amanda goes too far – throwing a drink at her, 'Why do you think I didn't look you up for two years?' Too harsh for an 11-year-old girl.
• Van: the City Council Dad – cynical, insincere politician character.

Bill: this movie was Ground Zero for the Yankees becoming the biggest villain in sports. Mickey Mantle retires 1968, Steinbrenner takes over in the 70s, this movie comes out in 1976, then the '77 Yankees with Reggie Jackson feuding with Billy Martin.

• Warren Beatty turned down Buttermaker.
• Steve McQueen turned down Buttermaker.
• Jodie Foster was cast as Amanda but dropped out to play Iris in 'Taxi Driver'.
• Kristy McNichol was offered Amanda but they changed their minds for Tatum O'Neal.

Tanner's fighting scenes – terrible choreography, little kid haymakers.

Bill: Vic Morrow as Coach Turner. Also Joey Turner as the perfect douchebag fink kid.

• Walter Matthau: no (it's The Odd Couple).
• Tatum O'Neal: Paper Moon for peak powers, but Bad News Bears is what people actually remember her for.
• Jackie Earle Haley: Breaking Training.
• Kelly Leak's 1975 Harley-Davidson Z90: yes.
• Air hockey in movies: yes – most pivotal air hockey scene ever.
• Kids sports movies / Little League baseball: yes.
• Carmen (Bizet): yes.

• Van: Kelly Leak was safe at home plate – he beat the throw; the ump was possibly paid off.
• Bill: why doesn't Kelly Leak pitch? Best athlete always pitches at 11-12.
• Kelly Leak driving motorcycle onto the field in game 1 – should have been banned from the league.
• 'Rudy' Stein is huge but can't hit – he should have been cranking home runs.

• The Aguilar brothers couldn't speak English in the movie, but the actors didn't know Spanish – they had to teach them Spanish for their scenes.
• Matthau got $750K + 10% theatrical; Tatum O'Neal got $350K + percentage of profits.
• Bill Lancaster wrote only 3 movies: Bad News Bears, Bad News Bears Go to Japan, and The Thing.
• The 2005 remake directed by Richard Linklater with Billy Bob Thornton was nearly shot-for-shot but far inferior.

• Both: Kelly Leak's motorcycle (1975 Harley-Davidson Z90).
• Bill (alternate): the Bears jersey.

'This quitting thing, it's a hard habit to break once you start.' – Buttermaker's key quote.

Bad News Bears + Bad News Bears in Breaking Training.

• Van: the Bears (the team as a whole).
• Bill: Walter Matthau, but would also accept Tatum O'Neal – 'if she doesn't work, the movie doesn't work.'

Craig had only seen the 2005 remake. The original is 'so much better.' Buttermaker is much less of a cartoon than Billy Bob Thornton's version. Prefers Sandlot as best kids sports movie due to generational attachment.