 How does the author feel about For the Love of the Game?
Apparently, Lester doesn't realize that snipped roses are garden-variety symbols of castration, or he'd know what he has lost. The script, by Alan Ball, a playwright and former sitcom writer, carries an invigorating blast of counterculture righteousness, along with the kind of pithily vicious marital bickering that makes some viewers (especially male) say, "Yeah! A hotshot English theater director (his Cabaret revival is still on the boards in New York), Mendes gives the film a patina of New Age lyricism and layer upon layer of visual irony. That's the theme here, too, and it's extraordinarily potent, at times even heartbreaking.
 The baseball scenes are wonderful. The romance scenes are over the top and make the picture feel incredibly long.
 Kevin Costner can still get away with playing a baseball player.  The baseball scenes are wonderful. The romance scenes are over the top and make the picture feel incredibly long.  It's a great sports movie.  It feels embarrassingly like a Harlequin novel.