Summer Catch – Strike’s Out Looking

Summer Catch came at the peak of Freddie Prinze, Jr. mania. He was sort of the king of sub-par romantic comedies in the mid-2000s, and like the rest of his films, this one, too, is mediocre. Full of cringeworthy schmaltz and baseball scenes that strain credibility, Summer Catch is exactly what one would expect from a genre that feasts on the contrived. It's got the local boy (Prinze, Jr.) trying to make it after experiencing a downward spiral; it's got the rich girl (Jessica Biel) who falls for him; and, of course, it has the bad actor, her father (Bruce Davison), who doesn't want his daughter slumming it up with a guy destined to cut grass for a living. Even more obvious than all these stock characters is the fact that Ryan Dunne, the hometown pitcher, will not only achieve his baseball dreams, but he will also land the girl. Cue the corn! Anyway, with a plot as stupid as that and a moronic script to match, it is no wonder Summer Catch was lambasted by critics. It sits at 8% on Rotten Tomatoes with 92 reviews. Its box office fortunes weren't much better. It earned just $19.7 million. Now, sit back, clock a fastball with one hand while holding a cold New Grist Pilsner from Lakefront Brewing in the other, and hand us that cucumber! I, the Thunderous Wizard (@WriterTLK), Capt. Cash, and Bling Blake are workshopping mascot costumes for our beloved Chatham As! This Week’s Segments: Introduction/Plot Breakdown – Baseball's a sport. Love's the game for Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Jessica Biel! (00:00) Lingering Questions – Where does Ryan Dunne rank on the list of fictional pitchers? (24:47) The "Shore Road Princess" Trivia Challenge – I challenge the field to trivia about the movie and Cape Cod Baseball. (34:44) Recommendations – We offer our picks for the week and next up: We continue Bomb Coms with a large cappuccino and Mike Myers before he was so randy, baby, in So I Married an Ax Murderer! (47:48) And, as always, hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram to check out all the interesting factoids—the era of Freddie Prinze, Jr. and more—from this week’s episode! You can find this episode of Hops and Box Office Flops on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Podbean, Spotify, Acast, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, Vurbl, Amazon Music, and more!