When Crash Kevin Costner lists the things that he believes in to Annie Susan Sarandon he mentions that he "believes Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone." In Oliver Stone's movie JFK, Costner plays Jim Garrison, the man who devoted much of his life to proving that President Kennedy's murder involved a conspiracy.

The movie was filmed on location in North Carolina in October and November, 1987, which is why the grass had to be touched up with green paint. It is also why the breath of the actors can be seen in many of the night scenes.

In one scene, 'Nuke' LaLoosh (Robbins) gives up a home run that strikes the bull, supposedly rewarding the opposing hitter with a free steak. In reality, at the old Durham Athletic Park, the bull was in foul territory.

Kevin Costner (Crash Davis) is a switch hitter; he is shown hitting both left and right-handed at different points in the film.

In the scene where the batboy tells Crash Davis "Get a hit, Crash", Kevin Costner ad-libbed the response of "Shut up." Since the kid actor playing the batboy obviously didn't know this response was coming, he started crying.

The bull sign in the old ballpark was built for the film, but was retained by the Durham Bulls as a new, old tradition. It is a staple of the new ballpark, complete with red eyes, smoking nose and lifted tail when a Bull hits a home run. It also says, "Hit bull, win a steak. Hit grass, win a salad."

The "rainout" scene was based on actual event. In the late 1960s, Ron Shelton played minor-league ball in the Texas League. Shelton's team was in Amarillo, Texas for a season-ending series. The night before the final game, Shelton, some teammates and some Amarillo players were out partying and decided to go to the stadium and turn on the sprinkler system, thereby flooding the field and ensuring a "rainout". However, the Amarillo team owner rented a helicopter, dried the field, and the game was played.

'Kurt Russell' helped Ron Shelton develop the script and was originally penciled in to play Crash, the part that went to Kevin Costner. After the film was made, Russell was so impressed, he actually wrote fan letters to Costner and Shelton.

Ron Shelton was a former minor league baseball player and used his experience as the basis for the story.

Kurt Russell, who helped Ron Shelton develop the script, also played minor league baseball in the early-1970s

The note that Crash writes to Annie actually reads "Wanna fuck this time?" not "I want to make love to you". It can be seen over Crash's right shoulder when he writes the note in the dugout.

As the credits are rolling at the end of the film the picture (which is made to be a shrine) is of Yankee great Thurman Munson who died in plane crash.

In their confrontation outside the bar, Crash tells Nuke, "I hear you couldn't hit water if you fell out of a fucking boat." Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda said this in 1984, in reference to weak-hitting San Diego Padres infielder Kurt Bevacqua.

Ron Shelton reportedly based the character of Nuke LaLoosh on a minor league teammate from his playing days named Steve Dalkowski. Dalkowski is something of a legend among baseball fans and is widely regarded as the fastest throwing pitcher ever. Unlike the character in the film, Dalkowski never made the major leagues.

The poem that Annie refers to when she says that "the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom" is William Blake's "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell".

During a conversation between Crash and Nuke on the team bus, a newspaper's sports page is shown briefly with a headline reading "Hard-hittin' Whiten". At the time the movie was filmed in 1987, Mark Whiten was a top prospect for the Toronto Blue Jays in the South Atlantic League and made that league's All-Star Game. Whiten said he missed his brief moment of fame when he first saw the movie in the theatre, but caught it when he rented it later. Whiten went on to have a fairly ordinary 11-year career in the majors highlighted by one 1993 game in which he tied two

Continuity

We see Nuke fire the ball through the glass window of the closed bar door. In the next shot, the door is open although no one has entered or exited.

When Crash Davis first joins the team and meets manager Joe Riggins, the amount of beer in Riggin's bottle changes in each shot.

After catching a pop-up behind home plate, Crash tells Nuke to intentionally hit the mascot. After Nuke hits the mascot, Crash warns the batter, "I wouldn't dig in if I were you." The next pitch is a swinging strike, the batter is called out, and Crash throws to 3rd base. At this point the count on the batter is only 1-1. The batter has not struck out yet.

The shower sandal disappears next to Nuke after being thrown by Crash.

When the local radio station is doing a simulation of a road game, the announcer's assistant, who is receiving the play-by-play via telephone, writes "DOUBLE TO LEFT" on a piece of paper. The handwriting on the paper changes from the time she writes it down to when she holds up the paper for the announcer to see.



Factual errors

Nuke says the parent major league team is expanding its roster and he has been called up to "the show." The Bulls (and Asheville Tourists, Crash's new team) continue to play. In reality, roster expansion coincides with the end of the minor league season (Labor Day). Also, players for high A teams typically do not go directly to the majors (skipping two levels).

When Crash tells Nuke to hold the ball like an egg, Crash returns to his position and holds down two fingers to signify that he wants Nuke to throw a curveball. Since there is a runner at second base at the time, a catcher would throw down a series of signs, so that the runner at second can't steal the sign and signal the batter on what the next pitch is going to be.



Incorrectly regarded as a goof

Crash wears number 8, but his helmet has a number 10 on it. This isn't a mistake; minor league ball clubs (especially as low as Single A) run pretty tight operations. Chances are that the helmet was worn by a previous player, as much equipment is.

In the film Crash Davis becomes the all-time Minor League Home Run leader, but in reality many minor leaguers have hit more than Crash's total career HRs.

In the first game of the movie, two batters are introduced with "Now batting for the Peninsula White Sox" but they are wearing the uniform of the Hagerstown Suns.

When Annie sends a note down to Crash in the dugout, Crash writes a reply on it for the kid to take back to her. He writes "Let's fuck sometime." Millie reads it and says it says "I want to make love to you." From the hesitation and her facial expression, it appears she is intentionally paraphrasing his words.



Revealing mistakes

About 21 minutes into the movie, Annie and Crash are in her bedroom and she puts an ?dith Piaf record on. However, the record player is clearly a 78 rpm antique, and the disk is clearly a modern 33 rpm LP with multiple cuts.

When Crash hits his first home run of the year, the pitcher turns and watches the ball go out of the park. As he's watching, his breath can be seen. On a dry sunny day like that day, it would have to be below 45 degrees to see your breath. It appears to be a very warm day because fans in the ballpark mostly have short sleeve shirts and tank tops on. Also, Crash is sweating profusely on his chest protector.

When the team and Crash are on the bus and he tells them he's been in the show, the player behind Crash has his right foot propped up on the the back of his seat. The next shot shows the player leaning up to listen to Crash. In the next shot, the player's foot is back up on Crash's seat all the while he's leaning forward.

When Crash tells Nuke to hit the bull mascot, which is standing behind the plate, you can see the breath of both players, as if it is winter. In fact, it is supposed to be deep into the summer, as all fans are wearing summer attire, and, of course, it's summer baseball season.

When the players are having their conference at the mound in the game where Nook's dad is at the game and Jose's glove has a curse on it, Crash has his helmet on backwards so that the catcher's mask can fit on it. The back of the helmet has #20 on it instead of his #8.



Crew or equipment visible

When Crash is lecturing Nuke on the condition of Nuke's shower sandals, you can see camera light fixtures reflected on Nuke's sunglasses.

In the beginning of the first game, when the Bulls go back to the dugout, you can see the shadow of the camera on one of the players on the far left.



Errors in geography

In the opening scene Annie walks out of her house at roughly 911 N. Mangum Street and turns north. She then approaches the ballpark walking north again on Morris street. The Durham Athletic Park is located at 428 Morris Street, approximately 1 mile south of her home on Mangum Street. Her original direction of travel would have taken her in the opposite direction of the ballpark.

Near the end of the film when Annie is returning home (the old James Manning house at 911 N. Mangum Street in Durham) from the ballpark in the rain (umbrella in hand) and sees Crash on her porch swing, Annie approaches her house from the north, the wrong direction. The old Durham Athletic Park, where the film was shot, is located in the 500-block of W. Corporation Street which is south and west of the house.



Plot holes

The first scene where we see Annie driving a car is the scene when the bus is leaving the parking lot. Annie waves and gets into a brown mid-1980s two door Pontiac Sunbird. But we never see the Pontiac Sunbird again in the movie. Suddenly, later in the movie, she is driving an old blue Volvo, which she drives throughout the rest of the movie.



Character error

When Crash hits the home run he promised off the opening breaking ball, he stares intently at far left field, but the ball ends up in deep right center.

In her opening monologue, Annie says, "There are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball." While a set of Hindu or Buddhist prayer beads has 108 beads (and, indeed, the number 108 figures prominently in Eastern religions), the most commonly used Catholic rosary has only 59 beads.

There are several scenes showing the seating section for the wives of players. The sign says "Player's Wives". Unless the team has a bigamist, it should read "Players' Wives".