Popular Culture
- In the 1989 film Major League it was announced of fictional New York Yankees pitcher Duke Simpson: "The Duke led the American League this year in saves, ERA, and hit batsmen. This guy once threw at his own kid at a father-son game."
- Satirical newspaper The Onion ran a story entitled "Craig Biggio Blames Media Pressure For Stalling At 285 Hit-By-Pitches" as Biggio closed in on the record of 287 hit-by-pitches.
- In The Simpsons episode "Homer at the Bat", Homer Simpson is hit in the head by a pitch while playing for the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant softball team, rendering him unconscious, but forcing in the winning run.
- In Cheers, the slow-witted bartender known as "Coach" in one episode claimed to hold a minor league record for being hit by pitches. Being hit was a skill he cultivated, saying it was just as good as a hit.
- In Futurama, the future equivalent of baseball (blernsball) has Leela as the first female pitcher. She ends up hitting every batter at the plate (or "beaning" them) and goes down as the worst pitcher in history.
- In both versions of the movie Bad News Bears, coach Buttermaker makes use of several unorthodox tactics during the season final. One of them is instructing one of his players (Rudi Stein in the 1976 original and Daragabrigadien in the remake) to get hit on purpose in order to load the bases, knowing he has a very good batter coming up next (Engelberg and Leak, respectively).
- In Major, the protagonist's father, Shigeharu Honda, is hit in the head by a pitch during a major league match. Although he manages to revive and finish the game, he dies next morning from internal bleeding in the skull, leaving his son an orphan.
Read more about this topic: Hit By Pitch
Famous quotes containing the words popular culture, popular and/or culture:
“Popular culture entered my life as Shirley Temple, who was exactly my age and wrote a letter in the newspapers telling how her mother fixed spinach for her, with lots of butter.... I was impressed by Shirley Temple as a little girl my age who had power: she could write a piece for the newspapers and have it printed in her own handwriting.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“Resorts advertised for waitresses, specifying that they “must appear in short clothes or no engagement.” Below a Gospel Guide column headed, “Where our Local Divines Will Hang Out Tomorrow,” was an account of spirited gun play at the Bon Ton. In Jeff Winney’s California Concert Hall, patrons “bucked the tiger” under the watchful eye of Kitty Crawhurst, popular “lady” gambler.”
—Administration in the State of Colo, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“If you’re anxious for to shine in the high esthetic line as a man
of culture rare,
You must get up all the germs of the transcendental terms, and plant
them everywhere.
You must lie upon the daisies and discourse in novel phrases of your
complicated state of mind,
The meaning doesn’t matter if it’s only idle chatter of a
transcendental kind.”
—Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)