The title of the film is a bit of a misnomer, because if you watched the 2016 documentary "Fastball", you might be expecting a story about the mechanics of throwing a screwball, which has a breaking motion opposite that of a slider or curve ball. Instead, you have here the story of the 1990's baseball scandal involving steroid use by some of the game's most popular and prolific players. Though the story is a fascinating one involving fake doctors and underground drug dealers, it gets kind of corn ball with the presence of child actors stepping in for the principals a good part of the time, spouting dialog from guilty parties who were eventually taken down. I don't think that's the most effective way the story could have been told, but that's what director Billy Corben went with.
What's really amazing is the way some of the principals involved in the scandal presented themselves on screen. The whole thing began with a guy named Tony Bosch, who started out in Miami with an anti-aging clinic, and gradually got involved with the world of performance enhancing drugs. Bosch tries to come across as an innocent bystander, taking exception to the idea that he was considered a fake doctor, instead preferring the term 'unlicensed physician', dubious at best having 'earned' a medical degree from the University of Belize. A multimillionaire at one point, Bosch blew it all on a life style involving alcohol, drugs and party time most every night. And to think, his enterprise began to unravel when he welshed on a four thousand dollar loan from an unsuspecting Porter Fischer, potentially one of the most clueless guys ever who couldn't help putting his trust in gangsters and con men.
In the documentary, you'll hear from the principals involved, ball players, legal authorities, and reps from Major League Baseball. The most prominent name associated with the scandal of course, was Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees, A-Rod for followers of the game. His suspension from MLB for a year was one of the capstones of the scandal that eventually put a lid on the use of PED's in the sport, although who's to say their use is entirely eliminated to this day.
As an aside, I happened to attend the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York during the height of that classic home run chase between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa during the 1998 season. What was astonishing was the records room where you could view the title holders of every major hitting and pitching category of all time. The HOF has it's own print shop, and the home run leader was updated daily whenever McGwire or Sosa took the lead!
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