It was supposed to be Thomas Pynchon, not Susan Sontag, whose novels are “self-indulgent, overrated crap.”



The Sontag line, as sports movie aficionados know, comes from aging catcher Crash Davis’ iconic monologue about his beliefs in the 1988 baseball comedy “Bull Durham” but as the film’s writer and director tells it, the Pynchon-Sontag change was a literal last-second switch triggered by a lawyer.



“The morning of shooting that scene we got a letter from Pynchon’s attorney threatening us that this was a defamatory reference, or something like that,” said Ron Shelton, who wrote the movie based in part on his own minor-league baseball experience. “First, I was shocked that Pynchon and his attorney had seen the script. Second, that he wouldn’t be amused given that he always sent ‘Professor’ Irwin Corey (the great old vaudeville comic) to receive his awards. I loved Corey and appreciated...