He remembers a different kind of baseball, relaxed and chatty. ‘Eephus’ gets it on film

Controversially, the implementation of a pitch clock in 2023 effectively transformed the experience of both playing and watching major league baseball. It created its own sense of time and theoretically could go on forever.” The desire to portray baseball’s enrapturing quality propelled Lund to co-write and direct his debut feature, “Eephus”, an amusing and delightfully acted dramedy set in the 1990s about two adult recreational teams in suburban Massachusetts playing one last game before their local field is demolished and turned into a school. “The banter in the film is very regional, feels like New England to me, a place where sports are so much a part of the culture that they’ve infused the vernacular.” Lund says he never much cared for baseball movies. “I wanted to immerse you in this single day on a single field and create a more collective experience with a large ensemble who are all dealing with the same thing, which is saying goodbye to a ritual, saying goodbye to a version of themselves that they create on that field together.” Lund says his film is about “saying goodbye to a ritual.” Lund’s approach to a deeply American subject involved pacing and formal choices that one might more often associate with European art films or even Asian “slow cinema.” Lund aimed to evoke the longing of Taiwan-based master Tsai Ming-liang’s 2003 film “Goodbye, Dragon Inn,” about the last showing at a movie theater about to close. It’s very unique.” A scene from the movie “Eephus.” Born into a Boston Red Sox-loving household, Lund grew up in Nashua, N.H., and played shortstop in a traveling league.