Fastball

Made in association with Major League Baseball, directed by Jonathan Hock and narrated by Kevin Costner (Mr. Baseball among the acting set thanks to his work in Bull Durham, Field of Dreams and For Love of the Game), Fastball zeroes in on the most elemental of battles waged in the arena of sports: the dynamic between a pitcher who throws a baseball as fast as humanly possible and a batter who must react almost instantaneously. The primal question is: Just how fast does a fastball cross the plate? Data tells us that a 100-mile-per-hour fastball reaches home in the blink of an eye, and if that’s true, then how is it that batters can even put a bat on such a fast-moving object? The film and this fundamental aspect of the game are all about the science and poetry of this contested exchange. Hock is helmer of three 30 for 30 ESPN documentaries, including Of Miracles and Men, about the “Miracle on Ice” battle between American collegians and the Soviet national team at the 1980 Winter Olympic Games. (Opens Friday at Mariemont Theatre) (NR) Not screened in time for review