Off the Black
An aging high school baseball umpire Ray Cook (Nick Nolte) calls a pitch from Dave Tibbel (Trevor Morgan) a ball when it may have been a strike, and causes them to lose the game and eliminates the team from playing in the State Playoffs. But Dave Tibbel falls easy to peer pressure and in retaliation for the umpire’s ”bad call”, Dave Tibbel and two members of his baseball team seek revenge by trashing the outside of Ray Cook’s house with toilet paper. During their act of revenge, Ray Cook awakens and catches one of the boys and instead of having Tibble arrested, Cook who has not spoken to his own son for some time, finds an unusual way to show the young man responsibility for his actions and settle the debt to Cook for his involvement in the retaliation against him. What transpires is an unusual bond for each other, and as they both try their best to confront their own personal demons, a relationship worthy of father and son becomes obvious of which they are both seeking to have in there own lives.
Director: James Ponsoldt
Writer: James Ponsoldt
Stars: Nick Nolte, Trevor Morgan, Timothy Hutton
