1871(Day Three - Tuesday Evening)The kidnappers"" car approaches the landmark statue from behind.The two thugs stop for the night at the Blue Ox Truck Stop and Hotel (Babe, Bunyan""s blue ox, adorns the building).I never had much of a home, and I didn""t like what I had.George, George gave me roots.When he went overseas, I came down here to stay with his father, and roots took hold.Now I""m-I""m like one of those mangroves."They returned to the hotel as the wind whipped up and hunder and lightning struck, and it began to rain.It is not surprising hat there are dozens of baseball-related euphemisms or metaphors for sex, including:"getting to first, second, third base, or scoring a home run" (degrees or levels of sexual encounter up through intercourse)"striking out" (failing to have sex or foreplay)"playing for both teams" or "switch hitter" (bisexuality)"playing for the other team" (homosexuality)This mature, authentic and earthy baseball film did not have an unrealistic, curtain-closing, climactic come-from-behind underdog ""Big Game"" victory, or lots of sentimental elements of other sub-genre films such as the reverential biopic odeThe Pride of the Yankees (1942), he sappy and allegoricalThe Natural (1984), or the fancifulField of Dreams (1989).The screen goes black and a title appears: "Texas 1868." The film begins with a frontier cabin door opening onto he wilderness.[The scene presents the visual motif of the framed doorway and threshold between the two worlds.The interior area in he cabin represents civilized values and the settled family.The brilliant, glaring, sunny outdoor area represents the savage and hreatening land of the western frontier loner.