MLB ALL-STAR GAME

July 11, 1999

Kevin Costner

Matt Damon

Doug Flutie

Mark Harmon

DOUG FLUTIE: Definitely. I'm a hacker here, but my brother has played it, so I've been around it.

DOUG FLUTIE: It's great, being out on the grass, being out on the field, it's a neat feeling for a kid that's grown up in Boston, and been around this and sat in the bleachers so many years, so it's fun.

MARK HARMON: Pretty great. I mean what's not to like about standing in centerfield at Fenway with a baseball bat in your hand, it's a complete no-brainer, when you're asked to do this, and I feel lucky to be here. I've been a fan of Doug's, so it's nice to meet him. I hope I don't mess up.

MARK HARMON: I didn't.

MARK HARMON: I think if it's intimidating you don't come.

DOUG FLUTIE: I think what's going to happen is you get out there and stand at home plate and every swing counts, and there's going to be some nerves and jitters, because it's not your element. But it's great to meet everybody and see each other from different fields and come together in a great event. It's an enjoyable thing to do, but also for us it's like we're kids for the first time.

MARK HARMON: I just want to hit the ball. It's real simple the plan is to hit the ball. And George was in the batting cage, and said swing hard, in case you hit it.

MARK HARMON: It's like Doug, Little League baseball.

MARK HARMON: I don't think you jump on the cage and have a 60-mile-an-hour pitch and feel natural.

MATT DAMON: I didn't really swing that well, back in the centerfield batting cage, so I'm a little tight right now.

MATT DAMON: I don't think I'm going to let it go, until I take my licks up there. I'm afraid someone is going to take it away from me and tell me I have to go home.

MATT DAMON: I wish I could explain. Actually, do you have the camera? I just wanted to get -- this is my father, I wanted to get a shot of all you guys, because this is as close as a Damon is going to get at being interviewed at a Major League ballpark.

MATT DAMON: They're here, I heard Rico Petrocelli was here. And I heard Dwight Evans, Jim Rice and Carlton Fisk is going to be there tonight. And that whole -- really, it's the '78 team, Bucky Dent and all that. So if he can hit one out of the ballpark, maybe I've got a shot.

MATT DAMON: Crash Davis, definitely Crash Davis.

MATT DAMON: I don't have the disposable income yet.

MATT DAMON: Make him a favorite, that's it.

KEVIN COSTNER: That doesn't scare me none.

KEVIN COSTNER: It's a good pick of the four guys, at least representing the sissy part of the contest, except for maybe Doug, well, Mark was a football player.

MATT DAMON: We're the bona fide sissies.

KEVIN COSTNER: Everyone has a genuine love of the game. I think it is a good group, and I think they are people representative of people who like sports, and it transcends all our lives at certain levels. We remember where we were at certain places and certain things that happened. And I think it's fun for us to come out and brush shoulders with the current players, and players that we watched when we were kids. Somehow I remember being a real fan as a kid, I'm not a fan anymore, in the sense that I don't know all the players of every team, I don't watch every team, my walls are not adorned with Sports Illustrated pictures as they once were. That's why sometimes seeing legendary players, or people that I actually collected on.

MATT DAMON: Yawkey. I thought it said Yankees, no, it's Yawkey.

KEVIN COSTNER: I like pitching, I think that's the funnest, you're in on every play. So you might as well, if you're going to go for every play, the catcher was the same thing, so I enjoyed that in Bull Durham.

KEVIN COSTNER: We did.

KEVIN COSTNER: That was my first exposure to Fenway Park. And again you find yourself -- I remember Kubeck always saying with color for Goudy, he'd talk about that leftfield wall, how the shortstop had to go out and play a ball that was hit down the line and bounced out, and he would say that every game. And I went out and looked -- I thought Kubeck was right. But it was impressive. It seems like a ballpark in the innercity. There's something about a park in the middle of a city that people can walk to that museum that is very special to the people that live here, people in Chicago and other places. I found that to be very special. The urban roots in Los Angeles -- we drive a long ways to the stadium, and it's set in the middle of nowhere to provide for tons of parking. Somehow it really seems like it belongs to a city when it sits in the middle like this.

KEVIN COSTNER: I really don't know. I don't know. Cooper got to do Derek, that's kind of special, I think. But I don't know. I don't think about it. I've been really pleased with the three movies that have represented baseball, that I've been a part of.

KEVIN COSTNER: I'll answer that.

MATT DAMON: They're all right with it. Honestly being here is what it's all about. I'd like to get a hold of one, but if I don't, I've got my swings, what else can a guy ask for in life.

DOUG FLUTIE: Yes, it is, he's working hard in the cages.

DOUG FLUTIE: That's the great thing about being who we are in society, the celebrity thing, that you get to meet people, otherwise you never would have gotten a chance to. Talking about playing basketball with Michael Jordan, the average Joe doesn't get the chance to do that. We're a bunch of average guys that have made a mark for some reason. We get a chance to come to Fenway for an All-Star Game to rub shoulders with the current players, and go out and be kids again for a day. And it's just a blast.

DOUG FLUTIE: I have very high standards for myself, I guess. I get very -- for myself, yeah, I always do that. I overprepare for things. We were down at the beach for the last week down AT Delaware, and we were driving by on the way to come back out, and there was a batting cage, made the car stop, took some cuts, and got back in the car.

DOUG FLUTIE: Along the lines of what Kevin was saying, I'm not up-to-date with all the current ball players. You know McGwire and Sosa from last year.

KEVIN COSTNER: One of those guys could win, right? (Laughter.)

DOUG FLUTIE: But, no, I don't pay a lot of attention to it.

KEVIN COSTNER: That was a great day. It was fun for a couple of reasons. I met Cal, Senior. I took balls at shortstop with Cal, Junior, but his dad ended up pitching batting practice, it was very gruff, I didn't know whether to say Mr. Ripken or -- he said get up here, so I went ahead and hit off him, and actually got one out of Memorial, and he threw at me the next pitch. So it was a serious game.

MATT DAMON: For me, well, that's it. We already said that the Damon boys are peaking today. I knew I was peaking today, but the news is my brother and dad are, too. It's all downhill for the Damon family from here on out. But it's unbelievable. I was telling Kevin earlier that I was an extra in the Field of Dreams with benefit when he came back here, and we actually saw you take batting practice, someone was lobbing them into you, you were hitting them off the wall, so you were definitely sandbagging it. (Laughter.)

KEVIN COSTNER: He can be so nice, and then --

MATT DAMON: But we came down to Fenway that day, for the 50 bucks, but to see if we could sneak on the field and maybe pluck up some grass and take it with us. The ballpark has definitely got a special meaning for the kind of people who are around here. I'm going up there taking my hacks for every kid who will never get a chance to do it, and never will be a professional baseball player or never be a professional athlete, which every little boy I knew growing up dreamed about at some point, being a professional athlete. There are a lot of guys running around saying I'm Doug Flutie, and going out for a pass. And that's part of growing up. Everyone has their own relationship with their own ballpark where they're from, and this is mine, so to get out there, there's nothing like it.

MATT DAMON: Those are my guys. I didn't think they were real.

KEVIN COSTNER: I needed to answer a question.

KEVIN COSTNER: It's called For Love of the Game. And we're actually going to show it tomorrow in its rough version. And I guess it's the third movie that's had a baseball theme as a backdrop for me, and it's a good girl/boy story, set against the world of baseball. A pitcher at the end of his career.

KEVIN COSTNER: Yes, it's at Yankee Stadium, one entire game, and we think it's okay.

End of FastScripts….