To the True Meaning The theme of this paper is to dissect the first
fight scene; in the movie Bull Durham, between Crash Davis; who is
played by Kevin Costner; and "Nuke" LaLoosh; who is played by Tim
Robbins. The fight takes place in a bar scene between these two men
who have never met before. The reason for the fight is that Crash Davis
is talking to a women by the name of Annie Savoy who is sitting at one of
the tables. Nuke already believes that Annie is going to be with him all
season long, but Crash believes otherwise. In the beginning of the
scene Nuke is dancing with all of the women in the bar while Crash is
sitting alone in the corner of the bar. Crash then orders a drink for Annie,
and is then asked by Annie to come over and sit by her. Crash
introduces himself to Annie and tells her that he is the new catcher on the
Durham Bulls baseball team. At the same time Nuke comes over and
ask Annie to dance, but Crash stands up and says that she is dancing
with him. When Crash stands up in front of him, Nuke takes this as a
challenge and he asks Crash if he wants to take it outside. At this point
Nuke still does not know that Crash is his new catcher. While Nuke is
waiting for Crash outside, Crash begins to wonder how he is going give
Nuke his first lesson to make it to the majors. When Crash finally comes
outside he sees that Nuke is standing in the middle of the street. Nuke is
not alone he has the entire baseball team standing behind him. First,
Crash says that he does not want to fight him. When Crash says this
everyone else begins to tease Crash. Next, Crash tells Nuke to throw the
first punch, but Nuke refuses to. So instead, Crash tells Nuke to throw a
baseball as hard as he can right at Crash's chest. When Nuke hears this
everyone around him including himself begin to laugh, because they
know how hard Nuke can throw and that it could kill Crash if it hit him in
the chest or the head. During this entire time Crash is keeping a cool
head. He knows that the chance of Nuke hitting him is very small. Also,
he tells Nuke that he won't be able to do it because he is beginning to
think about it. Crash goes so far as to say that Nuke's aim is so bad that

he could not hit water if he fell out of a boat. Crash also says that his
million dollar body could do it, but its his five cent head that is holding him
back. Finally, Nuke becomes so upset that he throws the ball at Crash,
but misses and ends up breaking a window. Crash looks at the hole that
Nuke just made and say ball four. When Crash says this, Nuke comes at
him and tries to punch him. Before he can, Crash punches him right in
the nose and causes him to fall to the ground. After Crash knocks him to
the ground, he introduces himself to Nuke as his new catcher and helps
him up. In the end, Crash invites Nuke back inside for a beer and to talk.
The number of communicational concepts that appear in this short
interaction is very high. The mental distractions that are present in this
argument are factual distractions and semantic distractions. A factual
distraction occurs when someone focuses so intently on details that they
miss the main point. This is exactly what Crash's intentions were when
he was trying to make fun on Nuke in front the rest of the baseball team.
Nuke was so angry at Crash for calling him names and insulting him that
he could not hit Crash with the baseball. The other mental distraction that
occurs is semantic. A semantic distraction occurs when someone over
responds to an emotion-laden word or concept. Crash also brings this
upon Nuke when Crash says to Nuke "Your just pissing away that million
dollar body of yours with that five cent head." Another very common
event in today's society is stereotyping. The stereotyping that occurred in
this engagement was categorizing or when someone looks at another
person and they think they know what kind of person they are. When
Crash stands up to Nuke in the beginning of the scene, Nuke thinks that
Crash is just a washed up old man who could not hold his own in a fight.
Nuke also thinks that because of his size and weight advantage that he
will automatically win any fight. Another stereotyping of Nuke is that he
believes that Crash is saying these things because the has been drinking
and when people drink they cannot control themselves in a fight. Nuke's

beliefs made him asks Crash if he wants to take it outside. More
categorizing occurs when Crash first sees Nuke, Crash is thinking that he
is just a immature man who thinks that one day he will be in the Majors.
Crash also thinks that he should be respected by Nuke just for thinking
that he is older. Crash also believes that the is a better man and that
Annie would rather be with him than Crash. Just because he thinks that
he is older and more mature. Both of these men's first impressions of
each other are very close. Another problem with listening is
ourselves. One of Nuke's big problems was experiential superiority.
Which is when someone looks down on another because their
experiences with life is not as good or as extensive as his own. When
Crash stands up to Nuke, Nuke automatically thinks that he is better,
since he is younger and is going to be in the majors. At the same time
Crash thinks he is better since he is older and more mature.
Besides experiential superiority another problem with ourselves is
defensiveness. This is a characteristic of people who act threatened, as
if they must defend what they have said or done. Both characters display
this feature while talking with Annie. First, Crash displays this when he
tries to defends his claim, when Nuke comes up to Annie and asked her
to dance right in front of Crash. Nuke then displays this characteristic
when Crash stands up saying that Annie is going to dance with him.
Nuke then retaliates by asking Crash if he wants to go outside and fight
about it. Nuke also experiences this feeling when he is being pressured
by Crash to throw the ball. Because of Crash, Nuke is feeling pressure in
front of all of his teammates and friends. Because of Nuke's attitude he
could not refuse to go after Crash with vengeance. Besides the men's
verbal actions there nonverbal communications are just as important.
During the entire conversation Nuke tried to show a higher status. He
was constantly either crossing his arms or standing with his head and
shoulders back. The was especially evident when they were outside of

the bar. Crash took on an entirely different approach to the situation.
When Crash came outside his kinesics were in a likely manner. Crash
came out and wanted to talk the situation over instead of fighting. Crash
had his arms open, tried to look Nuke in the eyes, and had a smile on his
face; yet they all went unnoticed. When Crash realized that he was not
going to get out of the confrontation, he decided that he would have Nuke
throw a baseball at him since he new Nuke could not do it. Another
nonverbal action that is only seen by the audience occurs when Nuke has
left after asking Crash to step outside. At this point Crash has a look on
his face of wonder and fright. How is he going to get out of this without
getting killed. The nonverbal communication between the two men start
the entire conflict, not only in this one sequence, but throughout the entire
movie. Another nonverbal communication that could be seen in
both characters was nervousness. When Nuke told Crash that to come
outside, nervousness could instantly be seen in his face. Crash was both
nervous and scared. He was wondering how is he going to survive this
situation without having to fight Nuke. Nuke started to become nervous
when Crash started to make fun of him and call him names. Since Nuke
was standing outside by all of his friends he had to hold up his reputation
as a bad guy. One small hand shake that took place after Crash
punched Nuke had a lot of meaning. First, Crash introduced himself and
changed the entire meaning of the confrontation. Nuke just believed that
he was some guy that wanted Annie, but in the end, he realized who
Crash was and what he stood for. After Crash introduced himself he tells
Nuke that this is his first lesson "Don't think, you'll only hurt the tea."
Nuke respects the way that he went about getting his point across. He
could of either been beat up very badly or he could of been killed by the
baseball. When Crash stands up and grabs Nuke's arm he is trying to
defend his asking of Annie to dance and instantly invades Nukes space.
Nuke's attitude towards this is not to back down, but to stay where he is

and to fight about it. When Crash grabs Nuke's arm he is also using
touch to get his message across. By grabbing the arm Crash instantly
places more emphases on his words. Not only were there
misunderstandings in this conversation, but if they had not happened the
argument never would have taken place. The first misunderstanding was
that Nuke did not know that Crash was his new teammate and catcher.
Another misunderstanding was that they both did not know that Annie
had already choose which man she was going to take under her arm for
the season. The misunderstandings that occurred in this confrontation,
tells us that one main problem is men and the way that they act towards
each other. Also, if humans would try to communicate instead of fighting
changes could be make.