* AwardSnub: Received only an Original Screenplay nomination from the UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s, while the screenplay did get wins from various critic groups around the country. At least Creator/SusanSarandon received an acting nomination from the UsefulNotes/{{Golden Globe}}s. In hindsight, this movie is recognized as one of Creator/KevinCostner's best performances, and the movie itself the best sports film ever.
* FridgeBrilliance: If Crash is so knowledgeable about the game, why did he intentionally go for the one word [[spoiler:"cocksucker"]] you're ''never'' supposed to say to an umpire? Because the team was having a bad night, especially Nuke throwing poorly with his father in the stands, so if he got thrown out by the ump the bad night would be blamed on him. A good catcher takes one for his pitcher.
** When Crash teaches Nuke the key [[ClicheStorm sports cliches]] he'll need to survive interviews, each cliche is a subtle prod that baseball is a team sport and that Nuke needs to clamp down on his raging ego.
* HilariousInHindsight:
** When Crash gives his speech to Annie about what he believes in, among the things he says is, "I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone." Three years later, Creator/KevinCostner went on to star in ''Film/{{JFK}}'' as Jim Garrison, the man who tried to prove Oswald didn't act alone. After he was nominated for an Oscar for the role, his monologue from ''Bull Durham'' was played at the ceremony as a joke.
** [[RomanceOnTheSet In real life, Annie chose Nuke.]]
** The opening shots of still photos of various baseball scenes with slow zooms and pans looks almost exactly like a Creator/KenBurns documentary, [[TropeMaker two years before]] his [[Series/TheCivilWar documentary about the Civil War]] established the look and ''six'' years before he applied that look to baseball.
* RetroactiveRecognition: Music/PaulaAbdul choreographed the scene where Nuke dances with several women at the bar.
* SpiritualSuccessor: Loose Example to ''Film/SlapShot''. While the mood of the two movies are different, both are pretty accurate depictions of minor league sports life, and star an aging veteran who recognizes that their chance for a job in the big leagues has passed, but holds onto the life anyway. Both are also looking to coaching as their ticket instead.
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece:
** Crash’s famous “The difference between hitting .250 and .300” monologue implies his batting average kept him out of the majors. Today batting average is far less valued than it was at the time (at least partly due to the rise of [[Film/{{Moneyball}} sabermetrics]], and more focus on things like how often a player just plain gets on base) and his ability as a home run/power hitter would’ve been much higher valued.
** One of the teams featured in the movie was the Kinston Indians. After the 2011 season, that team relocated from Kinston, in the eastern North Carolina coastal plain, to the Raleigh–Durham suburb of Zebulon, becoming the Carolina Mudcats. Kinston would eventually get another minor-league team in 2017, but it's known as the Down East Wood Ducks.
** The Bulls themselves, while still a minor-league team, have advanced from Class-A at the time of the movie--mentioned by Crash when he's complaining about his transfer--to Triple-A, meaning they now play nationally rather than in the Carolina League. Ironically, their brand recognition due to ''Bull Durham'' was one of the reasons for their promotion.
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