In fiction, a game of catch always shows the relationship between two characters. The most common type is a father-figure with their child.
To qualify as this trope, two or more characters play catch in a manner that immediately tells the audience everything they need to know about their relationship. At least one pair of the characters have a parental relationship. The relationship can be symbolic. It's efficient story-telling, serving to establish those characters in just a few seconds of screen time. In fiction, one game of catch can tell the audience "this guy's a good Dad" in about ten seconds.
If the parent playing catch is a mother-figure instead, it can reveal she has to play the roles of both father and mother because the father isn't in the picture or that Mom is a bit tomboyish. If the younger player is a girl, she's often depicted as a tomboy.
Often the younger figure demonstrates their maturity or precocious strength by throwing the ball hard enough to make their partner's hand sting. When done in a positive light, it shows that the young character is growing up and growing strong. When shown in a negative light, it shows conflict between the two that can be generational. When inverted, with the parent throwing hard enough to hurt the younger player, it demonstrates a lot of immaturity on the part of the parent.
In another variant, not making time to play catch with one's child is always synecdoche for being a neglectful or distant parent. A single shot of the disappointed child tells the audience everything they need to know. Likewise, offering to play catch is always a sign of one reaching out to the other. The other party's reaction to the offer shows their view of the relationship. It can be the parent reaching out to the child or the reverse.
Variants of this trope include fielding the ball instead of just playing catch, using a soccer ball, hockey puck, or similar sporting gear where it's more appropriate, and using objects normal people would never play catch with, such as characters with Super-Strength using boulders.
Examples:
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Advertising
- This commercial
has an obvious storyline. In less than five seconds, we see a dad teaching a kid to field baseballs. We immediately get the "Aww, good Dad," vibe. Then we see the batter is a cereal mascot and that clearly Good Dad feeds his kid the offered sugar bowl Adjacent to This Complete Breakfast.
- Volkswagen gets in on the act in this spot, played for laughs. The good Dad teaching his son to play catch is subverted in that the young boy can't throw because the Dad also can't throw, so he should buy a Volkswagen and pass on something worth having. Still, aside from his incredibly bad throw, he does seem like a caring, decent Dad.
Anime and Manga
- Attack on Titan: Back when Zeke was a Warrior candidate, he came to bond with a man named Tom Xaver, the previous holder of the Beast Titan, who often played catch with him. Zeke, having been mistreated and emotionally abused by his actual father Grisha Yeager, came to see Xaver as a surrogate father. Not only would these games of catch be reflected in Zeke's tactic of throwing boulders as the Beast Titan in combat, they became one of the few bright spots in his otherwise miserable life, which, much later during the apocalypse, helps Armin convince him to let go of his nihilistic view of life and that life is worth living for the simple moments.
Comic Books
- Superman has a catch with Superbaby in this old Golden Age panel using boulders instead of anything normal people could lift, demonstrating the kid's super powers and Superman's super-parenting. The framing is clearly meant to convey the idea "Gee, Superman is a good dad."◊
Comic Strips
- In Calvin and Hobbes Calvin's father takes him outside to play catch to give him practice for school baseball. It doesn't go well.
Film — Animation
- It's on Ian's "things to do with dad" list in Onward. He ends up doing it as part of his magic practice with Barley.
- Toy Story 2: After Zurg reveals he's Buzz's father as a parody of Luke, I Am Your Father, they play catch together to bond at the end of the movie.
Film — Live-Action
- Crazy, Stupid, Love hangs a lampshade on this trope as Cal and Robbie bond and work out Cal's issues playing catch. Realizing the inverted nature of the relationship with the young son explaining things to his father, Cal asks, "How old are you?"
- In Field of Dreams, after building the titular field, Ray Kinsella and his father John's ghost talk about heaven then play catch as most of the audience starts crying Manly Tears.
- Free Willy: Invoked. Glen offers Jesse a baseball and glove, and to play catch with him, in order to try to bond with Jesse. Jesse, however, doesn't respond well to it, since he is still trying to adapt to living in a foster home and has understandable anger and authority issues.
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: After Peter reunites with his father, Ego the Living Planet, and discovers his reality-warping powers as a half-Celestial, one of the first things they do is a father-son game of playing catch with an energy ball made of light.
- Kick-Ass subverts this trope to establish Big Daddy and Hit Girl, where the framing and dialog look like a daughter reluctantly playing catch with her supportive and attentive father, only for Big Daddy to shoot her in body armor to get her used to the impact. The audience immediately gets their relationship; Big Daddy is a loving father who recklessly endangers his child in a deconstruction of superhero kid sidekicks, and Hit Girl worships him.
- The Sandlot shows Scottie and his dad's attempts to teach Scottie to play. Scottie takes a baseball through his glove and through his hand to the face, injuring him. It's played for laughs; Scottie is so bad that hurting himself in the face from his Dad's soft toss is considered an improvement, but his dad still cares.
- War of the Worlds (2005), Ray Ferrier has a catch with his nearly adult son Robbie. Inverted in that Ray acts like an immature jerk by throwing it harder and harder to his son, causing Robbie to intentionally let a ball pass so Ray shatters his own window. Ray and Robbie start the film and remain in father-son conflict almost until the film's end.
Music
- "Cat's in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin uses this trope early as it establishes the theme of the song; the father is distant to his son, and later the son is distant to his father, ending with the eventual lament, "My boy was just like me."
My son turned ten just the other day
He said, "Thanks for the ball, Dad, come on let's play
Can you teach me to throw", I said "Not today,
I got a lot to do" he said, "That's O.K."
and he walked away but his smile never dimmed
And said, "I'm gonna be like him, yeah
You know I'm gonna be like him"
Literature
- Waste of Space: At the start of the book, Dash's father wakes him up so they can play catch on the lunar surface. Due to the moon's low gravity, they end up being positioned, as Dash puts it, two football fields apart to be able to catch the ball.
Live-Action TV
- Adam Ruins Everything: In the episode "Adam Ruins the Suburbs", after Adam tells Dan about how he can lobby for his neighborhood to be more economically viable and for little Donavan's, his son, school to be more racially inclusive, he cancels his plan to sell the house, and tells little Donovan that they can now play a game of catch.
- American Horror Story, Season 8, Episode 6: Michael Langdon the Antichrist has a catch with his temporary father-figure Ben Harmon. It's meant to demonstrate Michael's great strength when he hurts Ben. The camera clearly shows the ball is barely moving, but Ben acts like he just caught a Major League fastball, making it hilarious.
- The Arrested Development episode "Key Decisions" has Gob have himself put in the same prison where George Sr. is incarcerated to perform an escape-from-prison trick. After the plan goes awry, Gob talks with his father and laments that they never played catch while he was growing up. So, George Sr. takes him to the exercise yard and plays catch with him...until he's shanked by another prisoner.
- Discussed trope in the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend episode "I Can Work With You" with the Rat Pack-style number "Sports Analogies". Josh and Nathaniel sing about a bunch of sports metaphors, including "you'll pitch and I'll catch", before eventually admitting that they could only bond with their fathers through sports.
We couldn't talk to our dads
Unless we used... sports analogies!
Sports analogies
Men feel safe with these empty generalities - In Frasier, Marty briefly reminiscences about trying to do the approved father-son bonding things with his sons Frasier and Niles. His smile turns to a frown when he remembers the catch sessions had to be curtailed, because neither of his sons could actually catch. It encapsulates the strained relationship and cultural gulf between Marty, a blue-collar, working-class, unpretentious ex-cop and veteran and his upper class, well-educated, and prissy sons who are into things like wine and opera.
- It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Parodied in "PTS Dee". Dennis tries to launch a career as a male stripper with Charlie as his manager, but Dennis's insecurities and a healthy dose of Insane Troll Logic leads to them performing as "Daddy and The Boy," a father-and-son duo pretending to play a game of catch onstage to "Cat's In The Cradle." The female audience boos them offstage.
- Parodied by Jimmy Kimmel, who had a Father's Day challenge of giving your Dad a surprise game of catch on Father's Day. It amounted to hitting your father with random objects without warning.
- Saturday Night Live: In a season 44 sketch, Pete Davidson's Chad dies and is taken by an angel to the afterlife to find closure with his father Brad. The angel conjures up a baseball and two gloves, intending for them to bond over a game of catch. It backfires when it turns out Brad is just as oblivious and lazy as Chad.
- The Umbrella Academy: Played for dark laughs in "Wedding at the End of the World". Klaus tells Luther he "played catch with" their abusive father to Luther as proof their relationship has improved — really, he meant Reginald sent Klaus into traffic to kill him with a ball several times in order to improve his Resurrective Immortality.
- On Young Sheldon, George bonds with Missy while practicing her baseball pitching.
Theater
- Dear Evan Hansen: This is the focus of the song "To Break In a Glove". Evan finds an unused baseball glove that Larry had previously bought for his deceased son Connor, whom Evan has been pretending to be close to and with whom Larry had a strained relationship. Larry admits that he bought it as an attempt to bond ("thought [they] might play catch or something"). Larry has also been forming a pseudo-paternal relationship with Evan, which is shown when he gifts the glove to Evan and gives him advice on how to break it in. As the song goes on, it becomes increasingly clear that Larry is also singing about the difficulties of fatherhood and about Connor's suicide.
But you can't take any shortcuts
You gotta stick it out
And it's the hard way
But it's the right way
The right way... to break in a glove.
Web Original
- Limited Life SMP: Parodied on Day 5, where Etho takes his estranged "sons" Bdubs and Scar outside to play catch after a family meal... with TNT minecarts. The Life series being the Life series, it goes about as well as you'd expect.
- New Life SMP: Martyn's 5th episode has an animated stick-puppet flashback which depicts his real-life daughter Amelia playing catch with him, using what looks suspiciously like Apollo's dodgeball. It's used as a generic stand-in for a parent-child interaction to set up the ensuing recounting of events.
Western Animation
- Played for Laughs on Animaniacs, in a repeating gag called "Good Idea, Bad Idea". The Bad Idea is playing catch using grandpa as the ball.
Good idea: Playing catch with your grandfather.
Bad idea: Playing catch with your grandfather. - Played with and exaggerated in Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law during the The Banon Custody Case. Race Bannon sues for custody of the boys from Dr. Quest for Quest having been a terrible father. Not only has Dr. Quest never played baseball with the kids, he doesn't know if they know how to play baseball, and he doesn't know the sport is not called "basesball".
- Invincible: Part of Mark's super-power training with his dad Omni-Man includes playing catch while flying, and facing away from each other. It turns out they're throwing the ball around the world.
- King of the Hill episode "How To Fire a Rifle Without Really Trying" is entirely this trope. Three generations of the Hill men play out their relationships through shooting. Cotton, the grandfather, is verbally abusive toward his son Hank. Hank, the father, tries reaching out to his son Bobby. Bobby is thrilled to get some attention from his dad.note
- First, we see Bobby failing at game booths at a fair until he starts doing very well shooting ducks with a BB gun, which makes Hank proud of him. This means a lot to Bobby; Hank was always a pretty macho guy, and Bobby as an awkward young man never really got on with his father until that moment.
- Hank and Bobby bond while shooting, but then we flashback to Cotton, Hank's father, being an absolute jerk while teaching Hank to shoot. Cotton's relationship with Hank is perfectly encapsulated in that moment; Cotton is almost always verbally abusive to his son. Hank suddenly can't shoot straight due to the stress.
- Bobby and Hank are meant to go to a father-son funshoot tournament. Hank is troubled because he thinks he will damage his relationship with Bobby by letting him down in the tournament.
- After working out his inadequacies, they go to the tournament. Hank indeed loses the contest by missing a critical shot at the end. Hank thinks he will hurt his improved bond with Bobby, but is swiftly proven wrong by Bobby's reaction.
Bobby: We did it, Dad! Second place in a real father-son tournament! Can I put it on my wall? We were so good out there. We should always be shooting. This is the best day ever. You're the best dad ever. I'm the best son ever.
- Peggy, Hank's wife and Bobby's mother, gets in on the act as she completely supports Bobby's shooting and Hank bonding with him through it.
- Discussed a few times in The Owl House, with it being one of the primary things King wants to do if they ever get to meet their Disappeared Dad. He never gets the chance due to his father turning out to have died long before the story began, though a photo in the Distant Finale does show him playing baseball with his adoptive mother Eda.
- The Ren & Stimpy Show: Parodied in "I Was a Teenage Stimpy", when Ren watches an old home movie of himself playing football with a baby Stimpy.
- Robot Chicken: In the Christmas special where it's revealed that the Nerd's biological father is Santa actually, the Krampus, since he was conceived during a threesome, he ultimately decides to consider his stepfather to be his real father. The camera pans out to show his biological father at the window holding a baseball and looking dejected, while a parody of "Cats in the Cradle" plays with lyrics about needing to return the ball.
- Shows up several times in The Simpsons, usually to symbolize the relationships of the generations of Simpson men with each other:
- In "Bart the Genius", Bart is going to confess to Homer that he is only in a gifted school because he switched tests with another student, but when Homer invites Bart (for the first time) to play catch in the backyard, Bart decides not to confess.
- In "One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish", Homer thinks he's dying after eating poisonous cuts of a blowfish so he makes a list of things he wants to do on his last day. One of the items is reconcile with his father; when he does so, Abe asks to play catch with him (as well as do other things like go fishing). Homer crosses off several other activities off of his wishlist in favor of catch with his dad.
- In "Lisa's Sax", Bart rejects Homer's offer to play catch. Homer says that there's something wrong when a boy doesn't want to play catch with his father; Abe (wearing an old-fashioned baseball uniform) then offers to play catch with Homer, but Homer tells him to go away.
- In "Life in the Fast Lane", Bart tries to cheer up a depressed Homer by inviting him to play catch. Bart beans Homer with the ball, and he wordlessly plops to the ground without flinching.
Bart: Dad, you didn't even say "Ouch".
Homer: Oh, sorry. Ouch. - In "Like Father, Like Clown", Krusty shows an Itchy & Scratchy cartoon in which Scratchy and his son have a game of catch before Itchy and his son kill them and play catch themselves, using Scratchy's head as the ball. This episode drives Krusty, who hasn't spoken to his own father in years, to near-tears.
- In "The Dad-Feelings Limited", this happens between Comic Book Guy and his emotionally-distant father to demonstrate how they're finally developing a loving relationship. This being Comic Book Guy and his dad, the ball is a collectible that his father bought him when he was young and never gave to him, which is still in its sharp-cornered plastic packaging, causing them to yell out in pain with every catch.
- SpongeBob SquarePants:
- In "A Day Without Tears", SpongeBob watches a television program. A father is going to work, ignoring his son's request to play catch. When he sees how sad his son is, he decides to stay back and starts playing with him. SpongeBob almost cries at this and throws the TV out the window so he won't.
- In "FarmerBob", SpongeBob and Patrick's "barn raising" is portrayed by having a baby barn and raising it to an adult. While the barn is a child, they play catch with it, only to throw the ball into the window of an old man house, who shakes its first angrily.
