A perfect bunt down the third baseline and the bases are loaded.
You know, shakespeare couldn't have written a more exciting ending, my friends.
Last inning of the last game of the world series, boston trailing four to three.
The sox need two runs to win their first world championship since 1918.
Nobody out and at bat, the splendid splinter ted williams.
The crowd at fenway is delirious. And what a year the splinter's had.
American league most valuable player.
And now... now he digs into the plate, knocks the dirt of his cleats.
He's a study in poise and power.
This year, he hit 342 with thirty-eight home runs and a hundred and twenty three rbi's.
The runners take their leads and williams waits, back ready.
Come on, teddy.
The pitcher leans in, looks for a sign from the catcher.
He's got his sign. And williams scans the field like a soldier going into battle.
The hopes and dreams of an entire city rest on his slender shoulders.
There's the windup. He throws...
... and williams smashes a line drive towards left centre. The runners go.
The crowd is going absolutely crazy.
Oh, my, jonesborough makes an impossible catch. One out.
He scrambles to his feet and doubles the runner on second. Two outs.
And now he's chasing the runner scrambling to get back to first...
... he dives, he tags him. Three outs, an unassisted triple play. Unbelievable.
The game is over. The fans are stunned. The series is finished.
The red sox's dreams are crushed by what might be the play of the century.
Jonesborough's being mobbed by his team's mates.
He and his golden glove have done it again.
You know, all season long, people have said that glove had to be magic...
... and, well, maybe it is. I mean, how else can you explain that catch?
It was nothing short of a miracle.
In the stands, the red sox faithful still can't believe their eyes.
My glove. Someone's stolen my glove... someone grabbed my glove.
This is a black day for beantown.
I don't care who took it, i just want it back.
I'll pay five thousand dollars, no questions asked. This glove means everything to me.
Jimmy, how long have you had the glove, jimmy?
Aaaghhh...
reiner.
- You followed me. - I always like the way you look from behind.
- You never look good from any angle. - That's not what you said in kathmandu.
I was delirious.
Oh, you've really let yourself go, reiner.
Well, syd, looks like you are the catch of the day.
Not around here. They're vegetarians.
I know you can't wait, but let's get the dagger first.
Okay, enough with the evil eye, guys. How about helping me with my hand?
Yeah, what? Oh, president morris? No, i can talk.
You want me to find a baseball glove?
- That's our hunt? - Frank newhouse. That's him.
- What the... - what she doing?
- Can i have an autograph, too? - Sure. Do you have a piece of paper?
I can probably, handle that.
I can't believe it!
All right, i can see how baseball might have something over cricket.
- Look, i need your help. - Give me one reason.
Well, because you find lost relics and because i just donated...
a huge chunk of change to the university foundation.
So president morris has told me. Seven figures.
If i make the all-star team, six figures if i don't.
Now, jonesborough's glove was stolen over fifty years ago. It's never been found.
- It's a... - spalding a 200.
Jimmy bought it at a garage sale for a buck.
Anyway, before the glove, he was nothing.
The seasons that he had it, he won the golden glove five years in a row.
After it was stolen, his career crashed and burned.
Like your career is starting to.
I'm a little off.
Frank, you've got the worst fielding average in the majors and you hit 247 last year.
Just find the glove, okay?
- That white zombie video? You rocked. - Claudia.
- It's my first acting gig. - Whose idea was the tights?
The director's. I was a little bit embarrassed, but ah...
- about what? - Goodbye, claudia.
Where would we be without our fans, huh?
Look, if i don't perform...
you don't make seven million dollars.
Do you know what jimmy jonesborough made his best year? Do you?
- Fifteen grand. You know what else? - Why don't you tell me?
He would have played for free. You don't have a clue what baseball is really about.
Jimmy did, that's the only reason why i'm going to look for his glove.
We need to do some research. We'll call you when we're through.
Right.
Unbelievable.
Does he really believe just wearing this glove is going to improve his skills?
Well, legend says it will. Jimmy jonesborough was...
...one of the greatest players in baseball history, until he lost that glove.
Friday is the anniversary of the last game that jimmy played with it.
Around this time of year, rumours fly as to its whereabouts.
Must look like the holy grail to a guy whose career is going down the tubes.
- So... what's our first move? - We find jimmy.
Nigel.
This is the last address i could find for him.
His house is probably down here somewhere.
- Keep it running. - Okay, lady.
You guys are pros, huh?
This is where jimmy jonesborough lives?
Very classy. Well... see if he's home.
No, don't!
Don't shoot, mr jonesborough, we're friends. Fans, huge fans.
July fourth, 1945, second game of a sunday double-header...
against the dodgers, you had six hits, eight rbi's and caught fifteen fly balls.
I caught seventeen, i had nine rbi's. But how'd you know that?
Paid two hundred bucks for your card.
There's me and pee-wee reese, the year he came up.
The kid couldn't turn a double to save his life.
Me and phil risuto spent the winter in havana working with him.
What can you tell us about the glove?
All-star game, 1950, first time on tv. They figured it wouldn't catch on.
Photographer snapped that just after my glove was pinched.
Yeah, that's where the memories end.
- Mind if i borrow this? - No, why not? Tired of looking at it anyway.
What was it like... wearing it? I mean, did it... feel special?
Like an electric current running up your arm.
- Current? I have got to know how it works. - Yeah.
- It's important to you, isn't it? - Real important.
I just ran your picture through a digital scanner...
... popped it onto a high res screen and voila.
Can you get tighter on jonesborough?
Oh, what it is with that haircut? It's, like, so 1940's or something.
There, to his right. Go tighter on that kid.
He's got the glove.
And he's wearing a shirt from pilgrims.
And the significance of that would be...
pilgrims is a bar across from fenway park. It was named after the original boston team.
For a red sox fan, it's like mecca to a muslim.
Well, it looks like a mecca could do with a visit from the health department.
- It's that kid. - Huh.
Excuse me, the picture of ted williams signing the ball...
i know it's a long shot, but the kid getting the autograph...
tommy weston, greatest red sox fan who ever lived. Everyone in boston knew him.
Knew?
Killed over at the bar two years ago, last game of the season.
First time in fifty-seven years he didn't help my dad and me close the place up.
Sounds like a loyal customer.
Employee. When dad took him off the streets, he started working the bar for us...
...whenever there wasn't a game, of course.
Ended up selling peanuts at fenway. Anything for his red sox.
I'm surprised he didn't sleep here.
Sometimes he did. But usually, he stayed in the back room.
Haven't touched the place since tommy died.
Probably should have turned it into a museum. Tommy was a big fan.
Stremsky's batting helmet.
One of wade boggs' bats.
Roger clemens' hat. How'd he get all this stuff?
Why is a better question. Seems tommy was a bit of a pack rat.
With a minor in egyptology. We read this in my freshman year.
Interesting. Tommy hung this stained-glass glove...
...so it would shine on a calendar of september, 1946.
I wonder why?
Well, it seems like a wild goose chase to me.
We could spend a year in here and barely scratch the surface.
Wooooooo...
nigel, you all right?
If you consider lying in a boston sewer all right, then yes.
Oh, good.
Well, it isn't a sewer, is it?
My guess is it's a remnant of the revolutionary war tunnels...
...used to transport supplies during winter.
What was tommy doing down here?
It's certainly big enough for someone to crawl through.
When the glove had its mojo going, it glowed...
... just like there was a fire burning inside it.
Amazing.
But to get the magic flowing, you had to stand in a certain way, tai chi position.
Tai chi?
Yeah, it was taught to me by an old master. I'd do it before every game.
Well show me. Come on. I need this, man.
Please.
Now, stand up.
Some kind of locker room.
Not some kind. The red sox locker room. We're inside fenway park. This is amazing.
Apparently, you and i have quite conflicting definitions of the word amazing.
Bit more bend in the knees, now. Bit more bend... that's it. That's it, now.
Now hold that position. Now, very slowly, start waving your arms up and down...
...up and down, up and down, that's it. Now... now build up the speed.
Now, build up the speed, faster. Get the speed, that's it.
- Now cluck like a chicken. - I am out here, old man.
You're not giving up that easy, are you?
I thought you wanted to hear about the glove.
You know, i don't like being made a fool of, alright?
No, of course, you don't. I was just carried away.
People skills get a little rusty living alone for so long.
The truth about the glove, frank... it's powerful.
But i guess you can handle it.
September fourteenth, jimmy jonesborough steals the series in the ninth.
- Curse of the bambino strikes again. - Curse of the bambino?
Babe ruth's nickname. From 1903 to 1918, the red sox won the series 5 times.
They traded ruth to the yankees and haven't won it since.
That's eighty-one years.
Tommy thought jimmy jonesborough's glove might help them?
He buried it under fenway park...
...so the mystical vibrations would seep up through the field.
It's possible tommy was a few innings short of a complete game, isn't it? What's that?
I'm not sure. Looks like a code of some kind.
Can you make any sense of it?
The first one's jj 914414. september 14, four-forteen p.m. Is the time and date...
...of jimmy jonesborough's triple play that killed the sox.
Aarh, tomorrow's the fourteenth.
What about the rest of them?
I'm not sure. But i think we should try and figure out before 4:14 tomorrow afternoon.
I say we go back to the hotel so i can make some sense of this.
Okay.
Keys for room 1210 and 1212, please. Bailey and fox.
Which of you requested the sleep mask and earplugs?
Oh, i'm sure that's a good look.
Good god, is that you, nigel?
Tony. Antony cadwalader, what are you doing here?
I'm in town on business. What about you, professor?
Conjuring up a new lesson plan for your students?
- Um... - excuse me, professor?
I'm sorry, i have to go and i...
- dinner tonight. We'll catch up. - I couldn't.
- Eight o'clock, the dining room. Be there. - I'm still waiting, professor.
It's not much of a lie. It's more of an embellishment, actually.
How do you figure?
Well, i mean, i'm sure i'll be a professor... eventually.
Sydney, he bought amazon.com at seven. He sits first row at oasis concerts...
...with tony blair. The two fat ladies catered his birthday party. When i left england...
...i couldn't bear telling him i was just a teaching assistant.
All right, at least there's no harm done.
There... there... there is one more small thing about the teaching assistant.
- You didn't. - It was foolish, stupid, childish, immature.
Keep going. I'll let you know when you're through.
If tony finds out i'll was lying, i'll never hear the end of it. Please... just for tonight?
You didn't.
I bloody well did. How about a cigar, nige? Have your girl fetch us something.
Is there a problem?
Sydney... be a sport and fetch us a davidoff.
And two more cognacs.
She's a good girl. First rate. I don't know where i'd be without her.
Well, if the evening's amusements have concluded...
...i think i'll call a wheelchair and see the good professor to his room.
Sydney. It is sydney, right?
Just because nigel has wound down doesn't mean we have to.
Oh, hand me that ashtray, would you?
Oh, ah, bad flicking reflex, so sorry.
Give me some water. - Right.
- Oh. - Come on, let's go.
Nigel, if you're going to get smashed...
the least you can do is remember where you put your hotel key.
I don't even like cigars. They make me nauseous.
You owe me big.
Oh, god.
Nigel?
Oh, nigel.
And how are we feeling today?
Aarh awful. I mean... ah, terrible... last night i... i don't remember any thing past the salad.
Nothing past the salad?
It's no excuse, i know. I mean, i respect you as a person and as a woman.
But what i mean to say by that is, well, i...
nigel, someone broke in last night. We had a difference of opinions in the living room.
- I thought i did that. - You did have quite the night.
Yes, well, what did they want?
Mcgwire's seventieth homerun ball went for nearly $3 million.
Imagine what smiling at jimmy jonesborough's lost glove might be worth.
- But we don't have the glove. - We will.
You broke the code? How did you do it?
It was like stealing a bone from a blind dog. Not that i'd ever do that. I did once...
in burundi. I was starving.
Tommy was a red sox fanatic. That was the key.
His codes are all about red sox players and their stats.
Now, the first entry after jimmy jonesborough is tw-rbl-42.
Tw is ted williams, rbi's runs batted in, 42 is 1942.
You know how many rbi's the splinter had in 1942?
You're joking, of course.
One hundred thirty-seven.
Now, it looks like tommy's put numbers on all the tunnel walls like signposts.
I say we find one hundred thirty-seven and head down that tunnel.
I think you're onto something.
Let's hope so. Nigel, on the wall.
Now it's a quarter after one...
only three hours left until the anniversary of the infamous red sox game.
What exactly do you expect to happen?
I'm not sure, but tommy was obviously big on numbers and codes.
I say we try to make as much progress as we can in the next three hours.
Okay, the next entry is rc-era-86. Roger clemens' era in '86.
Start looking for two-four-eight.
- I heard something. - I didn't hear anything.
I definitely think i heard something.
- It probably just rats. - They must be very large rats.
The next number we are looking for is thirty-six...
...number of homeruns tony conigliaro hit in 1970.
- I'm hearing rats again. - Oh, nigel, give it a rest.
Ja.
Ja?
You okay?
I'm getting tired of this, reiner. Real tired. Reiner?
Reiner, listen to me. That diary is useless. You'll never find your way back out of here.
You'll rot down here, reiner.
Then again, so will we.
I warned you.
What the hell is this book? How much is it worth?
About two-ninety-nine at save-on, less fifteen cents if you get a club card.
It leads to something else, ja?
Nein.
You're hiding something.
Sydney, i don't know what the bloody hell is going on down here...
but if we don't find that baseball glove soon...
you're looking for a baseball glove?
Yes, we are, reiner. If it strikes you as so odd, what are you doing down here?
Well, i had planned to trade what ever you were after for my dagger.
I don't have your dagger, reiner, you've got mine.
The two are a pair... worth a fortune together. The diary for the dagger?
I don't think you're in much of a position to bargain here. See, you need me.
I need you? Hah. I need you like another dose of yellow fever.
Yellow, perfect colour for a coward.
That's not what you called me in katmandu.
- Would you forget about katmandu? - What happened in katmandu?
Nothing happened in katmandu.
You can't find your way back out of here without me to translate that diary.
And you can't translate a damn thing if i've got the diary.
She's got a point. So does he. I'm sure we can reach a fair trade.
We're all reasonable people.
You know what? You're right, nigel, we should work together... for old time's sake.
That's my girl.
I'm not your girl.
- Drop the gun. - That's an excellent idea.
I don't know what it is that fascinates people about guns. They're so crude.
- Dangerous, too. - Sydney!
Anyone can shoot a gun, even an idiot. Ooh, hair trigger. Or is it itchy finger?
I always get those two confused.
For god's sake, sydney, you're going to kill someone.
See, that's the problem with guns, they kill people.
- Then just put it down. - I think i want an apology first.
Apology for what?
For sticking me with that dinner bill in katmandu...
french champagne, russian caviar, indonesian lobster?
Aahh...
sorry!
You know how much that stuff costs? It's out of bullets anyway.
Come on, we've got work to do.
According to the diary, this is where tommy put the glove.
Fine, but where?
Nigel, remember that book in tommy's room, protecting the kings tomb?
Fantastic. We are not going to find anything standing around here.
Reiner!
We're not going to find anything with our heads missing, either.
Right. Thank you.
You found something?
I'm not sure. But there's a chapter in the tomb book that mentions...
refraction of light through a prism.
Maybe.
Wow, it fits.
That's great. I suppose the sun is going to shine through the glass...
and show us where the glove is hidden now.
Well, it's a quarter to four. We'll find out in half an hour.
Sydney.
Homerun, sydney.
Ladies first.
Get that thing off me.
You knew what this was in the book. Didn't you?
I must've been out of the week they assigned that chapter.
Here you go.
I don't want to play catch.
Oh, everyone wants to play catch, even professional baseball players.
I'll even throw left-handed.
I played catch with my dad every day of my life.
He loved the game. He wanted me to love it as much as he did.
What does this have to do with the glove?
Well, the thing of it was he had all this passion, but he had no talent. Now, me...
i could have been better than i was.
I knew that but i just didn't have what it took where it counted.
And after my dad died, i decided to retire.
Then i saw the glove in a garage sale and it was my dad's. I started playing with it.
I don't know what it was, but when i wore that glove...
i felt the love that he felt for the game.
Now, whether that was me wanting to give him something back...
or him giving me something through the glove, i don't know.
After the glove was stolen, i played for a little while longer, but it wasn't the same.
The magic was gone, it just wasn't there any more. Wasn't here anymore.
Damn, you throw hard, boy.
I guess this is where we say auf wiedersehen.
Not... you got the glove. All i want is my dagger.
But it's not your dagger. It belongs to the villagers.
We'll sell the pair and split the money.
These are priceless artefacts and you want to sell them?
Well, if i sell them, then they are not priceless, are they?
You still think all that money's going to make you happy?
- I'll take my chances. - And all take that glove.
- Tony? - Thank you, professor.
So sorry about all this, nigel, but i've got a nasty cash flow problem...
...dodgy investments, junk bonds, tax shelters, loan sharks.
Well when you mentioned of his glove at dinner, i thought well, hello...
opportunity knocking.
Wouldn't have had to go through with all of this nonsense either...
if your girl he didn't have such a good left roundhouse.
- That was you in the hotel? - But all the money you've made...
lost a bundle playing baccarat with saudis. Ruthless lot.
Money means absolutely nothing to them.
- But your deals? - Cocktail chatter, nige, you know.
So you're a liar and a fake.
It's what one has to do these days, professor, to keep up appearances.
I'm not a professor. I'm a teaching assistant. Her teaching assistant.
Well, there you are, nige, birds of a feather.
Give my love to your mum when you speak to her.
- You told him about the glove. - I don't remember anything...
- past the salad. - Idiot.
The arm. We're tied to the pitching arm of the machine.
If we get it to rotate forward, it would slacken the ropes.
I still want my dagger.
Idiot.
He must have caught a cab.
In boston? Are you kidding? He's on foot. I'll check this way, you go that direction.
Right.
Taxi.
Get off the field!
I'd say he's out by a mile.
You found it?
Yes. But i can't do this. This belongs to jimmy. Keep your money. The deal's off.
Now, hold on. Frank needs this glove a lot more than i do. He hired you to find it. It's his.
Doesn't feel right.
You know, if it doesn't feel just right, it's not worth a damn.
What are you ah... what are you going to do with it?
I don't know. Play a little catch from time to time. What are you doing tomorrow?
Um...
we need to talk about what went on that night in the hotel...
between the two of us.
Yeah, it was the cognac, it was the cigars, it was... well, it was madness, wasn't it?
I... that's not who i am.
I pride myself on being able to control my instinctual urges, as all civilised people must.
Otherwise the world would be in absolute chaos, wouldn't it?
People rutting like animals. Imagine what that might be like.
- Exactly. I... i... i'm so glad you understand. - Completely.
So we could just forget about the whole thing?
Lt'll be our little secret, never mentioned again.
- Thank you so much, sydney. - No, nigel, thank you.