The Body Double Behind Costner’s Almost Perfect Game

The final years of the 20th century were a memorable era for pitchers at Yankee Stadium. On those storied grounds, David Wells struck out all 27 Minnesota Twins in May 1998, followed by David Cone accomplishing the same feat the next year against the Montreal Expos. Meanwhile, Dave Eiland also played a unique role in a “perfect game” moment—though it wasn’t quite on the field.

You probably don’t recall that last one, because it wasn’t real—it was Hollywood magic. In the 1999 film For Love of the Game, Kevin Costner starred as Billy Chapel, an aging Detroit Tigers pitcher chasing one last glorious day on the mound. While Costner’s character delivered heartfelt lines and intense expressions on the mound where Wells and Cone made history, it was Eiland—then an active Major League pitcher with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays—who threw the actual fastballs seen flying across home plate.

“I basically just had to throw the ball over the plate—it was glorified catching,” Eiland said. “I kept myself in shape year-round anyway, so pitching seven, eight, or maybe a dozen throws a day wasn’t a big deal.” But as simple as it sounds, filming those scenes took far longer than he expected.

“You see Costner going through his pitching motion, then cut to the ball crossing the plate and the catcher catching it—that was me,” Eiland explained. “Movies aren’t like baseball; they can film things in pieces and do retakes. The hardest part was the long days—12 to 15 hours, starting at 7 a.m. and going until 9 or 10 at night.”

The production had already brought in several real Major Leaguers, including Mike Buddie, Ricky Ledée, Scott Pose, and Donzell McDonald, as well as umpires Jerry Crawford, Richie Garcia, and Rick Reed. They needed a right-handed pitcher who could pass for Costner in wide shots, and someone suggested Eiland, who’d spent the ’98 season with the Triple-A Durham Bulls—the same team Costner had famously featured in Bull Durham a decade earlier.

Eiland recalled, “It was Halloween in ’98. I was getting my daughters ready for trick-or-treating when an assistant director called, asking if I wanted to come up to New York. I said, ‘Sure, why not?’ The next day, I was on a plane, staying at the Waldorf-Astoria for three weeks as Costner’s pitching double.”

On set, Eiland had his hair trimmed to match Costner’s crewcut and wore makeup to mimic Costner’s skin tone. He suited up in a road-gray Tigers uniform with “CHAPEL 14” on the back—odd attire for someone still playing with another American League team, but that’s showbiz.

A key plot point had Chapel returning from a career-threatening injury, so Eiland also wore a fake scar on his pitching hand. A close-up scene showing Chapel spinning a baseball behind his back? That was Eiland’s hand. He recalled suggesting the move to the director: “I told them pitchers sometimes spin the ball behind their back when on the mound waiting for the catcher’s sign, so they added it to the film.” He chuckled at the baseball detail: “That only happens when a pitcher is out of the stretch, but since he threw a perfect game, nobody was on base. Most people wouldn’t notice.”

During downtime, Eiland often visited the Yankee Stadium weight room and mingled with the cast, including Costner, Kelly Preston, John C. Reilly, and J.K. Simmons. Despite being on set for weeks, Eiland didn’t attend the film’s 1999 premiere—he was still active with the Devil Rays then. When he finally saw the movie months later, he was surprised by how much screen time the Costner-Preston romance took.

“For me, it was mostly about the Yankee Stadium scenes,” Eiland said. “Watching the movie, I kept thinking, ‘Oh yeah, I remember that scene from the shoot.’”

Today, Eiland works as the head of baseball for the athlete advisory firm Grand Central Sports Management. He still receives occasional residual checks from the movie, usually for around $50 or $60.

“For me, it was a fun experience and a peek behind the curtain of movie-making,” Eiland said. “Unlike baseball, if you mess up a scene, you just do it again and again. Now I understand why filming takes so long.”