Bang the Drum Slowly

“Nothing is more important than friendship. Not fame, not money, not death.”

In the off-season, Bruce Pearson (Robert De Niro), the New York team's easygoing backup catcher, learns he is terminally ill, and the only person he tells is Henry Wiggen (Michael Moriarty), the club's star pitcher. Henry decides he will be the one to stay beside him through one last season, with John D. Hancock keeping the clubhouse and the road trips ordinary. If the team finds out, Bruce could lose the one place where he still belongs.