Day of the Catch
is an award-winning, whimsical silent film created by writer-director-composer Jared Engel. It reimagines an unlikely but true episode from the Brooklyn Robins’ 1915 spring training, when an attempt to catch a baseball dropped from an airplane took a comical turn after the baseball was covertly replaced with a grapefruit. This marks the first ever screen adaptation of the story, a legend widely believed to be responsible for the naming of Florida’s Grapefruit League. The film stars members of Brooklyn's Formerly Unemployed Musicians’ Baseball League (FUMBL) and premiered in March 2025. Created by Engel with the intention that his musical score be performed live to the film at every screening, it has been presented in this live-scored format over two dozen times since its premiere, and has even been screened on the scorebaord before a MLB spring-training game.
Upcoming Screenings:
October 16th, 2026 - Penistone Film Festival - Penistone, UK
