Aaaah…sweet October when the aroma of pig skin and horsehide collides in the brisk Autumn air.

As the last days of baseball fade into the golden sunset, you’ll get to catch a glimpse of the athletic equipment of Vanessa Del Rio in a film that dates back to 1979 when the late Bobby Hollander directed a picture called the New York Babe. And Hollander’s movie pre-dates A League of Their Own, almost down to the Madonna attitude for storyline. The Babes, a pro softball team, are managed by Gloria Leonard. And they have to win the big one against their cross town rivals The New York Dolls [which wound up being a rock n roll group] or it’s all over. The game sequence offers a wonderful opportunity for padding but also offers note that porn in the golden age went to great lengths in its production values, as the victory celebration in a disco will bear witness to.

The pressure’s on, so to speak, and the witty script, populated with loads of rough hewn New York-types, delivers every imaginable baseball pun on the face of this earth about balls, along with a wonderfully delivered Howard Cosell character on top of that. [You might wonder how someone didn’t get sued.]

Del Rio scores runs in the Latin lust department as the team’s second baseman, Jackie, who seduces magazine guy John Leslie into giving the team “a big spread.” Vanessa performs a zesty strip before her vagina signals a fair catch in the doggie position. And teammate Serena is also offered a few beguiling moments that includes a victory striptease as well as a threeway that includes David Morris and Christie Ford batting second and third behind her. Meanwhile, Marlene Willoughby, the team’s agenda pursuing third baseman, convinces an ad guy in a limo that she’s perfectly cast for a douche commercial by giving him a blowjob with his bags loaded.

Also partying it up is Leonard who’s featured in one of those typically weird Jamie Gillis scenes which features Gillis, the team owner, being abused with a whip wielded by Leonard and Helen Madigan.

And while he’s not billed in the credits, Joey Silvera manages a time at bat in the film’s sexual finale with Del Rio and Ford. From Arrow Productions, www.deepthroat.com. Check it out while the ball’s in play.