Baseball Movies on TV

[Benjamin Grimm]

The Winning Team, starring Ronald Reagan as Grover Cleveland Alexander, and co-starring Doris Day, will be on Turner Classic Movies tomorrow morning at 8 a.m.

[metirish]

Does TCM ruin their movies with loads of commercials?

[Benjamin Grimm]

Uncut and uninterrupted.

It's the best channel on television.

[Edgy MD]

Love that movie. Can't even say why.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Uncut and uninterrupted. It's the best channel on television.

Ditto, here.

[Frayed Knot]

Edgy DC wrote: Love that movie. Can't even say why.

Never seen it. Not sure if I'm going give it a shot this go-around or not.

[Edgy MD]

At the start of what appears to be Alexander the Great's second season, he's pitching in spring training facing a talented but green and luckless rookie named Hornsby. The catcher calls time and trots out to the mound.

"This kid's having a really tough time, Alex."

"Well, then let's pitch him right down the middle."

"OK."

He goes back to the plate and tells the batter, "Coming right down the middle, kid."

Rajah is incredulous, and still has his jaw kind of open as the first one grooves down the pike.

"Don't just stand there, kid. I don't know how many more of those he's gonna give ya."

Hornsby strokes a pitch into the outfield for a hard-hit single. He stares lovingly at the mound, turns to the firstbaseman and says, "Gee, what a great guy!"

It was as if Pride of the Yankees and The Babe Ruth Story were such winners, they needed to produced mythologized biopics of every baseball great, and decided to start with one of the guys who needed the most mythologizing. In this telling, he wasn't a drunk at all, but suffered from an (apparently wholly fabricated) baseball to the skull he took in the minors. It would thereafter give him occasional spells that would make people think he was drunk. He was just misunderstood!

And here's the gold: He learned to bring the spells under control, when he felt one coming on, by finding his wife in the box seats and staring deeply into her eyes until the crisis passed. See, they were a winning team that way. The whole 1926 World Series? That was won by Mrs. Alexander.

Seriously, I loved it, and I can't say why. It's like a writer's challenge. Take a baseball figure and make a saint out of him by re-writing the public narrative. Mark McGwire? He was taking roids to fight a one-man war against Al Quaeda in the offseason. LaMarr Hoyt? He was in Mexico running an orphanage. He was smuggling to get medicine to children. To CHILDREN, YOU HATERS!

[Vic Sage]

wasn't there a thread on Baseball movies?
i remember doing research; probably lost in the Great Cataclysm.

[Vic Sage]

for the record, here's my updated list:

[u:apk3qcg7]Top �Baker�s Dozen� baseball movies (theatrical features):[/u:apk3qcg7]
1. Bull Durham
2. Field of dreams
3. The Natural
4. The Bad News Bears
5. Moneyball
6. Bang the Drum Slowly
7. The Rookie
8. The Sandlot
9. Major league
10. Eight Men Out
11. Fever Pitch
12. Pride of the Yankees
13. Bingo Long & the Traveling All-Stars

[Guest sharpie]

Also loved "The Winning Team" as a kid.

Reagan later talked about the movie saying that he wished it could have dealt with GCA's drinking problems.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Coming up in the next week on Turner Classic Movies:

Tuesday, October 18, 9:30 a.m., William Bendix in The Babe Ruth Story.

Sunday, October 23, 12 p.m., Angels in the Outfield, (1951) with Paul Douglas and Janet Leigh.

[Frayed Knot]

Coming up in the next week on Turner Classic Movies: Tuesday, October 18, 9:30 a.m., William Bendix in The Babe Ruth Story.

Never seen it.
And, judging by what I've heard, don't think I want to either.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Last Play at Shea will be on Showtime this month.

[G-Fafif]

Caught the last 10 or so minutes of The Babe, with John Goodman, last night.

Wow, that was bad.

[Edgy MD]

Got some time? Read Rob Neyer liveblogging For the Love of the Game.

Sad part is his liveblog is almost as long as the movie and he gets in about half of what's wrong with it.

[Theoldmole]

Rhubarb


The Pride of St. Louis

[Fman99]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Uncut and uninterrupted.

Some women like it uncut. I personally think it looks weird that way. It's got no face.

Wait, what are we talking about?