Baseball Movies

[Vic Sage]

In celebration of opening day, and with the new Jackie Robinson movie opening next week, i thought it was time for our periodic review of top baseball movies.

I'm including only theatrically released feature films (no tv/cable/video, no shorts, no docs), so here's my top �Baker�s Dozen�:

1. Bull Durham
2. Field of dreams
3. The Natural
4. The Bad News Bears (1976)
5. Moneyball
6. Bang the Drum Slowly
7. The Rookie
8. The Sandlot
9. Major league
10. Eight Men Out
11. Fever Pitch
12. A League of their Own
13. Pride of the Yankees

[Edgy MD]

Fever Pitch seemed pretty disposable.

Top Portrayals of Babe Ruth:

1. Babe Ruth: The Pride of the Yankees
   
2. Joe Don Baker: The Natural (billed as "The Whammer")
   
3. Wiliam Bendix: The Babe Ruth Story
   
4. John Goodman: The Babe
   
5. Art LaFleur: The Sandlot

[TransMonk]

LITTLE BIG LEAGUE (1994) features Dave Magadan, Carlos Baerga and Sandy Alomar Jr., but I would not consider it a top 13 baseball movie.

[Vic Sage]

it is a fun movie, though, and reminiscent of a old Dan Dailey baseball movie, THE KID FROM LEFT FIELD

[Edgy MD]

If there's anything I'm less inclined to be charitable toward than Billy Crystal, director, it's Billy Crystal, director and Yankee fan. But *61 got it done, and I'd put it ahead of Fever Pitch and A League of Their Own, unless we're not counting movies that didn't get a theatrical release.

(Ranking should be settled by votes, I think.)

[Vic Sage]

1. Babe Ruth: The Pride of the Yankees
2. Joe Don Baker: The Natural (billed as "The Whammer")
3. Wiliam Bendix: The Babe Ruth Story
4. John Goodman: The Babe
5. Art LaFleur: The Sandlot

Fever Pitch seemed pretty disposable. Top Portrayals of Babe Ruth:

Not only is FEVER PITCH a charming romantic comedy, it's the only baseball movie that i can recall which speaks exclusively from the fan's point of view.
They have yet to make a good BABE RUTH movie. I had hopes for THE BABE, but it swung and missed.

[A Boy Named Seo]

Don't forget the riveting 'Mr. Baseball' starring Tom Selleck's mustache (and co-starring Tom Selleck)! Broken down, old Yankee (ha!) banished to Japan re-discovers his swing as he re-discovers himself... /sniff

uN_H71V6kZY

[Vic Sage]

Edgy MD wrote: If there's anything I'm less inclined to be charitable toward than Billy Crystal, director, it's Billy Crystal, director and Yankee fan. But *61 got it done, and I'd put it ahead of Fever Pitch and A League of Their Own, unless we're not counting movies that didn't get a theatrical release. (Ranking should be settled by votes, I think.)

that was my criteria (see, "theatrical releases only") but you can include whatever you want, including docs, to put forth your own top list. Obviously, if your counting cable movies, then i'd include not only 61* but also LONG GONE.

If you want to set this up as poll, we should come up with 20 movies (and we need to decide if we're including docs and tv movies), then people can vote for their top 3 and we'll see where we end up. So i've put forth 13. If you want to eliminate any of them, and/or add some of your own, go ahead.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

Vic Sage wrote: Not only is FEVER PITCH a charming romantic comedy, it's the only baseball movie that i can recall which speaks exclusively from the fan's point of view. They have yet to make a good BABE RUTH movie. I had hopes for THE BABE, but it swung and missed.

The Babe was weird that the movie spent a lot of time on Ruth as a Red Sox and Ruth as a Brave but scant time with his Yankees career. They also portrayed him as a complete idiot, which I think was unfair.

[Vic Sage]

1. Bull Durham
2. Field of dreams
3. The Natural
4. The Bad News Bears (1976)
5. Moneyball
6. Bang the Drum Slowly
7. The Rookie
8. The Sandlot
9. Major league
10. Eight Men Out
11. Fever Pitch
12. A League of their Own
13. Pride of the Yankees
14. Bingo Long & his Traveling All-stars
15. Fear Strikes Out
16. Angels in the Outfield (57)
17. Damn Yankees
18. Little Big League
19. Mr. Baseball
20. Mr. 3000

so here's my top 20 -- add or subtract as you will.

[Edgy MD]

Vic Sage wrote: Not only is FEVER PITCH a charming romantic comedy, it's the only baseball movie that i can recall which speaks exclusively from the fan's point of view.

Hey, to each her own, but just remember that this post will be reviewed when your man card is up for renewal.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

Edgy MD wrote: Vic Sage wrote: Not only is FEVER PITCH a charming romantic comedy, it's the only baseball movie that i can recall which speaks exclusively from the fan's point of view. Hey, to each her own, but just remember that this post will be reviewed when your man card is up for renewal.

I got Vic's back. Fever Pitch is no masterpiece, but it was enjoyable fluff.

[Edgy MD]

Know what else is a good baseball movie, guys? He's Just Not That into You. You should catch it together.

/Grabs crotch.

/Spits contempuously.

/Goes home to lonely apartment and pops open a can of Chef-Boyardee.

[seawolf17]

"Major League 2"? "The Naked Gun"? "For The Love of the Game"? "Baseketball"? Bernie Mac's "Mr. 3000"?

[Vic Sage]

Know what else is a good baseball movie, guys? He's Just Not That into You. You should catch it together.

the best baseball movie ever, by most polls and rankings, is also a romantic comedy. BULL DURHAM is just a much better one, with a lot of great baseball action.
But love story aside, FEVER PITCH captures the obsessive nature of fandom, as well as the way it exemplifies a familial legacy and creates a community for fans. BULL DURHAM does so, too, but not many other films do.

MAJOR LEAGUE 2 - noted. instead of which one on my list?
FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME - ditto?

but:
NAKED GUN - it has a baseball scene in it, but its not a baseball movie.
BASEKETBALL - its about another sport, not baseball.
MR. 3000 - is already on the list.

[Edgy MD]

Naked Gun almost qualifies, as the climax is during a baseball game --- a key defining element of "sports movie" to me is whether the climax takes place on the playing field --- but I'd say no, as the protagonist wasn't a player.

[DocTee]

No love for Brewster's Millions?

[Vic Sage]

Edgy MD wrote: Naked Gun almost qualifies, as the climax is during a baseball game --- a key defining element of "sports movie" to me is whether the climax takes place on the playing field --- but I'd say no, as the protagonist wasn't a player.

I think it's even more fundamental than that. A "baseball movies" has to be about BASEBALL, regardless of who its protagonist is or whether it has a climactic game. That's why BREWSTER'S MILLIONS doesn't count, either. The protagonist tries to get rich by spending alot of money in a month in order to inherit alot MORE money under the terms of a will. Here, the protagonist happens to be a ballplayer, but he could have been anything, and its not about baseball per se

[Edgy MD]

I didn't mean to say a baseball movie has the have a climactic game. I mean to say that a climax taking place within a game is an element of what qualifies a film as a baseball movie --- but not that it's a necessary element.

[batmagadanleadoff]

TCM celebrates opening day with the following lineup (lineup, I said!) beginning tonight at 8:00PM

LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Lloyd Bacon. Ray Milland, Jean Peters, Paul Douglas, Ed Begley, Ted de Corsia, Ray Collins, Jessie Royce Landis, Alan Hale, Jr., Debra Paget. Clever little comedy of chemistry professor (Milland) accidentally discovering a chemical mixture which causes baseballs to avoid all wooden surfaces, namely baseball bats. He takes leave from academia and embarks on meteoric pitching career. A most enjoyable, unpretentious picture. Story by Shirley W. Smith and Valentine Davies; scripted by Davies.

LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Clarence Brown. Paul Douglas, Janet Leigh, Keenan Wynn, Donna Corcoran, Spring Byington, Ellen Corby, Lewis Stone, Bruce Bennett, voice of James Whitmore. Cute comedy-fantasy with Douglas ideally cast as the Pittsburgh Pirates' hot-tempered, foul-mouthed manager, whose hard-luck team goes on a winning streak thanks to some heavenly intervention. Amusing cameos from the worlds of baseball and show business. Remade in 1994.

LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Harmon Jones. Dan Dailey, Anne Bancroft, Billy Chapin, Lloyd Bridges, Ray Collins, Richard Egan. Homey little film with Dailey as ex-baseball star turned ballpark vendor who uses his son as cover while trying to turn a losing team around. Remade as 1979 TV movie with Gary Coleman.

Opening Day (1938) [9 minute short] City treasurer Robert Benchley attends the opening of a new baseball stadium to throw out the first pitch, but the crowd must endure Benchley's horrible, drawn-out monologue before they can finally start the game.

LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Busby Berkeley. Frank Sinatra, Esther Williams, Gene Kelly, Betty Garrett, Edward Arnold, Jules Munshin, Richard Lane, Tom Dugan. Contrived but colorful turn-of-the-century musical, with Williams taking over Sinatra and Kelly's baseball team. "O'Brien to Ryan to Goldberg" and Kelly's "The Hat My Father Wore on St. Patrick's Day" are musical highlights.

[Vic Sage]

all worthy additions to the list.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

Looking at those posters it appears that women in tight skirts are an important element of baseball movies.

[Fman99]

I've never really been able to stand Bull Durham. I'm not much of a Kevin Costner fan, outside of A Perfect World, and I find the dialogue of this movie to just ring false. I consistently see it at the top of baseball movie lists and I don't get it, sorry.

Even in Field of Dreams I spent a lot of time wondering who would have been a better fit for the lead role. That's a movie that I enjoy despite Costner.

My faves in no particular order:

The Natural
The Bad News Bears (1976)
Field of Dreams
Bang the Drum Slowly
The Rookie
The Sandlot
Major League
Eight Men Out
A League of their Own
Damn Yankees

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

Fman99 wrote: I've never really been able to stand Bull Durham. I'm not much of a Kevin Costner fan, outside of A Perfect World, and I find the dialogue of this movie to just ring false. I consistently see it at the top of baseball movie lists and I don't get it, sorry.

I don't mind Costner, but I've never liked Bull Durham either. I don't like Susan Sarandon for one thing, but like you said the dialogue rings false.

[Edgy MD]

Fman99 wrote: I've never really been able to stand Bull Durham. I'm not much of a Kevin Costner fan, outside of A Perfect World, and I find the dialogue of this movie to just ring false. I consistently see it at the top of baseball movie lists and I don't get it, sorry.

Yeah, I'm there also. The funny thing is that what folks credit it with is the exact opposite --- that it's really authentic. It seems so self-consciously authentic to me so as to be the opposite. Our ears are clearly hearing different things.

[Vic Sage]

Yeah, I'm not there.

I like Costner (I even like WATERWORLD and THE POSTMAN), and I LOVE Sarandon... just in general (I was 15 when she sang TOUCH ME, TOUCH ME, TOUCH ME, TOUCH ME... I WANNA FEEL DIRTY!... right to me, sitting in the back of the 8th St playhouse. You never get over something like that). So a love story between these 2 actors has got me half-way there, from the get go.

Then, throw in some realistic and comic baseball action juxtaposed against intentionally heightened (i.e., unrealistic), poetic dialogue (since the story is narrated and told from the perspective of a poetry teacher and Romantic who sees stadia as cathedrals and baseball as a metaphor), and you have a unique concoction that audiences (and critics) have responded to in the way they have.

Crash: "William Blake?"
Annie: "William Blake!"

Edited April 1, 2013 by Guest

[metirish]

Can I just say, this is a great thread, good banter.

For me Field of Dreams probably tops my list. When I knew nothing about the game(insert joke) I still got that movie, of course a lot of the movies listed here can say the same, you don't have to know anything about the game to enjoy the, says a lot about how good they are.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

I liked "Fever Pitch." The scene where he tortures himself by showing a loop of the Mookie/Buckner moment is classic!

How about "Cobb?"

[Edgy MD]

For Mookie-Buckner content, how about Game Six?

[batmagadanleadoff]

TCM celebrates opening day with the following lineup (lineup, I said!) beginning tonight at 8:00PM LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Lloyd Bacon. Ray Milland, Jean Peters, Paul Douglas, Ed Begley, Ted de Corsia, Ray Collins, Jessie Royce Landis, Alan Hale, Jr., Debra Paget. Clever little comedy of chemistry professor (Milland) accidentally discovering a chemical mixture which causes baseballs to avoid all wooden surfaces, namely baseball bats. He takes leave from academia and embarks on meteoric pitching career. A most enjoyable, unpretentious picture. Story by Shirley W. Smith and Valentine Davies; scripted by Davies. LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Clarence Brown. Paul Douglas, Janet Leigh, Keenan Wynn, Donna Corcoran, Spring Byington, Ellen Corby, Lewis Stone, Bruce Bennett, voice of James Whitmore. Cute comedy-fantasy with Douglas ideally cast as the Pittsburgh Pirates' hot-tempered, foul-mouthed manager, whose hard-luck team goes on a winning streak thanks to some heavenly intervention. Amusing cameos from the worlds of baseball and show business. Remade in 1994. LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Harmon Jones. Dan Dailey, Anne Bancroft, Billy Chapin, Lloyd Bridges, Ray Collins, Richard Egan. Homey little film with Dailey as ex-baseball star turned ballpark vendor who uses his son as cover while trying to turn a losing team around. Remade as 1979 TV movie with Gary Coleman. Opening Day (1938) [9 minute short] City treasurer Robert Benchley attends the opening of a new baseball stadium to throw out the first pitch, but the crowd must endure Benchley's horrible, drawn-out monologue before they can finally start the game. LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Busby Berkeley. Frank Sinatra, Esther Williams, Gene Kelly, Betty Garrett, Edward Arnold, Jules Munshin, Richard Lane, Tom Dugan. Contrived but colorful turn-of-the-century musical, with Williams taking over Sinatra and Kelly's baseball team. "O'Brien to Ryan to Goldberg" and Kelly's "The Hat My Father Wore on St. Patrick's Day" are musical highlights.

Left out the early morning showings:

LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Lloyd Bacon. Joe E. Brown, Evalyn Knapp, Lillian Bond, Guy Kibbee, Virginia Sale. Amusing Brown romp with Joe dividing his time between fire-fighting and baseball. The first in his baseball trilogy, followed by ELMER THE GREAT and ALIBI IKE.

LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW:

D: Lloyd Bacon. William Bendix, Una Merkel, Ray Collins, Gloria Henry, William Frawley, Tom D'Andrea, Richard Taylor (Jeff Richards). Lightweight comedy about baseball lover who becomes the sport's most hated man, the umpire. Ends with spectacular slapstick chase. Screenplay by Frank Tashlin.