Missing Baseball? What Are Your Favourite Baseball Movies?
“Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good, too.” (Yogi Berra)
Missing Baseball? What Are Your Favourite Baseball Movies?
The season won't start till July, and baseball fans are suffering withdrawal pangs. But you can watch some great baseball movies, and there are many from which to choose.
My 3 choices, and although they may not be considered the best baseball movies, I could watch them over and over to get my baseball "fix".
Field of Dreams
The Natural
Major League
What are your 3 favourite baseball movies to watch?
This is the only baseball photo I have with me, taken while I was in the Blue Jays corporate box at Toronto's Skydome.almost 30 years ago. 1/2000 of a second on my Canon F1 SLR was enough to stop that ball when it had been hit.
A League Of Their Own is my favorite. My mother in law was recruited to play but turned them down because she didn't want to be away from her husband. Angels In The Outfield (the original and remake) is my second choice. I pretty much enjoy most of the baseball themed movies which is kind of odd considering that I am not a baseball fan.
Field of Dreams, Major League and Bull Durham. A league of their own is a close fourth.
"There's no crying in baseball!"
Do you remember the scene in ALOTO where the one player had a huge bruise. It would seem that it was not makeup. The actress really did get that injury.
No i don't but interesting. Love movie tidbits like that.
Yep. Not planned, but used in the movie.
Uncle Nick - It tells the story of the ten cent beer night in Cleveland June 4, 1974.
Lol, i remember that one. Wasn't there but i remember it in the news.
I thought it was funny that Bill Martin happened to be one of the managers. A well known brawler in his time.
The Sandlot is one movie I almost always stop and watch when I see it on.
1. Trouble With The Curve.
2. Eight Men Out
3. 61
Trouble With The Curve is a Clint Eastwood movie from 7 or 8 years ago. He plays an aging major league scout who is losing his vision and whom his team wants to retire. Low key but into baseball.
Eight Men Out is a movie about the 1919 Black Sox Scandal that has sympathy for the players.
61 is about the race between team mates Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle to break Babe Ruth's single season home run record (60) in 1961
Barry Pepper and Thomas Jane in 61* (2001)
Although an actor friend of mine was one of the major cast actors in Eight Men Out but I did not particularly like that film all that much.
I gotta agree with you on your number one John. I forgot about that one. A great movie by a great actor/director.
Clint Eastwood.
It was a very enjoyable movie, I thought the father - daughter chemistry between Eastwood and Amy Adams was great, and while its baseball knowledge seemed somewhat superficial, it is a constant theme of the movie.
It's a touching story and it's great when the "peanut boy" smokes the top prospect.
Good writing.
Little tidbit... My neighbor [sadly he passed away a couple years ago] was the closing left-handed pitcher for the Yankees from 1951-1954, Bob Kuzava . One time, his daughter was telling my husband and I of a fond memory in which she was playing catch with "Uncle Mickey..." I stopped her and asked, "Are you talking about Mickey Mantle"? She certainly was! Bob had looked for a photo of he with Mickey [that had been signed by both] that he wanted to give to my husband, but couldn't find it. He gave us a few items he'd signed. His wife is 96 and still kicking... I made her a t-bone steak a few weeks back with a baked potato and asparagus on the side. She was thrilled. But what made me laugh was when my daughter had asked her about how she and Bob got together, she called him a "jock that dated a lot of girls while in HS" so she waited until he graduated to pursue him stating, "I knew he was going to be mine... I just had to wait a bit."
That was a time when for winning the World Series, the players received a $5000 season-end bonus. They weren't in it for the money back then. They were in it for the love of the game.
I've only got 1.
THE ROOKIE !
There are so many good baseball movies, it is tough to pick when you see them all being named here.
Major League, A League of Their Own, and The Sandlot.
Those are actually the only 3 baseball movies I have ever seen.
This is good timing. It happens that I watch Field of Dreams a couple nights ago and I hadn't seen it in several years. It's really a nice story.
One of the best baseball movies you don't hear as much about is The Pride of The Yankees. It's old, but it's brilliant.
I was tempted to give Pride of the Yankees Honourable Mention. I thought of posting this article because I just watched Moneyball.
Field of Dreams.
My favorites:
Field of Dreams
Eight men Out
Everybody Wants Some
Bad News Bears (the original)
Pride of The Yankees always makes me cry. "Today I am the luckiest man in the world."
Field of Dreams
Bull Durham
Hummm.. I see a theme. Maybe it's just Kevin Costner, LOL!
No really I love those.
That line was repeated by Walter (Bill Pullman) in the movie Sleepless in Seattle, when Annie (Meg Ryan) announced her engagement to him at her family's Christmas dinner.
1. Major League
2. Bull Durham
3. 42
Field of Dreams and The Natural very close honorable mentions. Sand Lot too. So many good ones. I'd watch them all end to end if I could.
I miss playing and coaching more than I miss the MLB.
A League of Their Own
Field of Dreams
Bull Durham
The Natural
And don't laugh, but I still remember fondly my first baseball movie...The Bad News Bears. (1976 version with Walter Matthau and a pre-teen Tatum O'Neal. I also had a huge crush on Jackie Earle Haley, the bad boy on the team.)
Field of Dreams, The Natural, Eight Men Out.
I'm still waiting for someone to make a movie out of the book "Ball Four" by Jim Bouton.
Another good one is The Babe with John Goodman.