Baseball Goes To The Movies

Top 10 Baseball Related Movies of all Time

1. Field of Dreams - “Show it and I will watch it.” Odd premise, but hits you right where you live. Puts a smile on my face and a tear in my eye every time.

2. The Natural - Okay, so Redford is the oldest looking 35-year-old in history. But the movie, especially the climax, is what every kid dreams of and Redford pulls it off.

3. The Bad News Bears - The original, not the recent rip-off. Walter Matthau is the quintessential washed-up ballplayer, grouchy (or should I say grumpy) hero/bum. Tatum O’Neal was great before she lost her mind.

4. A League of Their Own - Funny, good baseball, and an hysterically funny Jon Lovitz. Tom Hanks is awesome as usual.

5. Pride of the Yankees - Extremely corny, but extremely touching. Gary Cooper was fabulous. Great movie trick: Cooper batted righty and ran the bases backwards. The filmmakers then flipped the film to make it look like he was a lefty.

6. Bang the Drum Slowly - Grim, gritty, a great study of the human condition. Crap- I sounded too much like Roger Ebert there.

7. Major League - Forget its' sequels. Tom Berenger, Wesley Snipes, and Charlie Sheen lead a great cast in a fun movie. “Bring that sheet to me, mang”.

8. 61* - Excellent job by director Billy Crystal of recounting the 1961 home run race between Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle. The Phil Rizzuto imitation was horrendous,though.

9. Bingo Long and His Traveling All-Stars - Richard Pryor, Billy Dee Williams, and James Earl Jones lead this movie about a barnstorming team of black ballplayers during the 1930s.

10. Bull Durham - I have to admit I am not a very big fan of this movie, but it makes the list over lesser movies such as Sandlot and other movies that are just a re-telling of other stories.

Honorable Mention - Angels in the Outfield- the original, not the over-the-top Disney version.

Funniest Baseball Scene of All Time - Naked Gun. No question about it. Leslie Nielsen kills me in that scene every single time.