The Best Baseball Movies

I had meant to post this article a while ago but forgot. It is still a good read.

(excerpt from Cleveland.com:  Everything Cleveland - The Plain Dealer)

The ace of baseball movies
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Clint O'Connor
Plain Dealer Film Critic

The Indians home opener is Friday. Time for that gloriously renewed ritual of shared hope, green splendor, bat thwacks, leather smacks and overpriced beer. It's also a good time to reignite a crucial argument: What is the best baseball movie of all time?

My kids insist it's "The Sandlot," the ultimate pick-up-game-meets-angry-dog flick. My brother favors the Tom Selleck-in-Japan comedy "Mr. Baseball." Purists prefer "The Pride of the Yankees," the Lou Gehrig weeper that features the ultimate big-league casting gem, ". . . and Babe Ruth as himself." (Far better than, say, William Bendix as the Babe in "The Babe Ruth Story.")

We want to know what Cleveland loves. Starting today you can vote at www.cleveland.com/movies. We'll tally your favorites and run the results later in April.

I'm a sucker for baseball movies, even dreadful ones like "Fear Strikes Out." The Jimmy Piersall meltdown movie, starring the woefully miscast Anthony Perkins, is oddly mesmerizing in its utter horribleness. I like cheesy baseball movies, too, like "It Happens Every Spring," in which chemistry geek Ray Milland invents a substance that repels wood - the ultimate spitball.

Because of a misspent childhood of excessive, late-night TV viewing, I think I've seen all of those old black-and-white biopics that probably had nothing to do with reality: Jimmy Stewart as Monty Stratton in "The Stratton Story," Dan Dailey as Dizzy Dean in "The Pride of St. Louis," Ronald Reagan as Grover Cleveland Alexander in "The Winning Team." The Hollywood formula was simple: Just about all baseball movies are about pitchers and must co-star June Allyson as the beleaguered but supportive wife (unless it was Doris Day).

Baseball movies are not content recounting mere games or road trips. They must extend time, condensing entire seasons or careers into two hours or less.

A brand new one opens Friday - "The Benchwarmers," a comedy starring Rob Schneider, David Spade and Jon Heder as three losers who take on elementary-school bullies. I haven't seen it yet (no advance screenings were held for the press), but the cast of characters includes "Out-House Guy," "Hot Mother," "Spock Look-Alike" and "Voice of Darth Vader." Sounds like a winner.

Here's one fan's Mudville Nine of diamond diamonds. All of them improve with repeated viewings.

1. "The Natural"

(1984; directed by Barry Levinson). Starring Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, Glenn Close. A mythic, sepia-toned saga of an immensely gifted player who missed most of his career. It's all shattered dreams and the long road to redemption. Go ahead, say it. "There goes Roy Hobbs, the best there ever was."

2. "Field of Dreams"

(1989; Phil Alden Robinson). Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta, Burt Lancaster. A beautifully touching film. Yes, gentlemen, you are allowed to get misty-eyed when Ray Kinsella fi nally plays catch with his dad. Shoeless Joe Jackson and the Chicago "Black Sox" scandal are enticing movie themes (see No. 3).

3. "Eight Men Out"

(1988; John Sayles). John Cusack, David Strathairn, D.B. Sweeney. Writer-director John Sayles does an outstanding job of paring down a huge sports scandal (several White Sox throwing the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds) to its most poignant riffs between gamblers, enforcers, reporters and hard-nosed ball players.

4. "Major League"

(1989; David S. Ward). Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, Corbin Bernsen, Wesley Snipes. "Juu-uust a bit outside." Great characters make this remarkable season for the Indians a hoot. Too bad it's fiction. Tom Berenger's climactic bunt is the real fantasy. Have you seen current professionals try to lay down a bunt?

5. "The Pride of the Yankees"

(1942; Sam Wood). Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright, Babe Ruth. A bona fide, "Give it to me straight, Doc" classic. Follow Lou Gehrig from window-breaking childhood to the consecutive-games streak to his farewell at Yankee Stadium. "Today, I consider myself . . ."

6. "A League of Their Own"

(1992; Penny Marshall). Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Lori Petty. An extremely well-crafted look at the short-lived women's professional baseball league during World War II. Everyone's good in this film. Even Madonna.

7. "Bull Durham"

(1988; Ron Shelton). Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins. Let's say you're dating a girl who likes baseball. This tribute to the minor leagues is your can't- miss ticket to major couch-cuddling. Rent this movie. She will get warm and fuzzy listening to Kevin Costner talk about long kisses. You get to watch Susan Sarandon in a bathtub. It's win- win.

8. "The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings"

(1976; John Badham). Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones, Richard Pryor. Bingo and the gents bolt the Negro Leagues and go free-lance with lots of laughs. Jones, a mitts movie staple ("Field of Dreams," "The Sandlot"), plays the Josh Gibson-like Leon Carter. This comedy also exemplifies another recurring baseball theme: cheap, greedy, overbearing owners.

9. "The Bad News Bears"

(1976; Michael Ritchie). Walter Matthau, Tatum O'Neal, Vic Morrow. Often imitated, never duplicated. A kids movie that wasn't. A fast and fun season with a boys Little League team whose coach is a drunk and star player is -- gulp -- a girl! A triumph of alcoholism and feminism.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

coconnor@plaind.com, 216-999-4456