Best baseball movies

[Legend_Of_Joey]

3 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Have you seen the Comrades of Summer?

No, but I've seen Major League: Back to the Minors.

[Frobby]

16 minutes ago, Ohfan67 said:

The book SUCKS! It's not just the ending...Cobb is pretty much a hallucinating loser in the book. And the hit-and-run accident? I spent two months at various tropical field stations in Costa Rica in the early '90's when I was a grad student. Costa Rica was very rustic in those days, not the Disney World of tropical vacations like it is now. I was starved for any kind of media. I loved the movie and knew the book was different, but during my last day in Costa Rica I saw the book in a used book store in San Jose and purchased it, even though I knew the outcome was going to be different. Read the book on the flight from San Jose to Miami. I dumped the book in the garbage can as I exited the plane. Hated it.  I did find it interesting that the book basically has the totally opposite spin for Cobb regarding the line, "It takes more talent, kid" than the movie did. 

I read the book like 40+ years ago, so I don’t remember it that well.    But I liked it a lot, despite the downer ending.    

[Can_of_corn]

11 minutes ago, Legend_Of_Joey said:

No, but I've seen Major League: Back to the Minors.

It's something.  That's what it is.

[Ohfan67]

17 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I read the book like 40+ years ago, so I don’t remember it that well.    But I liked it a lot, despite the downer ending.    

If I hadn't seen the movie, then maybe it would have been ok. But Hobb is depicted as a total loser just throwing away his talent and second chance. He demands more money from the judge. Negotiates for a higher bribe when offered money to thrown the game! The Iris character is very different, Cobb dumps her, and then later hits her with a foul ball! I hated it. Still hate it. 

[markpolis]

It has to be Million Dollar Arm. We just drafted the star of that movie in the 31st round.

 

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

For Love Of The Game has some of the best sports scenes of any baseball.  

Unfortunately the romantic subplot makes it nothing more than mediocre as a whole.

[Ohfan67]

Just now, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

For Love Of The Game has some of the best sports scenes of any baseball.  

Unfortunately the romantic subplot makes it nothing more than mediocre as a whole.

Pretty much agree. I watch it when channel surfing, but the relationship stuff is meh.

[Ohfan67]

By the way, the Phenom is worth checking out. Not a hardcore baseball movie in the sense that it includes a lot of field action, but an interesting flick. 

 

p.s. Cast includes Ethan Hawke. 

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

20 minutes ago, Ohfan67 said:

If I hadn't seen the movie, then maybe it would have been ok. But Hobb is depicted as a total loser just throwing away his talent and second chance. He demands more money from the judge. Negotiates for a higher bribe when offered money to thrown the game! The Iris character is very different, Cobb dumps her, and then later hits her with a foul ball! I hated it. Still hate it. 

Never read the book.  Glad Barry Levinson went in a different direction with the movie.

[Ohfan67]

1 minute ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

Never read the book.  Glad Barry Levinson went in a different direction with the movie.

If you like the move and have never read the book, then I don't think there's any way you could like the book. Maybe the other way around like Frobby, but the story in the movie is much, much better. I have to think that Redford played a big role in the changes too. If I remember correctly, Redford purchased the option to make the movie from the book, not Levinson. Would be interesting to know how the changes developed. 

[gtown]

For Love of the Game

Bull Durham

A League of Their Own

[DirtyBird]

Little Big League

Rookie of the Year

[survivedc]

Surprised Eight Men Out hasn't gotten more love, probably ties with The Natural for me for favorite/movie I will always watch if it's on.

If it weren't for the story itself being incomplete, my favorite would have to be Moneyball. Sharp movie, well acted and able to combine the humanity of the game with the business side. 

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, survivedc said:

Surprised Eight Men Out hasn't gotten more love, probably ties with The Natural for me for favorite/movie I will always watch if it's on.

If it weren't for the story itself being incomplete, my favorite would have to be Moneyball. Sharp movie, well acted and able to combine the humanity of the game with the business side. 

If I had made a serious list eight men out would have been on it.

[Moose Milligan]

6 hours ago, DRJacobs said:

I always felt that Bull Durham was more of a romantic comedy than a baseball movie.

It is, to a certain degree.  But not to the level that Jerry Maguire is a rom com/drama posing as a sports movie.  I could whittle that movie down to about 45 minutes if I understood the video editing tools on my computer.  Basically, throw out any scene with Renee Zellweger.

3 hours ago, OFFNY said:

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My favorite movie EVER )(baseball or otherwise.)

 

 

 

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This is a really good movie.  Ultimate chill scene at the end where that guy walks up into the stands saying "I'll be damned if that don't look like him." and then keeps saying "It's HIM" until someone nearby takes the bait and asks who it is.  It's Shoeless Joe Jackson playing in some 10th rate league.  Minor debate ensues amongst the fans, then there's that "I saw him play," and the camera pans over to Buck Weaver who wasn't in the prior shot.  "He was the best.  Run, hit, throw.  He was the best."  Well, whattya think, is that him? "Nah, those fellas are gone now."  Meanwhile Jackson smokes a standup triple, and that kid keeps asking "Who's Joe Jackson?" and the guy is all like "He was one of the guys that threw the Series back in '19.  One of those bums from Chicago, kid.  One of the Black Sox." and Buck Weaver is seething, Joe Jackson realizes that everyones cheering for him and tips his hat to the crowd.  

That scene gets me every, single time.  It's not "Hey...Dad?  Wanna have a catch?" but it's close.  

About a year and a half ago I watched Field of Dreams for probably the billionth time and thought at the end "This is terrible...I can't believe this was my favorite movie."  And then I watched it again about 3 months ago to see if I really felt that way and fell in love with it all over again.  I'm not sure why I felt that way about it awhile back, but it's still fantastic to me.  The book is better.  Never could get into the Iowa Baseball Confederacy.  

I think Field of Dreams is the type of movie that you have to be a baseball fan to appreciate.  I think anyone who isn't wouldn't necessarily get it.  They might get it for the father/son thing but the whole mysticism can be viewed as weird, plus if you go into it not knowing who Shoeless Joe Jackson is it might be hard to grasp who he is and what he means.

Anyway, keeping this list to three is hard for me, so screw it.  

Field of Dreams

Major League:  Certainly not as funny in as it was in the late 80s but it's fun.  So many quotable lines. 

Bull Durham:  Borderline rom com, but enough good baseball scenes to keep me interested.

Moneyball:  I fell asleep in the theatre watching it but have grown to really appreciate it over time.  Like most movies, the book is better, but I feel that it did a good job of portraying Beane's struggle to get across advanced metrics to the baseball establishment.  It also did a good job of portraying Beane's struggles as a minor leaguer.  Jonah Hill is awesome in it, plays the nerd role perfectly.  Could have done without the scenes of Beane trying to be a parent but whatever.  

Sandlot:  Never gets old. 

8 Men Out:  Fair portrayal of the Black Sox scandal.  

The Natural:  At GMU, I took a sports film class.  I am not sure why because me and two other guys out of about 30 people were the only non-athletes in the room.  It was a jerk-off class obviously designed for athletes to show up and get a good grade in, hands down the easiest class I'd ever taken.  Watch a bunch of sports movies, talk about them, write a paper or two, that was about it.  I was a senior, this was the year before their Final Four run and there were a few members of the team in that class, most notably Jai Lewis who was the center on that team.  

Anyway, The Natural was a movie we had to watch and...I of course absolutely had seen it a bunch of times, didn't need to watch it but did it anyway.  Not surprisingly, everyone in the class absolutely hated it.  Come discussion time, they trashed it up and down, OMG, it was so boring, terrible, no action, etc...  I wanted to stand up and be like "What the F is the matter with you?  Doesn't anyone here have any taste?" but didn't want to get pounded by a power forward so I kept my mouth shut.  

But I was the only one who got the extra credit question right on the test:  What was the name of Roy Hobbs' bat that he hit the final home run with?