There are a lot of great baseball movies, but two that have been overlooked in this thread would be 1949's Take me out to the Ballgame with Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Esther Williams and A League of Their Own with Geena Davis, Tom Hanks, Madonna, Rosie O'Donnell and Jon Lovitz. Both are heavy on the MOVIE side of great baseball movies, but both are very watchable.
"Even a bad day at the ballpark beats the snot out of most other good days. I'll take my scorecard and pencil and beer and hot dog and rage at the dips and cheer at the highs, but I'm not ever going to stop loving this game and this team and nobody will ever take that away from me." Roy Tucker October 2010
“Every level he goes to, he is going to compete. They will know who he is at every level he goes to.” -- ED on EDLC
Agree with you gents regarding Ken Burns' "Baseball". I enjoyed it, but it has way, way too much east coast influence. It seemed like he didn't even consider baseball in middle America, when both of our clubs in particular played such a big role in its development.
I really got irked when he came out with an additional inning covering baseball from the mid-90's to the 2000's. Talk about east coast bias? Yikes. It was about 90% Boston/NYC. 10% PED talk.
The Sandlot captures the enjoyment of playing the game, aptly portraying it's role in Americana. My favorite scene is when they play under the fireworks of the 4th of July, with Ray Charles' "America the Beautiful" playing in the background. Benny hits the ball into the fire-lit sky, with all the boys awed by what they're witnessing. And it ends with "...see to us, baseball was just a game. But to Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez, baseball was life." This scene gives me chills every time, mostly because I had dreams of being a big leaguer as a kid.
Bull Durham capture's the real 'grit' that comes with being a minor leaguer. Well, actually Crash Davis does that by himself.
For Love of the Game involves a romance, so it's easy for women to watch and enjoy it, and to get them to see more films who may otherwise not want to. It's also a great movie.
Moneyball for how it captures how sabremetrics have now fully infiltrated almost every facet of baseball.
"Bang the Drum Slowly" is very dated now, but it was perceptive for its time about player-front office relations. Besides, it had a cameo by Tony Perez.
Let's not forget that during the first half century of "modern professional baseball" 3/16ths of major league teams were located in NYC. And those teams won quite a lot. And gave the game Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, John McGraw, Mickey Mantle, Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Yogi Berra, et al.
Whether we like it or not, a broad overview of the history of the game is going to spend a lot of time with those elements.
When all is said and done more is said than done.
*BaseClogger* (06-03-2013)
most of the classics have been mentioned, but Pelotero is a really good documentary on Dominican baseball. Sugar is also worth a watch.
Newsflash!
Joey Votto does not care about RBI.
NEITHER SHOULD ANY OF US
Can we agree that The Naked Gun should count, based on the last third of the movie?
If so, I hereby add a vote for it.
Also: just about the only thing I can think of that you guys haven't already mentioned is "4192," a documentary from 2 or 3 years ago. It's (obviously) about Pete's career, and is definitely to be filed under "Good Pete" (the kind who spins excellent yarns and loves baseball, instead of the one who lies and will do anything for a buck, including furniture store commercials). Plus lots of interviews with his contemporaries, who also tell great stories.
Not to mention, music by Bob Pollard.
Rick
The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings
I'm not a system player. I am a system.
Long Gone is far and away my favorite. Cecil Stud Cantrell was 1000x a better baseball player than CSI supervisor/lead investigator.
Chip R (06-04-2013)
Love most of those mentioned here. I was actually an extra in Bull Durham-a fan in the stands and one of the little league players running on the field (although I have never been able to find myself in the movie). I am now 38 years old-39 in August-and met Kevin Costner a few years ago, mentioned that to him and he just rolled his eyes and kind of laughed-guess realizing I was an adult now saying I was a kid during his career.
UNC Tar Heels 2017 National Champions 6 time NCAA Champs!!!
57, 82, 93, 05, 09, 17
Go Heels!!!!!
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