Best Baseball Movies/Docs

[OGB]

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.

Not to mention the Pirates, Cubs*, and Tigers


*Believe it or not, if you go back far enough in baseball history there is a time when the Cubs were incredibly relevant in the sport

[MWM]

The Sandlot gets my vote with The Natural a very close 2nd. I never thought 8 Men Out was all that great a movie.

[OGB]

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

I can't go to a Reds game without making an Enrico Pollazzo reference.

And I've wanted to see 4192. Is the soundtrack Pollard solo, or is it Guided By Voices, or both?

The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings

Literally came in here to say this.

[vaticanplum]

I don't agree with any particular bias in Burns's documentary. I think the East Coast coverage is in line with the area's place in baseball history. To take away from that would be an anti-East Coast bias -- it's just a fact that a huge chunk of the professional sport's history is there.

With such a mammoth project, you have to pick and choose what to focus on, and I think he chose things that rounded out the sport well. A lot of the Red Sox stuff is about the sport's influence outside of the sport (likely due to the fact that a lot of vital talkers for the documentary are writers from New England, which I believe he acknowledges). He spends a good deal of time on Branch Rickey and the Cardinals and the development of the farm system. The 30s episode is almost entirely about the Negro Leagues. He does spend time on the BRM in the 70s, especially the 75 World Series. The last episode focuses on the changing nature of the business of the sport, including collusion, and it makes sense to cover that in a way that spans a few decades (also because it was made in 1994 and probably Burns didn't feel comfortable regarding that era with a completely historical eye yet).

If anything, the thread running through the whole series is racism's effect on the sport through history, from the beginning through Al Campanis. A project like that has to have a thematic thread (or it should) and can't be about what every single team did each year and blah blah blah, or even just about the WS and so on. It takes a much bigger look at baseball as it relates to society and is a part of it and where it diverged from it. Some teams just had bigger, more obvious roles in that than others. It's not about teams or regions; it's about the sport within the context of American history.

[westofyou]

I'm not a fan of baseball movies much.

The Natural, Bull Durham and 8 Men out (only one I own but I'm a John Sayles fan)

The rest meh... hate the comedies the most.

[Chip R]

I don't agree with any particular bias in Burns's documentary. I think the East Coast coverage is in line with the area's place in baseball history. To take away from that would be an anti-East Coast bias -- it's just a fact that a huge chunk of the professional sport's history is there.

You would say that since you're a Yankees fan.

[westofyou]

I don't agree with any particular bias in Burns's documentary. I think the East Coast coverage is in line with the area's place in baseball history. To take away from that would be an anti-East Coast bias -- it's just a fact that a huge chunk of the professional sport's history is there.

With such a mammoth project, you have to pick and choose what to focus on, and I think he chose things that rounded out the sport well. A lot of the Red Sox stuff is about the sport's influence outside of the sport (likely due to the fact that a lot of vital talkers for the documentary are writers from New England, which I believe he acknowledges). He spends a good deal of time on Branch Rickey and the Cardinals and the development of the farm system. The 30s episode is almost entirely about the Negro Leagues. He does spend time on the BRM in the 70s, especially the 75 World Series. The last episode focuses on the changing nature of the business of the sport, including collusion, and it makes sense to cover that in a way that spans a few decades (also because it was made in 1994 and probably Burns didn't feel comfortable regarding that era with a completely historical eye yet).

If anything, the thread running through the whole series is racism's effect on the sport through history, from the beginning through Al Campanis. A project like that has to have a thematic thread (or it should) and can't be about what every single team did each year and blah blah blah, or even just about the WS and so on. It takes a much bigger look at baseball as it relates to society and is a part of it and where it diverged from it. Some teams just had bigger, more obvious roles in that than others. It's not about teams or regions; it's about the sport within the context of American history.

Kind of hard to have baseball history and not focus on the east coast, as much as I liked his documentary at this point in my life it's all already reported news to me.

[RedEye]

I'm not a fan of baseball movies much.

The Natural, Bull Durham and 8 Men out (only one I own but I'm a John Sayles fan)

The rest meh... hate the comedies the most.

I heart Sayles, too. Which others do you like? Lonestar, I presume. Others?

[westofyou]

I heart Sayles, too. Which others do you like? Lonestar, I presume. Others?

Love Lonestar... Secrets of Roane Inish was good, Sunshine State.

He reminds me of Altman, definitely a filmmaker who is black licorice to most... I love black licorice

[NebraskaRed]

Love Lonestar... Secrets of Roane Inish was good, Sunshine State.

He reminds me of Altman, definitely a filmmaker who is black licorice to most... I love black licorice

Matewan is great, too.

[RedEye]

Love Lonestar... Secrets of Roane Inish was good, Sunshine State.

He reminds me of Altman, definitely a filmmaker who is black licorice to most... I love black licorice

Absolutely agree on the Altman comparison, at least in terms of storytelling, though I'd place Altman higher in the pantheon. To risk taking this thread in a off-topic direction for the ORG, Nashville, The Player and Shortcuts are three of my favorite American movies of the past half-century.

I've actually thought Sayles has been a bit off-track lately... pretty much since Limbo. His recent Amigo is pretty fantastic though.

[Johnny Footstool]

Long Gone is far and away my favorite. Cecil Stud Cantrell was 1000x a better baseball player than CSI supervisor/lead investigator.

Best climactic at-bat ever.

[M2]

Love Lonestar... Secrets of Roane Inish was good, Sunshine State.

He reminds me of Altman, definitely a filmmaker who is black licorice to most... I love black licorice

Sayles is an absolute favorite of mine. In fact the best baseball movie never made would be an adaptation of Sayles' book "Pride of the Bimbos."

Well, that and the "Iowa Baseball Conferderacy," but Sayles could get Peter Dinklage an Oscar if he did "Bimbos."

[RedEye]

Sayles is an absolute favorite of mine. In fact the best baseball movie never made would be an adaptation of Sayles' book "Pride of the Bimbos."

Well, that and the "Iowa Baseball Conferderacy," but Sayles could get Peter Dinklage an Oscar if he did "Bimbos."

Never read Pride of the Bimbos. One to add to the list!

Did ya catch Amigos? Curious what others thought. Not met many who have actually seen it; it didn't get very wide distribution, I don't think.

[Chip R]

Well, that and the "Iowa Baseball Conferderacy," but Sayles could get Peter Dinklage an Oscar if he did "Bimbos."

I don't think they could ever make a movie out of the Iowa Baseball Confederacy. Too weird. I loved the book but it would be just too tough to make a movie out of. Maybe David Lynch could do it.