Reese Kaplan -- Best Baseball Movie of All Time?

Just as people have a particular emotional and often irrational allegiance to a single ballclub, the same holds true when it comes to favorite songs, favorite books and favorite movies.  Baseball has been the subject of a great many cinematic efforts, some good and some bad.  Let’s take a chronological look at some of the more popular baseball-themed movies and then hear from you about your favorites:

Pride of the Yankees (1942)

Gary Cooper plays Iron Horse Lou Gehrig, chronicling his ascent into baseball immortality and then the disease, ALS, that cut short his career.  Babe Ruth played himself in this movie and there’s not a dry eye in the house when you hear Cooper at his “day” celebrating his career after the disease made it impossible for him to continue playing say, “Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” 

The Stratton Story (1949)

Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson starred in this tale about All Star pitcher Monty Stratton who attempted a comeback after a gunshot wound from a hunting accident cost him his leg.  He spent parts of five additional seasons pitching in the minors with a wooden leg. 

The Pride of St. Louis (1952)

This biopic starred Dan Dailey as Dizzy Dean who ruined his arm when, against medical advice, he returned to the mound prematurely after taking a line drive off his toe and breaking it.  The altered mechanics ruined his arm and cut short a terrific career which saw him win 133 games between 1932 and 1937 for the St. Louis Cardinals. 

Fear Strikes Out (1957)

This biopic tells the story of Jimmy Piersall, a solid ballplayer so driven by a father who never seemed satisfied with the effort his son was giving that it eventually caused him to become institutionalized as a result of a nervous breakdown.  Anthony Perkins and Karl Malden give terrific performances in this story of a ballplayer coming to realize his motivation to succeed and his road back to the game he loved. 

Damn Yankees! (1958)

Tab Hunter stars in this musical about a down and out Washington Senators ballplayer, Joe Hardy, who wants more than anything to become the best in the game in order for his team to beat the hated NY Yankees.  He makes a literal deal with the devil, but as such stories usually unfold, things do not turn out quite as planned.  Ray Walston does a nice job as the devil, but perhaps the movie is best known for the seductive musical number, “Whatever Lola Wants” done by Gwen Verdon.

Bang the Drum Slowly (1973)

This little seen movie had the double whammy of being released during a newspaper strike in New York City and following two years after the single biggest TV movie of all time, “Brian’s Song”.  This fictional story about baseball was actually written in 1956 but the story paralleled the real life drama of NFL player Brian Piccolo.  In this movie, pitcher Michael Moriarty, catcher (then unknown) Robert De Niro and manager Vincent Gardenia gave stellar performances showing how a team came together when it was revealed that De Niro was in fact dying.  Gardenia got an Academy Award for his performance as Best Supporting Actor. 

The Bad News Bears (1976)

Walter Matthau is a drunk, womanizing ne’er do well who is looped into coaching a misfit team of Little Leaguers, headed by a female pitching star and a bad-boy outfielder who take it down to the final out in the championship against the hated Yankees. 

The Natural (1984)

Robert Redford plays Roy Hobbs, Bernard Malamud’s complex depiction of a terrific talent who fashions a bat from a tree struck by lightning where his father dropped dead of a heart attack.  He carried “Wonderboy” with him everywhere yet saw himself as more of a pitcher than a hitter.  At a county fair he struck out a legendary professional hitter and was rewarded by being picked up by sultry Barbara Hershey who lures him up to her hotel room and shoots him.  He’s vanished from baseball for over 15 years when he’s hired on as a 35 year old rookie who helps lead his team to a championship against the backdrop of illegal gambling.  The nearly final scene with the right field lights exploding from his home run is one of cinema’s all-time greats. 

Bull Durham (1988)

Kevin Costner as minor league slugger Crash Davis is called upon to tutor the naïve and somewhat full of himself Nuke Laloosh in how to become a major league ballplayer.  Susan Sarandon gives a great performance as the ultimate baseball groupie and love interest of both ballplayers.  There are some memorable lines from that movie that are quoted and spoofed regularly outside the realm of baseball.

Eight Men Out (1988)

Acclaimed director John Sayles’ take on the 1919 Black Sox scandal was dramatized in this popular movie starring John Cusack, Christopher Lloyd, Charlie Sheen and D.B. Sweeney as Shoeless Joe Jackson.  Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned all eight involved for life for not coming forth about being approached by gamblers. 

Field of Dreams (1989)

An Iowa corn farmer hooks up with a baseball writer and with his encouragement builds a baseball field on the property of his failing farm.  Sure enough, upon its completion baseball players from a long bygone era start appearing out of the cornfield, including eventually his father who comes along to play catch with his son. 

Major League (1989)

In this rally-round-the-evil-owners tale, the hapless Cleveland Indians have an owner hell bent on moving them to Florida and needs for them to finish poorly in order to make her case that it would be more economically viable to relocate the franchise.  With a rag-tag bunch of misfit players, they stage an improbably run to the pennant on the arm of “Wild Thing” Ricky Vaughn (Charlie Sheen), the bat of Jobu’s disciple, Pedro Cerrano (Dennis Haysbert) and the legs of Willie Mays Hayes (Wesley Snipes).  Bob Uecker cemented his status as the most colorful play-by-play man ever with a series of memorable one-liners. 

A League of Their Own (1992)

This tale was a story about the real life Rockford Peaches of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League that was formed to fill the void during World War II when many of the game’s star players were off fighting.  Tom Hanks was a former player and now alcoholic manager who was saddled with this team but showed little interest until one of his players, Geena Davis, demonstrated both the desire and talent to win.  The cast also included performances by Madonna and Rosie O’Donnell. 

Mr. Baseball (1992)

Tom Selleck plays an over-the-hill slugger and former MVP who has been traded to the Chunichi Dragons of the Nippon Professional Baseball league in Japan.  There he must adjust both to no longer being the center of attention, to the nuances of how the Japanese game and the American game differ, and how to reinvent himself in this new environment.  The fictionalized account is not the stuff of Academy Awards, but the glimpse inside Japanese baseball culture is something most fans have never seen.  

Cobb (1994)

Before there was John Rocker, Hall of Famer Ty Cobb was the poster child for racist, hate-mongering bigotry.  However, he also had a lifetime batting average of .367, so people were willing to look past his rather fiery personality.  Tommy Lee Jones gives a tour de force in the lead role telling his story in flashbacks to his biographer, Robert Wuhl. 

Trouble With the Curve (2012)

This very recent Clint Eastwood flick has a connection to the NY Mets as most of it was filmed at the Grayson Stadium, home of the Savannah Sand Gnats.  It tells the story of an old-school baseball scout who’s losing his vision but not his instincts for finding talent.  He advises against drafting a top-rated slugger due to his inability to hit the curve ball.  His daughter picks up the mantle of scouting for him when his eyesight won’t let him continue and she finds a remarkable pitcher who used to sell peanuts in the stands at the ballpark.  At the end of the movie the pitcher makes the top draft pick hitter look silly on a hellacious curve. 

Here in alphabetical order are some other baseball movies that may or may not be on your radar:

• 42
• *61
• Angels in the Outfield
• Alibi Ike
• The Babe
• The Babe Ruth Story
• Ballplayer: Pelotero
• Baseball (Ken Burns)
• The Bingo Long Traveling All Stars & Motor Kings
• Blue Skies Again
• Brewster’s Millions
• Chasing 3000
• The Comrades of Summer
• Fever Pitch
• For the Love of the Game
• Hardball
• It Happens Every Spring
• The Jackie Robinson Story
• The Kid from Left Field
• Kill the Umpire
• The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg
• Little Big League
• Long Gone
• Moneyball
• Mr. 3000
• Mr. Destiny
• The Naughty Nineties
• Pastime
• The Rookie
• Rookie of the Year
• Rhubarb
• Safe at Home
• The Sandlot
• Stealing Home
• Sugar
• Take Me Out to the Ballgame
• Talent for the Game
• Tiger Town

Are there any significant titles that I missed?  What is your all-time favorite?  My vote goes to Bang the Drum Slowly whose movie rendition was word-for-word true to the excellent Mark Harris novel on which it was based.