It's That Time of Year... The 10 Best Baseball Movies
Apr 01 '07 (Updated Sep 29 '07)
The Bottom Line Play ball!
When I was about eight years old, I suddenly developed an intense love of the game of baseball. My parents didn't watch sports at all. I just picked up on it myself, learned the rules, and listened. Throughout they years I learned more than most boys knew about the sport. I'd watch games and be able to critique the players.
My favorite team has always been the Mets. I was rewarded for my faithful devotion to them in the late 1970's and early 1980's when their record was fairly dismal. The 1986 Playoffs and World Series was probably the highlight of my life.
Now I live in New Hampshire and it's hard at times. I'm in enemy territory for one, although the Sox fans share the intense hatred of the Yankees with Mets fans. They will overlook Game 6 of the 1986 World Series for that common bond of hatred - it's that powerful.
Usually around January I start pining for my baseball games. I start counting down to the day pitchers and catchers report for spring training. I watch a lot of baseball movies and read baseball books.
Through the years, these have become my favorite baseball films. I have others I wanted to watch before Opening Day rolled around, so the list is subject to change.
Honorable Mentions - When It Was A Game
This HBO documentary features 8mm and 16mm color footage shot by players and fans from the 1930's through to the 1950's. It's a heartwarming, excellent piece of baseball nostalgia that's rarely been seen before.
Fever Pitch
I was surprised by this film when I watched it. I wasn't expecting to like it so much. It’s the story of a die-hard Red Sox fans. His life has been the Sox. He meets a girl who seems to understand at first, but then complications ensue. All of this is to the backdrop of the 2004 season when the Red Sox finally won the World Series.
The character of Ben could have been the male version of me, which is why I think I identified with it so well. It’s a sweet love story that’s fairly predictable but fun at the same time, especially for baseball fans.
10 - 1986 World Series New York Mets Collector's Edition - (2006)
I have to have one biased favorite and this is it. Being a Mets fan, the 1986 season was probably one of the most memorable of my life. Watching this boxed set brings back some awesome memories. The DVD extras in this with player interviews and reflections from twenty years later are really terrific. What's also nice is being able to share the moments I've always talked about with my kids so they can see what Game 6 of the Playoffs versus the Astros was like, with all of the suspense and tension as the game plodded on. Of course, the highlight is Game 6 of the Series and the final half-inning. Sorry, Red Sox fans...
9 - Bad News Bears
The original with Walter Matthau, Tatum O’Neal, and Jackie Earle Haley. Not the remake. Puh-lease…
A former ballplayer takes on the challenge of coaching a Little League team. It’s a team of misfits who can only get sponsored by a Bail Bondsman. The players all have distinct personalities and are hilarious. Coach Butter maker (Matthau) stacks the team with a couple of ringers in Amanda (O’Neal) the daughter of an old girlfriend with an arm like Dwight Gooden, and Kelly Leak (Haley) a punk with an attitude and an awesome swing.
I think I enjoyed this so much because I missed out on Little League. Title IX came just after I was too old for it and I can remember days of hanging on the backstop watching the boys I was friends with play. How I wanted to be a part of it!
8 - Fear Strikes Out
There’s a lesson here for sports parent about pushing your kids. Unfortunately, the people who need to see it would never get it anyway.
Based on the life of former Major League player Jimmy Piersall, who suffered with a mental illness throughout his baseball career. In the beginning, he seems to have blamed the pressure his father put on him to achieve for his illness, but then backed off that assertion later on in his life.
Still, Fear Strikes Out is a good cautionary tale. The acting here is great with Anthony Perkins and Karl Malden as the father-son combination.
7 - 61*
The season Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth's single-season home-run record he was positively hated by New York fans, largely due to his portrayal in the media. Yet, there was no real rivalry between him and Mickey Mantle, the anointed one in both their eyes. This story is inspirational as well as well-made with an incredible attention to detail.
6 - Field of Dreams
The quintessential baseball fairy tale. Kevin Costner stars as Ray Kinsella, an Iowa farmer who hears voices telling him If you build it, they will come… and sees visions of a ballfield in his cornfield. In an act of faith, his wife Annie (portrayed by Amy Madigan) goes along. Soon the ghosts of the past are playing nightly games in their field. Yet that’s not all for Ray as he must bring to the field a reclusive writer (James Earl Jones) as well as a minor league player turned country doctor (Burt Lancaster).
It’s a story of faith and relationships, but it also shows how baseball is such an integral part of many people’s lives. The most wonderful thing in life is getting to play catch with your Dad, and it’s such a simple message of the meaning of acts such as this that we forget about. It’s well acted and beautifully filmed.
5 - The Natural
Robert Redford stars as a phenom who leaves his farm for the big leagues and gets waylaid along the way by life and bad decisions. When he has been forgotten for the brief splash he made in the eyes of baseball as a pitcher, he comes back as a hitter. He’s older and has a harder time of it, but he still manages to have one season the way he dreamed his career would be.
There’s also redemption here as he must atone to the girl he left behind, and she shows she still has faith and belief in him. It’s well acted and beautifully filmed. The story is better than most about the aging rookie trying once again to capture what he missed out on.
4 - A League of Their Own
Women in baseball? Yes, women in baseball!
This is the story of the All America Pro Girls League which was formed during the second world war to keep baseball alive while so many men (and players) were overseas. It focuses on one team and the relationship between two sisters. There are some great side-stories such as the washed-up former major leaguer who’s managing the team and an alcoholic.
This was my dream, and I think that’s why I have such affection for it. The women play rough and tough; as hard as any man could. The story is great and the acting is terrific. The ensemble cast, which includes Madonna, Rosie O’Donnell, Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, and Lori Petty comes together nicely. Definitely inspirational for those of us who have been forced to sit on the sidelines due to our gender!
3 - Pride of the Yankees
Another baseball fairy tale, based on the life of New York Yankee Lou Gehrig. He grew up poor in New York City. His love of baseball was tempered by a domineering mother who had dreams of him being an engineer. He ended up one of the star of the Yankees in the 1920’s and 1930’s and part of the infamous Murderers Row.
Much of the story is his relationship with his wife and while many parts are embellished for both patriotic reasons (it was released during World War II) and to tell a compelling story of a man caught between two women he loves, it’s good nonetheless. Gary Cooper is excellent as Gehrig, blurring the lines between fiction and reality quite well. Looking at old pictures of the ballplayer, it’s sometimes hard to know who’s who. Even all these years later it holds up as a fantastic film about baseball, even for Yankee-haters like me.
2 - Baseball - A Film by Ken Burns
Very long, but a terrific documentary of the game and it’s place in our society. Made up of ten discs, it starts with the origins of the game and goes all the way into the 1990’s. Ken Burns covers more material than I ever thought I could know about baseball, highlighting the great players and some memorable seasons.
This is not just a romantic look at the game as Burns tells the story of conflicts between the players and owners, corruption, and with the racism present in Major League baseball. Definitely only for real fans of the game who have the temerity to sit through it. I usually do over several weeks each January and February.
1 - Eight Men Out
The White Sox of 1919 were made up of ordinary men getting royally screwed by a greedy owner, Charlie Comisky (how did he end up with a stadium named for him?) It’s no wonder they are ripe for the plucking when gamblers come to town and ask them to throw the World Series in exchange for cash.
This movie follows the ins and outs of the gamblers as well as the ballplayers themselves. They have misgivings at times, and sportswriters soon begin piecing together what’s happening. The most tragic story here is of Shoeless Joe Jackson who wasn’t as educated as some of his fellow ballplayers and spent years trying to prove his innocence after being banned from the game.
Watching this, I realize the problems between players and owners which flare up on a regular basis have been a part of the game forever. It was always a business, despite what some people would try to tell you.
The cast is wonderful. With such a large one it would be easy to say there are some actors who aren’t holding their weight as players. That’s just not the case. Although it’s not what you would call an inspirational film, it’s the acting, attention to detail, and story itself that makes this a great film to watch.
© 2007 Patti Aliventi
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Member: Patti Aliventi
Location: Mount Washington Valley, New Hampshire
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