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Top 10 Baseball Movies
10. Mr. 3000 (2004): Yup, this recent romp featuring comedian
Bernie Mac as an egomaniacal hybrid of Albert Belle and Barry Bonds, is a screwy
knuckleball that goes deep. After getting hit number 3,000 in 1995, Mac¡¯s
Stan Ross quits on his team, the Milwaukee Brewers, who happen to be in the
mist of a playoff run. Ten years later when Stan is ready to sail into the
Hall of Fame (only 25 big leaguers have ever hit 3,000) and his numbers are
rechecked, it turns out that Stan is actually three hits shy. The press hates
Stan (and they do the voting) so no 3,000, no Cooperstown. At age 47 Stan
mounts a comeback with the now lowly Brewers. The arc¡¯s predictable, but Mac
is superb as the over-the-hill star who needs to change up his game.
9. A League of Their
Own (1992): Penny Marshall
directed this manipulative, but rewarding tale about the real-life
all-women¡¯s baseball league in the male-dominated 40s. Tom Hanks plays the
good-natured skipper and Geena Davis, Lori Petty, pop-star Madonna and Rosie
O'Donnell make up the potpourri of personas that fill out the diamond. The
plot¡¯s not an intricate component as the film is more about bonding, teamsmanship
and playing against stereotype. The eclectic cast includes Jon Lovitz, David
Strathairn, Garry Marshall (Penny¡¯s brother) and Bill Pullman.
8. Bang the Drum
Slowly (1973): Robert De Niro
made this male tearjerker between ¡°Mean Streets¡± and ¡°The Godfather II.¡± Here
he plays dimwitted Bruce Pearson who catches for the fictitious New York
Mammoths (their uniforms look like Yankees¡¯ garb and they play in the NL like
the Mets). He¡¯s not the most talented player either and hides the fact he¡¯s
dying of Hodgkin's Disease. His manger (played with poise and compassion by
character actor Vincent Gardenia) wants to cut him, though ace pitcher Arthur
Wiggen (Michael Moriarty) knows it¡¯s Pearson¡¯s last season and refuses to
sign on without him. The film affects in small, subtle ways. Essentially
¡°Brian¡¯s Song¡± for the baseball set.
7. Major League (1989): David S. Ward, the guy who wrote ¡°The
Sting¡± and ¡°Sleepless in Seattle,¡± writes and directs this screwball romp
about the lowly Cleveland Indians trying to claw their way to respectability
while the owner (a sexy, bitchy Margeret Whitton) tries to tank the team for business
reasons. (At the time the film was made the Indians had not made the playoffs
in nearly fifty years.) The cast of quirky misfits includes, Charlie Sheen as
Wild Thing, the brash young pitcher in dire need of a barber and an eye
doctor, Dennis Haysbert as the voodoo worshiping slugger, Wesley Snipes as
the skittish speed merchant, Corbin Bernsen as the philandering,
self-centered star and of course, Tom Berenger as the aging catcher with bad
knees who tries to hold the whole ragtag crew together. Rene Russo is a plus
as Berenger¡¯s estranged wife and longtime baseball persona Bob Uecker serves
up the laughs as the hammy announcer.
6. Bad News Bears (1976): More misfits looking for respectability,
except in the half-pint league. Tatum O¡¯Neal and Jackie Earle Haley (playing
the same white-trash rough neck he would later play in ¡°Breaking Away¡±) are
the only bright spots on a Little League team of ineffectuals helmed by
Walter Matthau. Matthau¡¯s dead on as the gruff, beer-swilling hack who gets a
shot at redemption. The issue of a girl playing a boys game is handled
adroitly for the times and director Michael Ritchie keeps the comic pacing
tight.
5. Field of Dreams (1989): If you build it they will come. And they
did. A sentimental paean for those who love the game, its history and its
place in American culture. Based on W.P. Kinsella¡¯s book ¡°Shoeless Joe,¡±
Kevin Kostner plays as the author¡¯s alter ego, a simple Iowan farmer who has
a calling to build a baseball diamond in his cornfields. He relents, and out
of the cornrows comes Shoeless Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta) and other old-school
ballers. There¡¯s a bigger mission however (¡°Ease his pain.¡±), that takes
Kostner¡¯s reluctant acolyte far away from his Iowa farm. The ensemble cast
includes Burt Lancaster and James Earl Jones. Surreal in texture and made by
first time director, Phil Alden Robinson, the film went on to garner three
Academy Award nominations, including Best Adapted Screenplay and Best
Picture.
4. The Natural (1984):
Robert Redford plays Roy Hobbs, the distilled synthesis of everything
that¡¯s pure and righteous in Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Pete Rose, Hank Aaron and so
on. In the 30s Hobbs is destined to be the next great, but an encounter with
a crazed femme fatale (Barbara Hershey) delays his debut in the big leagues
by sixteen years. Much of what goes down is a weekend warrior
fantasy¡ªespecially for those who are haunted by dreams of what could have
been¡ªbut director Barry Levinson makes the improbable magical and affecting.
Robert Duval, a young Kim Bassinger as Memo Paris (femme fatal number two),
Glenn Close and Wilford Brimley round out the cast.
3. Bull Durham (1988): Kevin Kostner again. In two years he
makes two of the best films about baseball, and his normally wooden screen
persona isn¡¯t an impediment. Here director Ron Shelton employs him as Crash
Davis, an aging catcher (see Major League) stuck in the minors, though he¡¯s
made a few scant jaunts to the ¡°big show.¡± He¡¯s brought to the Durham Bulls
to tutor brash young pitcher Nuke LaLoosh (Tim Robbins), a hot big league
prosepct. The love triangle dynamic and kinky sex play between Davis, Laloosh
and Bull fanatic, Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon, this is where she and Robbins
met) makes the whole zany concoction rise. Shelton has made a career out of
the sports movie¡ªand this remains his crowning jewel.
2. Eight Men Out (1988): John Sayles¡¯s take on the 1919 Chicago
White Sox scandal, where the home town team, featuring Shoeless Joe Jackson
threw the World Series under a crush of gamblers¡¯ cash. Sayles makes the
black stain on baseball comedic and comprehensible¡ªit¡¯s the incident that has
kept Jackson (played here by D.B. Sweeney) out of Cooperstown. The cast
includes John Cusack, Christopher Lloyd, Charlie Sheen and David Strathairn.
1. Pride of the
Yankees (1942): If you laid this
one next to ¡°Bang the Drum Slowly,¡± you¡¯d think ¡°Yankees¡± was the fictional
fantasy and ¡°Drum¡± the gritty reality film, but not so in this bio-pic about
the life, times and heart aching demise of legendary Yankee, Lou Gherig.
Garry Cooper brings the Galahad persona to life, with his square jaw and
everyman humility. Teresa Wright plays his dutiful wife and Babe Ruth plays
himself (three years before his death). There¡¯s nothing about this movie
that¡¯s not affecting and the final¡ªand famous¡ªfarewell scene will leave a
lump in the throat of even the most stolid.
- TBM
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