Swing and a miss. Striking out. Fair or foul. Rounding the bases. Touching them all.
Baseball is back. The latest opening day in history is upon us but nonetheless it’s still opening day.
Baseball is as much a part of America as mom, apple pie, the flag – and the movies.
No sport has been romanticized on the silver screen as often as baseball. Hollywood has been betting on baseball for decades and it still delivers a winning performance. Diamonds Are Forever isn’t just a James Bond film. It perfectly describes the relationship between the Silver Screen and the American Pastime.
Grab your peanuts and Cracker Jack, because you’re about to get caught in a run down of the greatest baseball films ever made.
42 (2013)
A biopic of when Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier while wearing No. 42 for the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers, hence the title. The film earned $27.3 million during its opening weekend. That’s the best-ever debut for a baseball-themed film.
Like most Hollywood bios, it takes liberty with the facts to arrange more flow to the story. But the ensemble cast is solid, especially Harrison Ford as Dodgers GM Branch Rickey.
Moneyball (2011)
Brad Pitt gives a believable portrayal of Oakland A’s GM Billy Beane and the team’s shift into the world of analytics during the 2002 American League season.
The film is adapted from the 2003 Michael Lewis book of the same name. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards.
The Sandlot (1993)
In the days before kids could play MLB The Show on their device of choice, the only way to play ball was to knock on doors of the neighborhood kids until you’d gathered enough of them to form a game.
A coming of age story built around the ball diamond, it captures the evolution of a group of young friends into adulthood as they share their bond of the love of baseball.
A League Of Their Own (1992)
When World War II sent so many young men off to war that there wasn’t enough to fill out all of the rosters in minor-league towns, Philip K. Wrigley, owner of the Chicago Cubs hit on the idea of launching a women’s pro league, and the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was born.
This film captures the essence of that league. It made stars out of Geena Davis, Rosie O’Donnell – even Madonna was okay in it. And Tom Hanks was on hand to remind everyone that there’s no crying in baseball.
Field Of Dreams (1989)
If you build it, they will come. That catchphrase has become a staple of North American conversation.
Kevin Costner portrays Ray Kinsella, who plows his cornfield under to build a baseball diamond. Suddenly, the greats of the game begin showing up to play baseball on his cornfield diamond.
Major League (1989)
What’s the hardest aspect to believe about this film? That Charlie Sheen could be a big-league closer or that the Cleveland Indians could win the World Series?
As Bob Uecker would say, it all seems just a bit outside.
Bull Durham (1988)
Nuke LaLoosh is a budding pitching prospect with the Durham Bulls being coached in the ways of the show by veteran minor league catcher Crash Davis. Baseball groupie Annie Sovy covets both men.
Sports Illustrated ranked Bull Durham as No. 1 on its list of the greatest sports movies. It was nominated for an Academy Award and two Golden Globes.
Eight Men Out (1988)
Portrayal of the 1919 Chicago White Sox, who threw the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds, leading to the life suspension of eight of their players.
Terrific ensemble cast includes D.B. Sweeney as Shoeless Joe Jackson, John Mahoney as Kid Gleason, Gordon Clapp as Ray Schalk and John Cusack as Buck Weaver.
The Natural (1984)
Two major league stars, Robert Redford and Glenn Close, headline an all-star cast in this story of fictional ballplayer Roy Hobbs, who makes the big leagues as an aging ballplayer and becomes an instant star for the equally fictitious New York Knights.
The film was based on the 1952 Bernard Malamud novel of the same name. The Natural was nominated for four Academy Award, including a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Close.
Bang The Drum Slowly (1973)
Michael Moriarty and a young Robert De Niro star in this underrated classic. Moriarty plays Henry Wiggen, star pitcher for the New York Mammoths. He learns that dimwitted backup catcher Bruce Pearson (De Niro) is dying of a terminal illness. As a condition of his new contract, Wiggin demands that Pearson be kept on the roster.
The two become friends and roommates. The film also teaches everyone how to play the card game tegwar, an acronym for “the exciting game without any rules.”
Pride Of The Yankees (1942)
Portraying legendary Yankee Lou Gehrig, Gary Cooper was such a poor athlete that big leaguer Babe Herman was recruited as his stunt double, right now to throwing the baseball for Cooper.
The movie poses an interesting question – could an actor be nominated for an Oscar after portraying himself in a movie? Yankees legend Babe Ruth plays Babe Ruth in the film, and if you haven’t seen the movie, his portrayal of the Bambino is absolutely spot on.
Fellow Yankees Bill Dickey, Mark Koenig and Bob Meusel also play themselves in the film.
