There’s a link in Graham Womack’s piece on The Sporting News site that will take you to a similar ranking of “the best baseball movies of all time.” I wouldn’t have raised a peep if they substituted “favorite” for “best,” but you know how I feel about superlatives; I’m not going to let this go unchallenged.
Where the book piece was written by a single author, the movies is a compilation by “22 Sporting News staffers.” I don’t have the time or interest to research what their positions are in the company, their ages, and what in their background makes them competent to make such assertions.
This time I’m just going to offer their list:
| 1 | Bull Durham |
| 2 | Major League |
| 3 | Field of Dreams |
| 4 | A League of Their Own |
| 5 | Eight Men Out |
| 6 | The Natural |
| 7 | The Sandlot |
| 8 | Bad News Bears (Original) |
| 9 | Moneyball |
| 10 | 61* |
| 11 | The Pride of the Yankees |
| 12 | Sugarball |
| 13 | 42 |
| 14 | The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings |
| 15 | For the Love of the Game |
Like Womack’s list, I agree with a lot of the usual suspects (Field of Dream, Major League, Eight Men Out, A League of Their Own). The panelists include an explanation of “why it’s a great movie,” so you get an idea of their criteria.
For temporal context, Bingo Long and the original Bad News Bears are celebrating their 40th anniversary this year. The only baseball flick on this this that’s older is the classic Pride of The Yankees (1942). That means a lot of my favorites didn’t make the cut. I wonder how many of the panelists have even heard of It Happens Every Spring, Damn Yankees, or The Stratton Story. And are you seriously telling me that 61* — a cable TV project, by the way — is better than Bang the Drum Slowly? Child, please. If you’re going to include made-for-TV movies, you have to include, or at least consider, Long Gone.
I was please the TSN crew included For Love of the Game, Costner’s final baseball turn. This one often gets short shrift but I think it realistically depicts the selfishness of the elite athlete and the difficulties in facing the inevitability of a career that’s winding down.
But where’s Mr. Baseball? Where’s Day of Independence?
I think it’s actually easier to come up with a list of the worst baseball movies. Sadly, they far outweigh the “best.”
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I'd add a couple other forgotten gems from Joe E. Brown, "Elmer, the Great" from 1933 and "Alibi Ike" from 1935. Both are funny.
"Long Gone" is worth finding just to hear Teller talk.
Yeah, I left those out as being a bit TOO old. The original "Angels in the Outfield" was entertaining, too.
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