* Big time (movie) baseball stars

SI.com has a slide show of their fantasy baseball team comprised of movie characters. Nice idea, until you see some of their selections:

1. Jack Elliot (Tom Sellick), in Mr. Baseball
2. Eppy Calvin “Nuke” Laloosh (Tim Robbins), Bull Durham
3. Dotty Hinson (Geena Davis), A League of Their Own
4. Montgomery Brewster (Richard Pryor), Brewster’s Millions
5. 
6. Amanda Wurlizter (Sammi Kane Kraft ), Bad News Bears
7. Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn (Charlie Sheen), Major League
8. Henry Rowengartner (Thomas Ian Nicholas), Rookie of the Year
9. Bobby Rayburn (Wesley Snipes), The Fan
10. Ed (Ed), Ed
11. Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford), The Natural

Plus, for some reason, Jessica Biel’s character in Summer Catch.

Entertainment Weekly counters with an “MVP” list of their own, which includes several overlaps of the SI piece. Their chocies are more stringent since they pick one per position.

1. Rick Vaughn
2. George “Bucky” Weaver (John Cusack), Eight Men Out. Although you have to give credit to clown/mime Bill Irwin for his rendering of Ed “Cocky” Collins.
3. Jackie Robinson (Jackie Robinson), The Jackie Robinson Story.
4. Jimmy Piersall (Anthony Perkins), Fear Strikes Out. Perkins has been generally acknowledged as the worst actor to portray an athlete.
5. Amanda Wurlitzer (Tatum O’Neal), The Bad News Bears
6. Roy Hobbs
7. Shoeless Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta), Field of Dreams. It has been pointed out that Jackson was a lefty batter, which Liotta was not. Nor did the actor affect a southern accent.
8. Lou Gehrig (Gary Cooper), Pride of the Yankees. The famous legend has it that they couldn’t make Cooper a convincing lefty, so they put him in a uniform with the letters in reverse and flipped the field, making him running to third base instead of first.
9. Dottie Hinson and manager Jimmy Duggan (Tom Hanks)
10. Nuke Laloosh and Crash Davis (Kevin Costner)

The EW site also awards points for accuracy in the portrayal.

All right, time to get serious here. No kids, no animals, no special effects (Sorry, Ray Milland.):

My selections, representing each position, plus a pitching staff, made of of characters who could really bring it:

First Base: Jack Elliot

Second Base: Disqualifying Robinson, since he had the professional advantage, so I pick Eddie Collins

Shortstop: Eddie O’Brien (Gene Kelly), Take Me Out to the Ball Game. Had to pick someone. I guess shortstop is too hard a position to fake on screen.

Third Base: Buck Weaver

Leftfield: Shoeless Joe Jackson (D.B. Sweeney), Eight Men Out

Centerfield: Happy Felsch (Charlie Sheen), Eight Men Out

Rightfield: Roy Hobbs

Catchers: Crash Davis, Dottie Hinson

Pitchers: Rick Vaughn, Billy Chapel (Kevin Costner), For the Love of the Game; Jimmy Morris (Dennis Quaid), The Rookie; Henry Wiggen (Michael Moriarty), Bang the Drum Slowly; Eddie Ciccotte (David Strathairn), Eight Men Out. Forget that the character cheated, Strathairn, a staple of John Sayles movies, was pretty convincing on the mound. Other stars who played pitchers include Jimmy Stewart (The Monty Stratton Story), Dan Dailey (The Pride of St. Louis, portraying Dizzy Dean), and Ronald Reagan (Grover Cleveland Alexander in The Winning Team).

Honorable Mention: Dennis Haysbert, who played two heavy hitters, Pedro Cerrano in Major League, and Max “Hammer” Dubois in Mr. Baseball.

FYI, here are a couple of good baseball movie sites: Baseballmovie.com, which includes lots of information and links. Also SportsinMovies.com.

Tagged as: baseball movies