Quote this.

Note: I started this entry quite a while ago but I doubt another story like this has been posted since then, so…

It’s not enough that there are lists of the greatest baseball movies of all time. Now there’s one on “Ranking the 25 best baseball movie-quotes of all time” (my emphasis).

Quotation Marks Just like any ordering of things, this one from The Sporting News is questionable. How does “Luckiest Man” from The Pride of the Yankees fall into last place while “…give us one more day of summer” from For Love of the Game comes in at #14? Other head-scratchers include “You guys are guests in my corn,” from Field of Dreams? “You’re Right. Don’t talk to them,” from 61*? “Pitcher’s got a big butt!” from Rookie of the Year? “Baseball is very hard,” (Million Dollar Arm) and “It’s incredibly hard,” (Moneyball)? Really? That just seems like inclusion for the sake of filling out the assignment.

That’s the insidiousness of such a task. I’ve seen just about every baseball movies released over the last half-century (yikes) and IMO there aren’t enough worthy quotes to fill such a list (although there is a link in the story to the 10 best baseball movies).

Here’s the entire roster but I still recommend reading the article to understand the writer’s process for “the setup” and “why it’s the best.” Oh, maybe that’s the reason: a roster during the regular season consists of 25 players, or am I projecting?) And at the risk of being of being too picayune, I would just point out that some of these quotes are not all single lines; many are part of a monologue (“People will come, Ray.”) or soliloquy (“…the Church of Baseball.”).

25. Pride of the Yankees: “Today I consider myself …”
24. Mr. Baseball: “We’re not athletes. We’re baseball players.”
23. Field of Dreams: “You guys are guests in my corn!”
22. 61*: “You’re right, don’t talk to them.”
21. Bull Durham: “I’m just happy to be here.”
20. Million Dollar Arm: “Baseball is very hard.”
19. Major League: “Win the whole f—in’ thing.”
18. Eight Men Out: “Damn, if you don’t feel like you’re going to live forever.”
17. Rookie of the Year: “Pitcher’s got a big butt!”
16. Field of Dreams: “People will come, Ray.”
15. Moneyball: “How can you not be romantic about baseball?”
14. For Love of the Game: “… give us one more day of summer.”
13. The Natural: “God, I love baseball.” *
12. The Rookie: “You tell me right now, Jimmy Morris.”
11. The Bad News Bears: “Hey Yankees, take your apology …”
10. The Natural: “Pick me out a winner, Bobby.”
9. Field of Dreams: “Hey dad? You wanna have a catch?”
8. Bull Durham: “… the Church of Baseball.”
7. A League of Their Own: “There’s no crying in baseball!”
6. Major League: “This guy here is dead.”
5. Moneyball: “It’s incredibly hard.”
4. The Sandlot: “You’re killing me, Smalls!”
3. Major League: “Juuuust a bit outside.”
2. Bull Durham: “Lollygaggers!”
1. A League of Their Own: “The hard is what makes it great.”

Interesting to note that Pride of the Yankees is the oldest film (1942) with nothing between that and Bad News Bears (1976), even though there were several films in the interim. Also, nothing from the Jackie Robinson biopic 42? That seems like a big omission.

Anyway, I’ve narrowed down and ranked my own choices from the above but I could only come up with eight; I refuse to bend to convention and round it up to 10 and I’m too lazy to do one of my own from scratch.

8. “Lollygaggers!”
7. “I’m just happy to be here.”
6. “You’re killing me, Smalls!”
5. “Hey, dad? You wanna have a catch?”
4. “People will come, Ray.”
3. “Juuuust a bit outside.”
2. “Today I consider myself …”
1. “There’s no crying in baseball!”

Honorable mention to “We’re not athletes. We’re baseball players,” from Mr. Baseball because it reminded me of this from My Favorite Year (jump to the 1:17 mark):