Film & Baseball

Baseball and the silver screen simply go together like peas and carrots. I love baseball, and I love most baseball movies (although I did not really care for Bull Durham). In no specific order, here are my favorite baseball films of all time.

“If you build it, he will come.”

As dusk set in, the setting sun casting shadows over his field, Ray Kinsella heard a feint voice that simply whispered, “If you build it, he will come.” At first he thought he was crazy, but this began his journey that would lead him to plow up his cornfield and build a baseball field, befriend a ghostly Shoeless Joe Jackson, take a cross country road trip to find a reclusive author, and ultimately meet the young, non-life hardened version of his father.

While some think Field of Dreams is a bit slow, it is one of my favorites because it is just a good story, not to mention the fact that it was very well acted and produced. The movie speaks a lot about having faith. This is actually one of the first baseball films I saw as a kid, and it made a lasting impression on me. Consequently, this movie is one of the reasons that I became a White Sox fan.

“Say it aint so, Joe.”

After the first time I saw Field of Dreams, I became very interested in Shoeless Joe Jackson and the 1919 “Blacksox” scandal. As a result of this new found interest, I read as many baseball history books and articles as I could find about the 1919 White Sox, and it was during this time that I discovered Eight Men Out. Eight Men Out, in my opinion, was an absolutely fantastic movie. It is based on the actual events of the 1919 World Series and subsequent scandal.

The 1919 Chicago White Sox, who were the best team in baseball at the time, were heavily favored to win the World Series. The movie gives a sense of why some of the players conspired to throw the series, as it portrayed Charles Comisky as a cheap skate, who barely paid his players a living wage. I personally do not believe that Shoeless Joe threw the series, and he should definitely not have been banned from baseball. He had the highest batting average in the World Series, and he hit the series only home run. Some debate the historical accuracy of the movie, and this article is definitely a must read in that regard. For example, while the movie suggests that Comisky did not pay his players well, there are actually reports that the 1919 White Sox were one of the highest paid teams in baseball at the time. The “Say it aint so, Joe” line is also probably not true, although it makes for great drama.

Major League

Major League is just funny. What more can I say. It is a heart warming story about a team that was not supposed to win, who, despite the odds being stacked against them, managed to win - a classic underdog story. My favorite character in the movie was Pedro Cerrano (played by the Allstate guy), who was the voodoo practicing heavy hitter.

“Is very bad to steal Jobu’s rum; is very bad”.

The

Natural

The Natural is the fictional story of Roy Hobbs, who had “natural” baseball talent. It is a story of reinvention. As a young man, Hobbs was a good pitcher, but his career was cut short when he was shot. Years later, he returned to the game as a middle aged man, and he ended up being a great hitter. The Natural was well made, and Robert Redford does a superb job in the film.