IBC

so recent conversations around the board have got me thinking about baseball and movies, my two favorite things, and the greatness or the massive amount of crapiness that can come when you combine the two. we have mentioned the classics lately, such as The Natural and Field of Dreams, but I think the movies I enjoy the most are the ridiculous baseball comedies. And, on top of that list, is Major League.

You can't top that movie as far as baseball comedies go, or sports comedies in general. Has Wesley Snipes ever played a better role than Willie Mays Hayes? Charlie Sheen as the Wild Thing. Tom Berenger back when he actually had a career. And of course, Bob Eucker.

Everyone else feel free to jump in and add their favorite baseball movies, comedy or otherwise.

Another one to consider is one that I loved as a kid - Rookie of the Year. What kid wouldn't love that movie? A kid gets a chance to play for the CHICAGO CUBS! Sounds frickin' sweet to me. Not to mention you'd get to hang out with Daniel Stern, who is always funny. The breaking your arm part would suck, but whatever, no pain no glory my friends.

Major League and Field of Dreams really stand out for me as the best.

On the other end of the spectrum, Fever Pitch and everyone associated with the film can kiss my Irish ass...

I'm still mad at my girlfriend about Fever Pitch. It was one of those movies she insisted that we see because it was a chick flick for her and had baseball in it for me. God, was she wrong. Of course, what do you expect from anything featuring Jimmy Fallon, who is pretty much the worst thing to happen to entertainment. Ever.

Love Major League, love it even more sans love story. The sequels are funny but overdone. If we're talking funny sports movies, Slapshot takes the cake. What a great comedy that was.

As for Field of Dreams, that's just a classic. No arguing about it.

I guess my hatred of hockey has kept me from seeing Slapshot. Maybe one of these days I will. Although its hard for me to believe any hockey movie will surpass the genius of the Mighty Ducks movies.

Come on fellas! No knock on Major League, I absolutely love it, but nothing will ever top Caddyshack for all-time sports comedies! Nothing! Ever!

As for non-comedies, I'll go with Eight Men Out.

Okay Kelly I'll give you that, depends if you consider golf a sport...(I do, but some don't)

Gabe, Slapshot is must see. Paul Newman's in it. The Hanson Brothers are classic material.

I don't consider golf a sport, but Caddyshack, just as a film, is one of my top 4-5 films of all time. However, the thread IS baseball films so its prior omission is understandable, sport or not.

Field of Dreams

I've actually gone back to the baseball movies I own lately, and the two best to me are Major League and Bull Durham. Not only are both amazingly funny, but the acting in both is actually quite good. I, of course, loved Eight Men Out and Field of Dreams, but neither entertained me more then those two.

Now, Gabe, I REALLY hope you weren't saying that Wild Thing was the apex of Charlie Sheen's career. We had this conversation the other day - has anyone had a more underrated acting career then Sheen? Sure, he made some absolutely craptastic movies, but he's more famous for being famous then for his acting - but check this list out:

Red Dawn
Lucas
Ferris Bueller's Day Off - UNFORGETTABLE cameo
Platoon - nothing really needs to be said
Wall Street - absolutely great movie
Young Guns - one of my all-time favorites
Eight Men Out
Major League
Men at Work
Hot Shots and Hot Shots Part Deux - if the younger generation wants to see an actual GOOD spoof movie, see the Hot Shots and Naked Gun series just f'ing hilarious
Loaded Weapon 1 - not great, but pretty goddamn funny
The Three Musketeers - real fun Sunday afternoon flick
Major League II - only worth mentioning because of Sheen and the guy who played Rube
Money Talks - why, oh why, did Chris Tucket decide to stop swearing...ugh...
Being John Malcovich
Scary Movie's 3 & 4
Two and Half Men - great, great, great TV comedy

I mean, with a stumble in the late 90's, that's a pretty solid career - no?

No, that's not what I was saying. I was simply saying he was great as Vaughn. Money Talks is a guilty pleasure of mine, and him popping up in Ferris Bueller is classic.

I am, however, a bigger fan of his father than I am of him. The greatest sustained television performance ever, in my opinion, is Martin Sheen as President Josiah Bartlett for seven years. He was absolutely incredible.

A hilarious part of Hot Shots was when Martin Sheen (spoofing his Apocalypse Now character) was passing Charlie Sheen on the open water, and, instead of referencing Platoon or Apocalypse Now, they both say, "I loved you in Wall St." Pretty funny stuff...

What about The Pride of the Yankees?

Makes me choke up everytime.

Bull Durham is good...
Slap Shot is one of the best comedy's I've ever seen. Gabe, if you fancy yourself a movie buff, you should get over your "hatred" and see this film. Defenitely a classic.

I almost bought Slap Shot last weekend, but I went with Grandma's Boy instead.

If there was ever a movie that needs to be remade just for awesome special effects, its Red Dawn. I love the movie, when I eventually teach the Cold War in my classroom, I will show it. The only bad thing about the movie is the cheesy 80s special effects. I actually have Red Dawn scenarios in my head for where I would go and hide out if certain things happened, but I also have a lot of free time.

Baseball movies, Field of Dreams hands down. Only movie that's ever made me cry. And for the life of me, I can't understand how chicks can't see why this movie gets to guys. Love Major League as well. I watched that a bunch when I was little and didn't get the jokes, but when I got old enough to understand everything, fantastic movie. Along the lines of Gabe, growing up one of my favorite movies was Little Big League. A ton of cameos(I think it was made during the strike), Ken Griffey Jr. as the major villian. I bet I watched that movie at least 30 times when I was little. The thing is, Billy cost the Twins the Wild Card by benching Lou Collins because he was dating his mom.

Aside from Field of Dreams, I would say my favorite sports movie is Friday Night Lights. Great story, BELIEVABLE FOOTBALL SCENES, great acting by Billy Bob, Tim McGraw and everyone else involved. That's what I hate about most football movies, every tackle is some bone jarring hit where a guy flips in the air 10 times before hitting the ground(Varsity Blues), they only score on crazy trick plays or always win in the final seconds of a game(Remember the Titans, Friday Night Lights tv series, Varsity Blues). North Dallas Forty is a classic, just for Nick Nolte's acting alone.

The new Longest Yard is bad, but if any of you have TBS, since its on all the time, watch the last hour for one thing: Kevin Nash. He salvages the movie from terrible to somewhat watchable just by himself

I pretty much agree with everything that you said - except Varsity Blues. That movie CLEARLY didn't take itself seriously as a movie, it just wanted to be cool (it was MTV for God's sake) and to that it succeeded.

Great characters (I mean, people still call Scott Caan "Tweeder"!), cool action (every football scene), quotable dialogue ("A 10, A 10, a fuckin' 10!"), and great scenes (Whip Cream Scene). It's one of the best popcorn sports flicks of all-time, and one of my favorite popcorn flicks period. If you go to that and want to watch a realistic movie, then you clearly didn't see the previews or talk to anyone before going.

Oh no, I didn't say Varsity Blues wasn't entertaining, I'll watch that movie any day for Scott Caan alone. I just hate football movies where every play is epic

Cardinals wrote:Oh no, I didn't say Varsity Blues wasn't entertaining, I'll watch that movie any day for Scott Caan alone. I just hate football movies where every play is epic

Couldn't agree more... ugh.

I actually enjoyed The Replacements. Terrible, i know...

I love Field of Dreams, which is the first movie that I ever bought with my own money (I remember I was like 6 years old and McDonald's was selling videos for like 5 dollars with the purchase of a Happy Meal, totally worth it). I'm also glad you mentioned Rookie of the Year, which I just saw on HBO the other day, and it blew my mind that the Cubs 1B was the janitor from Scrubs, that was a nice little surprise. Anyway a question for all of you:



Which one is Kenny Lofton and which one is Willie Mays Hayes?

Normally an excellent question, but you picked the wrong picture of Hayes. Everyone knows he hit RH and Lofton hits LH, so the earflap on Hayes' helmet gives it away...........

And how about Dennis Haysbert? Who would have guessed he'd go from occasional early 80's random TV spot, to Pedro Cerrano, than Pres Palmer and Allstate spokesperson?

Unfortunately it was the only one I could find, when you do a google image search for Willie Mays Hayes you wind up getting a bunch of pictures of some old Giants outfielder.

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Field of Dreams is so good, I watch it and then watch the special features. I almost never do that for movies. The "making the movie" is pretty sweet, talks about some things you might never have known about the movie.

I've very disappointed in myself for not thinking of this earlier if we're talking baseball movies - but the end of the first Naked Gun movie with Leslie Nielson as an umpire is classic. Absolutely hilarious. Though it doesn't make it a baseball movie, still worth mentioning.

You're absolutely correct. Ball BOOOO I mean STRIKE! Classic.