Posted on 05/02/2015 4:38:18 PM PDT by PROCON
$212.46. That is what the average family of four spent at a major league ballgame last year. For the budget-conscious, that price tag makes it mighty tempting to stay home and enjoy the boys of summer on TV—either a live game or a classic baseball movie.
But watching some of the most fondly remembered films about the national passtime suggest that maybe both the game’s time and what made America great are passing. Here are five films that make the case.
5. Moneyball (2011)
Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill take the Oakland Athletics from a mediocre, going-broke franchise to a cash-cow winner by using analytical, evidence-based “sabermetrics.” The film garnered six Oscar nominations, critical acclaim, and box-office success. That’s terrible. Celebrating the “corporatization” of baseball is not a good thing. Sure, making money is a good thing. “Last season,” Forbes reports, “MLB saw gross revenues of over $8 billion, and the expectation is it will reach $10 billion within a year or two.”
But where is the gut, the intuition, the love of sport for sport’s sake that we learned from movies like The Pride of the Yankees (1942), Gary Cooper’s epic portrayal of the greatest star of baseball’s finest hour?
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
A good early baseball movie is "It Happens Every Spring" (1949) with Ray Milland.
Plot:
A college professor is working on a long-term scientific experiment when a baseball comes through the window, destroying all of his glassware and spilling the fluids that the flasks and test tubes contained. The pooled fluids combine to form the (fictitious) chemical "methylethylpropylbutyl," which then covers a large portion of the baseball. The professor soon discovers that the fluid, along with any object with which it makes contact, is repelled by wood (cf. Alexander Fleming's serendipitous discovery of penicillin).
Suddenly, he realizes the possibilities and takes a leave of absence to go to St. Louis to pitch in the big leagues, where he becomes a star and propels his team to the World Series.
It's quite a funny movie, especially with the early "special effects" showing the pitched baseball "avoiding" the swung bats.
Somehow "The Untouchables" didn't make the list...
thanks ill check it out on Netflix!!
Most sports movies suck.
Eight Men Out
Field of Dreams
Pride of the Yankees
Bang the Drum Slowly
Damn Yankees.
You are consistent :-)
You got have heart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry8CpIg2fvU
In most baseball movies I can think of the parts are generally better than the whole.
But, I chanced to see "For the love of the game" on cable last week and thought it was pretty good. Combo chick flick and baseball so my wife and I both enjoyed it all the way through.
“$212.46. That is what the average family of four spent at a major league ballgame last year.”
I think the author meant to say that $212.46 was the average amount spent by a family of four that attended a game.
Major League. The ONLY baseball movie worth watching.
They are all wet.
“The Natural” and “Field of Dreams” are excellent movies. I enjoyed “Bull Durham” and “Major League”... they made me laugh. Although Robbins and his girlfriend makes BD hard to watch now.
Never saw “Moneyball”... actually I had never heard of it.
minor-league bump.
Most of them are pretty bad. Then most movies seem pretty bad to me.
I always loved to watch minor league and college baseball. Troy used to have a professor, Jack Carroll, who would cancel classes anytime the baseball team played at home.
‘For the Love of the Game” was indeed a terrific movie.
The Natural would have been decent if you could look at Robert Redford without throwing up.
Money Ball was fun.
Field of Dreams was a bad as any and worse than most..
The best baseball movie of all time was also the best sports movie in history i.e. It Happens Every Spring. If you haven't seen it pull it using Bing:Youtube: It Happens Every Spring.
If you haven't seen it, watch it tonight. It's by far the best baseball movie ever. It's also the best sports movie ever. Anyone who says otherwise is just pretending.
Moneyball was ok, not a baseball movie, though. A business movie, gambling and some regret and redemption.
the susan Sarandon thing was awful
Here are some good baseball movies:
‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game’, Sinatra, Kelly, Munchen
‘Angels in the Outfield’ - OF COURSE the original
‘Pride of the Yankees’ - duh Lou Gehrig. Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig.
‘The Perfect Game’
My favorite:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cax9oq2rgh0
Combines my love for the game with my love of living in Asia. Besides, Japanese baseball is loads of fun!
regards,
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