My Five Favorite Baseball Movies

Take me out to the ball game... take me out with the crowd...

I love baseball.  It's the grand old game.  It's America's game.  So much of American history is reflected in baseball.  What better metaphor for the struggle of equality than Jackie Robinson?  The sacrifices of war with Ted Williams walking away from millions of dollars to go fight in WWII.  The excesses of the American lifestyle shown with the likes of Babe Ruth.  The racial tensions of America in people like Ty Cobb.  The enduring American spirit of competition when the 1951 Giants overcame great odds to win the pennant over the Dodgers led by a young man named Willie Mays.

And because it's America's game, there are no shortage of movies featuring baseball.  So in honor of baseball season officially starting today, I want to share my five favorite baseball movies.

Again these movies are in no particular order:

1) FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME: It's a story about a pitcher right at the end of his career.  And while he knows it's his last game, he makes it one to remember.  And while pitching, he reflects upon his career and on his life.  It's a very interesting story about the sacrifices of following one's dream.  Billy Chapel is left with a tough decision: his girlfriend is moving to London, he's going to be traded to the Giants after 19 years with the Tigers, he's 40 years old and just doesn't have it anymore, he is injured and every throw seems to hurt like crazy, his team sucks and they were in no danger of going to the playoffs, so how does he want to be remembered?  What does he want to do now that his playing days are over?  The guy is completely unaware he's pitching a perfect game until the 8th inning.  The entire team has rallied around him.  It's their one shot at greatness this season.  And they all want it.  For a guy who sacrificed so much for the game he loves, was it all worth it?  Is there any happiness the baseball gods can grant him?

2) THE SANDLOT: Is there any other movie that so encapsulates what it means growing up?  Playing a game in the warm sun, making lifetime friends, bonding over the crack of the bat... and of course sharing in an adventure that just might be bigger in their mind than in real life.  It's all about a kid who moves to a new neighborhood during the summer.  He has no friends, his mom is divorced and re-married to a huge baseball fan, and he has no place he feels he belongs.  Not at home or in this new town.  Then he learned to play baseball with some local kids in an old dirt baseball diamond... along with a very scary dog.  It has all the making of childhood legends; very much in the same vein as movies like A Christmas Story.  It's even told in the same kind of narration style.  It's a movie truly told from the point of view from a very imaginative child and enjoyed far more if you are able to tap into those old childhood memories.

3) FIELD OF DREAMS: This is the kind of movie that takes the great American pastime and turns it into a religious experience.  Not bad from an atheist writer.  The story is about a guy who is full of regrets.  Then he gets a message from the great beyond to build a baseball park in his corn field.  Despite the craziness of it all, he much like Abraham, did what he felt compelled to do by voices in his head.  And by doing it he met Shoeless Joe Jackson.  It's such a beautiful story.  I can't help but get swallowed up in the emotion of it all.  It's a must watch.

4) EIGHT MEN OUT: This is a biopic about the "Black Sox".  Back in the 1919 World Series, eight players for the Chicago White Sox took bribes from gamblers to throw the games.  For doing so they were banned for life from baseball.  Much of the movie involves "Shoeless" Joe Jackson as the pressure he felt from the other dirty players to also go along with the fix.  They all felt cheated by the White Sox owner, Charles Comiskey.  The true tragedy comes from the story of Buck Weaver.  He didn't take any money from gamblers, he played to win the World Series, but because he had knowledge of what was happening, he also was banned from baseball.  I love this movie because it shows a darker side to a hallowed pastime.  The Black Sox Scandal was instrumental to baseball as a whole with the creation of a baseball commissioner.  The allegations from the White Sox players about Comiskey purposefully cheating players out of bonuses and even refusing to pay for cleaning of the team's uniforms eventually led to institutions in baseball we now see as commonplace; like free agency and collective bargaining.  Many sports fans still debate Shoeless Joe Jackson's involvement and Buck Weaver tried many times to be reinstated.

5) PRIDE OF THE YANKEES: It's another biopic but this time it's about one of the greatest players to ever wear the Yankee pinstripes, Lou Gehrig.  Nicknamed the "Iron Horse" for playing in 2,130 consecutive games, his career is cut short after developing a new disease that is later named after him.  If ever there was a better performance by Gary Cooper, I haven't seen it.  Lou Gehrig's final words on Lou Gehrig day stick with me to this day. 

Those are some of my favorite baseball movies.  There are a lot more out there as well.  Here are a few honorable mentions: Major League, Cobb, 61, Bang the Drum Slowly, A League of Their Own, and The Bad News Bears.

Now... PLAYBALL!!!