Comments on: Costner movies top list of best baseball flicks

By: Ron Kaplan

Ron Kaplan — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:59:22 +0000

When I said "kids movies," I really meant movies with kids in them (Bad News Bears, Safe at Home, Hard Ball (now there was a clunker), etc.) The Rookie (yay) and The Final Season (boo) told similar stories: team not expected to do well succeeds against odds.

By: The Baseball Zealot

The Baseball Zealot — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 22:51:39 +0000

my list of movies I have NOT seen but want to:

Bang the Drum Slowly
The Rookie
The Sandlot
The Final Season (just recommended by a friend)

By: Perry

Perry — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:29:39 +0000

I looked and looked, but I don’t see “Long Gone” on this list. Therefore, it is invalid.

By: James Bailey

James Bailey — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:57:15 +0000

A separate category for kids movies might be fair, but the best kids movies seem to transcend age limitations. The Bad News Bears, as was pointed out, isn’t just for kids. Having a kids category might possibly work to lower the standards. Rookie of the Year was terrible, but for a kid, maybe, it’s not so bad. If you name kids movies, you risk being more forgiving of films like that and the Gary Coleman masterpiece The Kid from Left Field.

I had “Pride of the Yankees” on my ballot, along with four newer movies. Movies were a lot different back then, and the early part of the film is a little corny when viewed through more modern eyes, but the second half especially is quite well done. It gets the emotions going just as much as Field of Dreams by the end.

Summer Catch is mildly entertaining in a non-thinking kind of way, but the script was terrible, especially the non-baseball parts. The problem with voting for really bad movies is that the worst ones are so bad most people would never bother watching them. I couldn’t in good conscience rip a movie I’d never watched, so I had to unload on Summer Catch, which is the worst baseball movie I can recall watching in my life.

By: Ron Kaplan

Ron Kaplan — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:19:00 +0000

I wonder if lumping all baseball movies into one big general category isn't doing a disservice. For example, how does one compare Eight Men Out, which, at least to the lay fan, seems well-researched and produed as a period piece, to something like The Sandlot? or The Rookie? Perhaps there should be further subdivisions, such as best baseball movie featuring kids; best biopic; best documentary (I think The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg is on a par with the work of Ken Burns. And another thing...Other than Pride, none of the movies on the list is less than 36 years old. That means such classics as It Happens Every Spring, the original Angels in the Outfield, and the Sinatra-Kelly-Williams musical vehicle Take Me Out to the Ball Game, didn't make the cut, not to mention the nice turn on Monty Stratton by Jimmy Stewart. I'd be very curious to see an age demographic on those who cast votes. And what's the big knock against Summer Catch. Granted it's not Oscar material, but I can think of several others that deserve the movie equivalent of The Golden Sombrero.