maybe O/T? But a Good movie.

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Posted By: Dave Haas

Last night I watched "The Pride of the Yankees" starring Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth as himself. First time I've seen it and very Good. On topic, I do have a 1933 Ruth and a 1934 Gehrig. Does any one know of other baseball theme movies of interest?

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

That movie is always on topic because it shows Gehrig as a kid trading baseball cards - including a Babe Ruth card.

My favorite baseball themed movie is The Natural. I just got the special edition in April and it's better than the original - a little darker and explains things a bit better. I also enjoy Eight Men Out. That one's probably my second favorite followed closely by The Bad News Bears (1970s version).

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Posted By: Bill

Dan,
The Natural is my favorite as well, haven't seen the special edition though. Have you ever read the book? Completely different ending.

Change your socks, drink water, and drive on.

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Posted By: Max Weder

One of the interesting things about the movie is that Gary Cooper batted and threw right handed. The film was flipped to give the impression he batted and threw left handed. Cooper was thus filmed in a jersey that read "KROY WEN" and ran to "third base" after he hit the ball.

Max

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Posted By: MVSNYC

IMO, baseball movie rankings:

1. field of dreams
2. eight men out
3. the natural
4. bull durham
5. 61* (HBO)
6. major league
7. the babe

documentaries:

1. glory of their times
2. when it was a game (1,2,3) (HBO)
3. brooklyn dodgers (HBO)

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Posted By: Glenn

I'd also recommend Bang the Drum Slowly and (though it probably goes without saying) Ken Burns's Baseball.

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Posted By: MVSNYC

ah yes, i forgot about ken burns' baseball documentary...amazing.

as for "bang the drum slowly"...it was waaaaay too depressing for my taste. but that's just me

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Posted By: Bob Pomilla

Don't know that it could be called a "good" movie, but I'd like to see a baseball comedy called "Elmer the Great" from 1933, with Joe E. Brown, for no other reason than several players from the era, such as Charlie Root, Babe Herman , George Burns and others are in it. Doubt their roles are more than cameos, but would be interesting to see these guys "come to life", so to speak.

Understand it's out of print.

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Posted By: dennis

i'm going to add to the list "a league of their own","don't look back" and "bingo long and his travlin allstars"

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Posted By: MVSNYC

ALOTO is a great one!

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Posted By: Denny Walsh

Okay, I have many children and this one might of slipped under your radar cause it's a cartoon...."I Simply Loved It"... Check it out for your self, has a very cool story line!

www.everyonesherodvd.com/

"The Natural" for Best Fiction
"Pride of the Yankees" for Best Non-Fiction(But not all True!)
"Everyone's Hero" best Cartoon movie
&
"Sandlot" (1st one!) for best kids movie

Life's Grand,
Denny Walsh

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Posted By: Pennsylvania Ted

Last nite we watched this movie again (I've lost count how many times). Did you guys catch Lou as a kid
willing to trade off all his Sweet Caporal cards, including a Matty and a Wagner, for a chance to play BB
with the big kids ?

Also, I found it interesting that Babe Ruth and Bill Dickey were very natural in their acting roles.

Bill Dickey was in another BB movie in 1949....one of my all-time favorites....The Monte Stratton Story.

Jimmy Stewart plays Stratton, a true story of a promising pitcher for the White Sox in the late '30s. Check
it out, I highly recommend it. Jimmy Dykes, Luke Appling and other real life BB players are also in it.

Incidently, after Jimmy Stewart returned from WWII, his movie career was faltering and he was going to
call it quits as an actor. This movie is credited with turning around his acting career.....as it was very
popular when it came out.

TED Z

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

Bill, I have read Malamud's book The Natural. There's no way that ending would have played in Hollywood. But it would have made for an interesting movie.

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Posted By: Anonymous

Cobb is quite good, as is Bull Durham.

The Babe with John Goodman is also pretty solid.

Fear Strikes Out is another great flick.

Bang The Drum Slowly might be my favorite baseball movie, that or Eight Men Out.

Every time I watch I watch Eight Men Out, I keep hoping that somehow they don't fix the series, but everytime they do.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

I was reading an article today about Jimmy Piersal and he was talking about "Fear Strikes Out"...I didn't know this, but there were actually two films made from that. The first one starred Tab Hunter and was made for TV and the Anthony Perkins movie came out two years later. Piersal hated that movie because he thought Perkins "threw like a girl".

I enjoyed "The Babe" with John Goodman, but found it a bit ridiculous at times...I also thought that Goodman was too fat to play Ruth. Especially in Ruth's younger years - The Babe didn't get fat until after joined the Yanks...and even then he was never as big as Goodman was in that film. Oh yeah the ridiculous infield popup for a home run???

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Posted By: Ed Ivey

The Babe Ruth Story, with William Bendix. So awful that it's comically good.

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Posted By: DMcD

No Best Baseball Movies list is complete without Damn Yankees.
(my two cents)