What is your favorite movie that features baseball cards?

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Posted By: Anonymous

The only requirement is that the movie had to have a scene in it in which baseball cards were shown. For Example:

Rain Man
A League of Their Own
Major League
Field of Dreams (Admittedly, fabricated cards)

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Posted By: Rich Klein

The Movie Mask had a baseball card subplot as the kid was trying to collect the 1955 Dodgers set.

Also; there was some back to the future type movie with Drew Barrymore (John's granddaughter for those of you who want a pre-war reference) that she worked in a baseball card store.

And, there is a simpson's episode where they talk about a 1973 Topps Yastrzemski (the one with the sideburns)

Rich

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Posted By: James Feagin

"Pride of the Yankees" might be the earliest film with Baseball cards. A young Lou Gehrig during the opening talks about pictures of Hans Wagner and Tris Speaker.

James

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Posted By: davidcycleback

There's also the Simpsons where homer sells a Joe DiMaggio to the Comic Book Guy. After buying it, the comic book guy accidentally gets nacho cheese on the card, and ruins the card licking it off.

Mr Burns had given the card to Homer, mentioning that he had "lost interest in the game when they started allowing in ethnics." (Presumably referring to Italians).

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Posted By: glynparson

blast from the past and it was alicia silverstone and brendan fraser not drew barrymore. but my favorite would be the goonies. though they find a 1973 topps lou gehrig that is supposed to be from the 1930s.

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Posted By: Josh Adams

Needfull Things, a Stephen King book.

The boy wants a 56 Mantle, and the Devil (Max Von Sydow), makes him break a bunch of windows or something.

On a side note, Max Von Sydow played the bad guy in Strange Brew, a great hockey flick.

Go Go White Sox
2005 World Series Champions!

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Posted By: Steve M.

"Blast from the Past" with Alicia Silverstone, Brendan Frasier, Christopher Walken and Sissy Spacek where the Dad (Walken) thought the Russians had invaded and so Fraiser and his Mom and Dad spent thirty some odd years in their bomb shelter. Well anyway Dad sends Brendan out into the world for supplies. He pays for the supplies with baseball cards

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Posted By: Rich Klein

Had a dumb blonde moment there

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Also, in Sienfield, when George works for the Yankees, he is shown with a framed series of T205s behind him. Couldn't tell if they were real.

There was an old Gene Kelly and Frank Sanatra(?) musical with Pre-War cards picturing them. The original prop cards were part of the Halper collection and pictured in the catalog. I talked to someone who owned the cards, perhaps he is a board member.

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Posted By: MVSNYC

hope that answers your question.

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Posted By: Pete Z.

Dead hubby leaves clues written on baseball cards from the 60s that leads wife on a trail around the planet. There's one scene (that I instintively winced at while watching) where, after figuring out the clue on the card, she rips it up and throws it in the trash.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107999/

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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

I recall (vaguely) an episode of this TV series where Robert Wagner was on the
case of tracking down a big-$$$$ BB card scam.

If any one can add to this.....please do, as I don't remember all the details.

T-Rex TED

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Posted By: T E

and I don't even remember the actors. I think it was Peter Falk and Natalie Wood. Made in the late 1960s, maybe '68. He's a detective. He buys a pack of baseball cards, opens it and sticks the gum in his mouth. She pulls out a card and asks him, "What is a Ron Swoboda?" He answers, "I just buy them for the gum."

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Posted By: barrysloate

In Seinfeld, George Costanza always has reprint cards framed behind him. I even think he may have a reprint N162 set, as well as Topps, T205, etc. There's a Leave it to Beaver episode where Whitey takes some cards out of his pocket and they are on the screen for barely a second but they look like 1959 Topps. And besides Homer selling a Joe DiMaggio card to Comicbook Guy (whose name has actually been revealed to be Jeff Albertson), there is an episode where Homer is at a fair and rummages through the $1.00 junk box and finds a Superman #1, a full sheet of inverted Jenny airmail stamps, a Stradavarius violin, and one other great antiquity- and passes on them all. But for a really great movie baseball reference: in the fine 1947 film "Life with Father" starring William Powell and a young Elizabeth Taylor, the action takes place in a NYC mansion during the 1880's and near the beginning of the film, William Powell walks down the stairs to see his two young sons reading the newspaper. They turn to their father and one exclaims: "the Giants won and Ewing hit a homerun." Now I challenge anyone to find another movie that cites Buck Ewing by name.

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Posted By: Brueso

I think some on the board mentioned the book "Honus and Me" about a dreamer kid who discovers a Honus T206 while cleaning out an old lady's attic- wrestles with whether he should keep it, is transported back in time to spend time with Honus (and Ty Cobb is around, too). I saw a play version of it here in Seattle- and what made me chuckle was when the kid tells the old lady at the end that he found the card- turns out Honus broke her heart back in the day- and she gets angry, takes the card and tears it up. Even though I knew they were using a reprint, I winced!

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Posted By: Russ Bright

Good movie about the greed that can encompass the "find of a lifetime"... not to ruin anything, but there is a baseball card kicker at the end of the movie

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Posted By: Sean Besser Hank

I would have to say "Big" with Tom Hanks; they are opening packs and flipping through the cards saying, "got it, need it, need it, got it..." just the way I used to open packs when I was young, I'm sure that's where Tom got the line.

Sean BH

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Posted By: barrysloate

Ted- you are correct about that Robert Wagner show, but I don't remember the details either. One fascinating aspect of the baseball cards in "Pride of the Yankees" (and also an inaccuracy) is that although the kid is holding what I believe to be an M101-4 of Babe Ruth, he actually refers to them as "having some Sweet Caporals." The error aside, what is interesting is that the designation "T206" hadn't been coined in 1942, and I guess they all were simply referred to by the ad backs. This leads to the question were all of the white bordered cards called Sweet Caporals in their day? In other words, if you had one with a Uzit back, would you say "I have a Uzit" or would you still say "I have some Sweet Caporals?" Of course we don't know the answer, just posing the question.

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Posted By: Jeremy

I was awfully young but I seem to remember that TV show involved a game of high stakes "flipping" possibly a '52 Mantle? Was it "Hart to Hart"?

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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

Barry

A lot of scenes in the Lou Gehrig movie, of course, were filmed in New York; therefore, it
makes sense to me that "T206" cards in this movie would be referred to by the available
Tobacco brand (Sweet Caporal) in the NY area.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Although the movie was filmed in 1942, remember the scene where Lou Gehrig is a young boy of say 10 years old would have taken place around 1913, when T206 were still circulating and being collected. What term did people use at that time when referring to the cards? Were they all generically called Sweet Caps with disregard to the actual ad on the back? That was my question.

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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

It was Hart to Hart with Robert Wagner and Stephanie Powers. Wagner was also in
the series I noted. The story involved a '52 Topps Mantle and some sort of BB card
deal that went wrong.

Thanx for clearing up my "blurred" memory.

TED Z

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Posted By: Ricky Y

I remember a great movie called Mask with Cher and Eric Stoltz about a boy with sever skull and facial deformity. The boy was a big Brooklyn Dodger fan and I recall in one of the scenes he had all of the cards (1956 Topps I think) mounted on the wall in his room and he and his grandfather were pointing to each card and discussing the merits of each player.

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Posted By: MVSNYC

what a cool concept, the possibility that all T206's were referred to as "SC" back in the day...interesting...obviously they are (along with Piedmont), the most abundently found backs...

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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

They were called by their respective Tobacco brand. South of the Mason-Dixon line
they were called Piedmonts.....in Ohio they were probably called Polar Bears and so
on and so forth.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Ted- but in a city the size of New York, where Gehrig grew up, there had to be multiple brands available. Mean to say you couldn't find a pack of Piedmonts anywhere in the city? And I forgot about "Mask". Eric Stoltz had mostly 1955 Topps Brooklyn Dodgers, and he would put each one in a baggie and then tack them to his bulletin board. A unique way to display cards.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Not cards, but Beaver and Larry Mondelo forged a signed baseball in Leave It To Beaver. Playing catch, they had accidentally wrecked Ward's prized ball he displayed on his desk. The ball was signed by Ruth, etc. Beaver's forgery was quickly discovered (before the end of the 1/2 hour episode) and he got a stern talking to. In another episode, Don Drysdale appeared.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Correct David- Beaver and his pals made a long distance phone call to Don Drysdale and ran up a $10 phone bill. And Beaver and Larry had a catch with Ward's signed baseball and it got run over by a truck. So Larry forged a new one, signing it "Baby Ruth" and "Ki Ki Gehrig" by mistake. It took Fred Rutherford to see through this careless ruse.

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Posted By: John E

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379029/

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Posted By: Bob Luce

"Mother", a pretty good Albert Brooks movie, has a scene in which Rob Morrow's character shows off his Mint 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card.

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Posted By: John Kalafarski

On one episode of this charming show, the boys were horsing around with baseball gear and one of them was showing off and another one (I think it was Wally coming down on Eddie) says, "Who do you think you are? Ted Williams?"

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Posted By: Jason

The cards in the movie mask were mostly 1974 Topps. I remeber he had Steve Garvey pinned up.

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Posted By: Zach Rice

If you look very closely, in the film A Christmas Story, when Ralphie and his brother are getting ready for school early in the film, you can see multiple T206s tacked to his headboard on his bed.

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Posted By: Jon Canfield

I remember a MacGyver episode from when I was a kid... I believe MacGyver is trying to discover who stole the Reggie Jackson bats and balls from the 3 WS home runs. At one point, he goes to a card shop and buys a bunch of cards (I think to prove he was a big-time collector since it was believed the owner of the shop was behind the theft). I don't remember what he buys but a Ryan rookie stands out in my mind... NOTE: My memory of the plot may be wrong!

Found the episode guide online. It appears MacGyver busts an illegal memorabilia ring with a stick of gum (not really with the gum)...

MacGyver is returning Frog to Mama Colton (mother of bounty hunters Jesse, Frank and Billy) and ends up chasing a young boy named Ricky, who has stolen the Colton's baseball card collection. The Phoenix troubleshooter catches Ricky but, unfortunately, the young boy has already given the cards to a man named T.J. Mitchell. Mama then "convinces" MacGyver to recover the valuable cards. Therefore, the Phoenix troubleshooter traces the cards to a card shop where he meets a young woman named Wendy Riley. Wendy, who saw the Colton cards given to a man named Eli, then convinces MacGyver that her knowledge of cards and card forgeries will prove invaluable. Reluctantly, MacGyver goes with Wendy and meets her father Novus Riley, a former baseball player that has fallen on hard times. MacGyver then discovers that Novus, who has developed a gambling problem, is in debt and caught in a squeeze play by a man named Bill Marsh. Later, MacGyver once again assumes his Dexter persona (last seen in "Deep Cover") and uses one of Wendy's cards to trace the counterfeit card operation to Marsh. MacGyver then sneaks into Marsh's house and overhears a plan whereby Marsh is forcing Novus to steal the Jackson collection, a collection of Reggie Jackson memorabilia that is being auctioned off for charity. Unfortunately, Marsh's hold over Novus becomes even greater as he soon captures Wendy. MacGyver then goes to Reggie Jackson and the two of them manage to convince Novus to let them help. Novus proceeds with the delivery and MacGyver follows (after using his Dexter identity to get the address of Marsh's warehouse). MacGyver arrives at the warehouse and creates a diversion which allows Novus (and a handy baseball) to capture a fleeing Marsh. Later, Mama announces that her son's cards (worth around $50,000) will be housed in a baseball museum.

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Posted By: Ryan Christoff

There was a movie with Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly called "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" that showed T206ish cards of both of them. They were supposed to be members of a circa 1900 team, I think the Wolverines. It seems like the original cards that were used in the movie were auctioned off a few years ago. Maybe in the Halper auction? I can't remember exactly, but I do remember bidding on them because of how unique they were. Anyone remember these?

-Ryan

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Posted By: Patrick McMenemy

I'm really surprised that The Natural hasn't been mentioned.

It is my favorite baseball movie by far. There is a scene in the movie where they show the Roy Hobbs cards being printed and rolling off the press.




Patrick

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Posted By: joe

Brueso, I saw that same play here in Michigan. It was at the Purple Rose Theatre that Jeff Danials started in Chelsea Michigan. Jeff and his family live there. The funny thing about the play it had everything. A dishonest card shop dealer trying to buy the Wagner for $100.00 or so. An auction house selling it for 1.2 million. The tobacco theme where Wagner supposedly did not like tobacco. The kid's mother saying he should return the card to the old lady, who's attic he cleaned out.

Besides the lady who was supposed to be Wagners' old girlfriend from earlier days tearing up the card, Wagner says thats ok there are plenty more where that came from and an old ballplayer from his team comes out throwing confetti which was suppose to be the rest of the Wagner cards. If anyone gets the chance, see it.

Didn't Sandlot have baseball cards in the old man's house where the dog lived that stole all the baseballs when they landed in his yard?

Joe

Ty Cobb, Spikes flying!

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Posted By: irishdenny

Pride of da Yanks was great, but "The Sandlot" has to be my favorite with baseball cards!

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Posted By: Dan Koochin

For Ryan
Robert Edward Auctions March 16 2001 pg 103



I would have loved to have bought these, only examples of 'Stage Cigarettes' back!

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Posted By: Matt Goebel

Dustin Hofman collecting cards in "Rain Man"

I also remember one of the guys in "LA Law" collected cards and even had a Heinie Manush!

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Posted By: Brett

I remember a movie with Brendan Frasier in it where he and his parents live in a bomb shelter for years because they thought there was nuclear war, and his father gives him his old baseball card collection. I remember a t206 Ed Walsh on the top lol. Movie obviously isnt about collecting baseball cards, but i thought it was neat having a t206 in there.

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Posted By: Scot

The Odd Couple II, Walter Mathau/Jack Lemmon, Mathau gives his son a box of old baseball cards. Great movie as well.

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Posted By: Chris Counts

It's not a movie, but it's worth mentioning here. In the early 60s, Charles M. Schulz created a series of "Peanuts" cartoons in which Charlie Brown tries in vain to acquire a Joe Shlabotnik baseball card. In one strip, Schulz mentions dozens of contemporary players from about 1963 as Charlie busts open numerous packs of what were certainly Topps cards. Guys like Mantle and Mays pop up in packs, but never a card of Joe, much to Charlie's chagrin. Another strips mentions Joe went through an entire Major League season with a .004 batting average, which earned him a demotion to Stumptown of the Green Grass League. He later managed a team called the Waffletown Syrups ...

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Posted By: jamie

was made into a movie called "the winning season"



the card plays as major a role in a movie as you're going to find. at one point cobb, the evil, leering villain in the film, steals the card. pretty hokey film but still a fun watch

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Posted By: Rhett

I wonder if they could have found somebody that looked any less like Honus.
-Rhett

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Posted By: jamie

rhett,
it could'be been worse...

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Posted By: Cobby33

Brett- That was "Blast from the Past," great flick. The "love interest" in the movie ran a baseball card store, owned by her father.

Also, if I recall, there was a Nash Bridges episode (awesome show) where I believe Bonds had a card stolen from him?

Edited to add: My bad. The charcater Bonds played had a car stolen, not a card. Oh well.

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Posted By: J Levine

Well, I am going way back here but I seem to remember a card in the movie "Speedy". This was Harold Lloyd's last silent film. A great comedy set in New York with some great old location shots of Coney, Yankee Stadium, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. The other notable scene in this movie is Harold picks up Babe Ruth (played by himself) in his cab. I think there was a scene with a card in it of Ruth but can not remember. I have not seen the movie in years and it is out of print but if you can catch it on TV late one night...try to. Very funny.

Joshua

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Posted By: Bruce Babcock

There is an episode of "Deep Space Nine" in which a Willie Mays rookie card figures prominently. It was produced by DS9 creator and big time collector Mike Piller.

From an Amazon.com review:

Any television episode that has a 1951 Bowman Willie Mays rookie card as part of the plot is going to be my type of episode. In "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," Episode 123, "In the Cards" (Story by Truly Clark and Scott Neal, Teleplay by Ronald De. Moore, Aired June 9, 1997), Jake (Cirroc Lofton) notices that the threat of the Dominion to the Alpha Quadrant is starting to stress out his father. So when he learns that Quark is auctioning off an antiquities collection that includes the aforementioned baseball card, he decides to buy it and cheer Captain Sisko up. Jake enlists Nog in his effort to buy the collection, but they are outbid by Dr. Giger (Brian Markinson). They try to buy the card directly from Giger, but he refuses. Then he finds out about Jake and Nog and offers to trade them the card for various pieces of equipment and medical supplies that the doctor needs for a machine that will provide eternal life by regenerating cells (the process is called "entertaining"). Jakes agrees, because he really wants that card (I can relate).

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

I don't remember a scene in "Speedy" that showed any cards. I actually own the book that was released right after the movie came out.