Baseball Documentaries on Netflix
 

I finally got to see 'The Battered Bastards of Baseball'- followed along by pulling my Sporting News BB Guides and was amazed at the attendance figures. Great story...I had known Kurt Russell played minor league ball...and was good, but I did not know about his father.

There was no furniture in the living room so they could practice fielding grounders...darn right! Who really needs sofas and recliners anyway.

I had to grab some Matt Franco (nephew) cards as soon as it was over.

But, I also have watched 'Knuckleball' - I highly recommend it !!

Knuckelball! is saved on my DVR. In fact, I think about half my DVR is filled with baseball related movies and documentaries:

Mantle
Ted Williams
Knuckelball!
Bull Durham
A League of Their Own
The Natural
Chasing 3000
Eight Men Out
Hank Aaron: Brave Hero
Brooklyn Dodgers: The Ghosts of Flatbush
42
Cobb

I have Moneyball and 61* on Blu Ray. Eventually, I'll have all the movies on Blu Ray, but some of those HBO documentaries just aren't available.

Not a fan of the Cobb movie and I watched The Natural again a few weeks ago, and I think I've outgrown it.

Kuckleball is awesome! Check it out.

A list of good baseball-related films that are free on Netflix and Amazon Prime, would be very helpful.

Free? none that I'm aware of - unless Bill's 'Cloud' is directly over your house.

I'm not aware of either Netflix or Amazon Prime offering any freebies.

Sorry - I meant 'free' to subscribers. I subscribe to both.

Ken Burns' Baseball documentary is what I usually watch on Netflix. I've watched the whole thing 3-4 times by now. As far as other documentaries on Netflix, there's The Baseball Chronicles, described as a compilation of interview footage with both living and dead baseball players. The reviews look to be luke warm. You Don't Know Bo, the excellent ESPN documentary on Bo Jackson is also available. Highly recommended if you haven't seen it, though it's not only about baseball, obviously, as Bo was a two sport athlete (and more before turning pro). Then, there's Ballplayer: Pelotero, a documentary narrated by John Leguizamo about Major League baseball training camps in the Dominican Republic. So far, that's all I'm seeing. The Battered Bastards of Baseball sounds intriguing, too.

The HBO "Legends & Legacies" documentaries are outstanding, and I hope they do more of them. I'd kill for them to do one on Clemente. I really loved Mantle and Ted Williams. The one they did on Babe Ruth was good, too, though I haven't seen it on television in a while. It is on HBO Go, however, as is Shot Heard 'Round the World and When It Was a Game III. The other baseball one you see on HBO from time to time is also excellent, but for some reason I've not saved it. The Curious Case of Curt Flood should appear again soon. If there were a way I could burn all of these to a disc, I would. I have the Lombardi documentary on my DVR, and would love to make a hard copy of it so I never lose it. I'm sure HBO would bitch about it, but I don't care. If they made it available on DVD and Blu Ray, I'd buy it.


Ya, I wasn't a huge fan of Cobb. Tommy Lee Jones did well with what he was given, but I'd like to see a movie about him that takes place during his prime, and not a movie about old sonofabish Cobb with flashes back to his brilliant baseball days.

The Natural is still my favorite baseball movie, though Eight Men Out has been closing some as of late.

Thanks, Bill. Other than Sports news and sports :), we only turn the t.v. on at night for movies, so I haven't looked for any of these in a long time.

Regarding 'Cobb', if you replaced 'Cobb' with some fictional player, I think it's a very good movie. My problem with it was that Jones didn't look at all like Cobb. On the other hand, I was amazed at how Janes and Pepper pulled off Mantle and Maris in '61*' - an instant favorite.

'The Natural' and 'Eight Men Out' are mine as well. I understand what Raymond is saying about "outgrowing" it, but I haven't yet. I can still remember the first time I saw it, in the movie theater.

PS - my other problem with 'Cobb' is that I've since read Stump's book (haven't read Cobb's) and heard a lot about Stump AND Cobb - in particular, Stump's forgeries and Cobb's altruistic behavior toward old ball players. Not sure what to believe from that movie.

I highly recommend "Sugar". It's a movie about a Dominican prospect coming to the states with high expectations and his struggle to adapt to American life. I really enjoyed it.

Scott- here's what I found available from Netflix streaming:

Documentaries:

Fernando Nation
Jordan Rides the Bus
Ballplayer: Pelotero
Little Big Man
The Baseball Chronicles
Four Days in October
The House of Steinbrenner

-these are ONLY those I have not seen myself...SUGAR is not streaming yet.

Movies (just listing the interesting ones I have not seen)

One Hit From Home
Boys of Summer (no, not based on Roger Kahn's book)
Dealin' With Idiots
The Yankles
The Perfect Game
A Mile in His Shoes

Raymond - I have never heard of any of those. Any good ones on Netflix or Amazon Prime that you have seen?

Pastime starring William Russ is on Netflix

Knuckleball and The Battered Bastards of Baseball are also on Netlflix

- I really liked all three of these.

I watched "Knuckleball" today. Highly recommended!

Netflix and Amazon are both lacking in baseball movies. Besides the previously mentioned documentaries, there isn't much.

I finally watched it yesterday (not sure how I had an earlier review of it)...very good...too bad it was made a year too early to include R.A. Dickey's Cy Young season.
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Knuckleball is a good movie, just watched it on netflix