Let's talk baseball and hobby documentaries

[the 'stache]

Originally Posted by RL

Fear Strikes Out about Jimmy Piersall

I bought the Warner Bros. 4 Film Favorite DVD a while back with Bang the Drum Slowly, Fear Strikes Out, The Pride of the Yankees and Cobb. Curiously, I have yet to watch the first two. I've been searching Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, et all trying to find high definition prints of both. I'll give it a bit more time. If I don't have any luck (I think that TCM will play them in the week leading up to opening day), I'll just break down and watch the DVD copy.

Originally Posted by maniac_73

I love Pride of the Yankees. Must have watched it a million times and Im usually not one for old black and white movies.

The Pride of the Yankees is one of my favorite baseball films, right behind The Natural. I've been pestering the heck out of Criterion to release it on blu-ray. They'd never released a baseball film (at least, not since they started issuing DVDs and blu-rays. I'd have to go through the list of films they issued on laser disc to be 100% sure) until about a year ago, when they did Bull Durham. The copy that TCM has shown a few times looks like it's benefited from a restoration. It's not merely the beneficiary of a new scan, some of the very minor image instability, age spotting and dirt I'd seen previously were removed. So, I'm hopeful.

Originally Posted by JollyElm

The "When It Was A Game" DVD's/vids are a must.

Agreed. I've got the HBO blu-ray set, and watch them often. I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to just crawl through the screen to watch the games in person.



Thank you all for the replies. I'll look at the posts about things I have not seen a bit later today when I'm feeling better. I'm going to crash out and let some medications work on me.

[mr2686]

HBO is weird. They have produced some of the best sports docs, but either don't release them on dvd/bluray, or they don't make them available via HBO on demand. One of the one's they have available right now is Shot Heard 'Round the World about Bobby Thompson's famous homerun...it's real good.
My favorite though is Ghost's of Flatbush, about the Brooklyn Dodgers. By far the best Dodger doc I've ever seen, and includes an in-depth look at why they moved. Unfortunately, it's rarely available on HBO (many sent emails have gone unanswered), but someone has broken it up in to multiple parts and put them on Youtube. Quality of the youtube version is not great, but it might be worth a look anyway.
Also, I agree with others that have said When It Was a Game is good. Love those as well.

[mr2686]

By the way, that Cobb movie is the worst sports movie of all time. It's based on the book by Al Stump. Stump has been proven to be a liar and a thief, and he made up most of the book, which totally ruins Cobbs reputation...so much so, that Ken Burns regurgitates some of his crap.