Editor’s Note: In the spirit of counting down to the start of the Major League Baseball season over the next two weeks we here at Triple B will present our completely subjective ranking of the Top 10 Baseball Movies. Today we look at number 8 on the list.
Kevin Costner has made three baseball movies in his career. By the time the third leg of the Costner baseball triangle rolled around though it was clear that he did not have much left in the tank.
Still, it is hard to not count the complete Costner trilogy in a listing of baseball movies so coming in at number 8 on the Triple B Top 10 Baseball Movies list is For Love of the Game which allows Costner to move from behind the plate to the mound as a nearing the end of his career pitcher.
The number 8 movie on the Triple B totally subjective top 10 countdown of baseball movies is For Love of the Game starring Kevin Costner. Photo R. Anderson
The movie focuses on Costner as a 40 year-old pitcher for the Detroit Tigers. Throughout the course of pitching what could be the final game of his career Costner flashes back to various points of his career both on and off the field and thinks about the events that made him the person that he became.
The movie is helped by the presence of Vin Scully calling the on-field action as only Vin Scully can.
Like the number 9 movie on our countdown, Fever Pitch, this movie probably could also fall into the romantic category but as Fred Savage’s character in The Princess Bride comes to learn you likely won’t mind the “mushy stuff” as the movie draws to its conclusion.
The baseball action is strong for the most part and the flashbacks do not seem to water down the present day action.
Again, it is not Kevin Costner’s strongest baseball movie but it does deserve a place on the shelf next to the other two sides of the Costner baseball triangle. And of course like I said there is Vin Scully to listen to so one really can’t go wrong there.
Editor’s Note: In the spirit of counting down to the start of the Major League Baseball season over the next two weeks we here at Triple B will present our completely subjective ranking of the Top 10 Baseball Movies. Today we look at number 9 on the list.
Like Neil Diamond, one tends to either love or hate the Boston Red Sox. It probably is not too surprising then that Neil Diamond and the Red Sox are so intertwined with Red Sox fans belting out a Neil Diamond song during every home game.
While the Red Sox have a long history of winning, they also had a long year of “cursed” play where the diehard fans wondered if their beloved BoSox would ever hoist the World Series trophy again.
The number 9 movie on the Triple B totally subjective top 10 countdown of baseball movies is Fever Pitch starring Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore. Photo R. Anderson
As the defending World Series champions heading into the 2014 season, the Red Sox have certainly been on a bit of a winning streak lately.
Coming in at number 9 on the Triple B Top 10 Baseball Movies list is Fever Pitch which explores the fanatical side of Boston Red Sox fandom while also exploring interpersonal human relationships in the form of a baseball Rom Com, or romantic comedy.
At its surface the terms romantic comedy and baseball should not really be uttered in the same breath. But upon deeper inspection one can accept that baseball fans have long had a romance with the game that often starts when they catch their first game or pick up a ball and glove for the first time.
In Fever Pitch, the romance is between a Red Sox loving man, played by Jimmy Fallon, and the conflict that arises as he tries to choose between his love of his team and the pressure he feels to grow up.
The movie resonates with fans in different ways depending on where they see themselves along the spectrum.
For some people at a crossroads they can think about whether they need to give up their childhood love of the game and get a real job.
For others watching perhaps they long for a return to when they loved the game as much as the characters in the film.
Others may be somewhere in the middle finding balance between a so called normal life and support of the home team.
Regardless of where one stands in terms of their personal baseball journey, Fever Pitch offers a glimpse into a year of fandom related to one of the teams with the most rabid fan bases in all of baseball.
Of course, the movie also may or may not have helped break some of those dreaded Red Sox curses so it should be a must have for any member of Sox Nation.
Editor’s Note: In the spirit of counting down to the start of the Major League Baseball season over the next two weeks we here at Triple B will present our completely subjective ranking of the Top 10 Baseball Movies. Today we look at number 10 on the list.
I have often said that baseball is a sport that is best experienced live and in the Ballpark since there are so many sights, sounds, smells and other sensory sensations that just can’t be captured on television.
But for people who may not have access to a Ballpark or live in an area where games are frequently rained out there are several cinematic options to transport the movie goer into the world of the bleachers.
Coming in at number 10 on the Triple B Top 10 Baseball Movies list is Bleacher Bums which explores the view from the bleachers and the relations
The number 10 movie on the Triple B totally subjective top 10 countdown of baseball movies is Bleacher Bums starring Wayne Knight and Brad Garrett. Photo R. Anderson
hips that can build over the course of a season among fans with adjoining seats.
The movie follows a group of season ticket holders over the course of the season and captures the highs and lows that go along with being a diehard fan.
Fans of Seinfeld will be treated to Wayne Knight in the film but do try to resist shouting “Newman” whenever he is on screen as one will end up with a sore throat and miss a lot of the dialog.
While the actual baseball scenes in the movie offer a few errors the film connects on the interaction of fans and the conversations that often break out during the course of a game.
Through the years just as I think I have heard almost everything imaginable in a Ballpark something new is overheard from my seat and I am reminded of Bleacher Bums and how it captures the Ballpark conversations to a science.
I never will understand fans that heckle players and feel it is their right to do so because they purchased a ticket to the game but unfortunately that is a part of the Ballpark experience.
While I recommend going to the Ballpark in person as often as possible to hear actual conversation, on a rainy day or when the ballpark is too far away the number 10 movie on our totally subjective countdown can be a good fit. Plus, you can always fast forward through the heckling scenes which is something I certainly wish could be done in real life.
Tomorrow, marks the DVD release of the movie 42 about Jackie Robinson breaking baseball’s color barrier and all of the issues that he faced as a result of that.
I have previously written about the movie and Jackie Robinson and will be adding the movie to my collection of baseball movies sometime this week.
The pending addition of another movie into my growing collection of films about baseball got me thinking about just how many films there are about baseball.
My baseball film collection is modest by most standards I would think but I am also highly particular about which movies get added to it. I am the same way about my collection of books about baseball believing firmly in the quality of quantity approach.
While I doubt that any one person could collect every single movie about baseball, nor do I think they should try, there are definitely movies that capture each element of the game and should be part of any collection of baseball movies.
Hundreds if not thousands of movies have been made about the game of baseball through the years. Photo R. Anderson
Just taking into account the Kevin Costner Baseball trilogy one is exposed to the humor that comes from Bull Durham, the emotional Field of Dreams, and the tale of a pitcher holding on for one more perfect moment in For Love of the Game.
Personally I would love to see Kevin Costner take on another baseball role as a manager or some other area where a former player struggles with life once the fans stop cheering their name. But it appears that wish will need to wait as Costner seems content with playing the earthly dad to Superman.
So moving away from the Kevin Costner movies about baseball there are the films with a certain fantasy element to them. For these movies one can usually look at the Walt Disney vault for films like Angels in the Outfield.
Of course making a movie about a team that they owned was sheer marketing genius by the Mouse House. But, then again you don’t get to become as big as the Walt Disney Company without being good at business.
While I never really bought into the fantasy elements of Angels in the Outfield, there was one Disney baseball movie deemed worthy to join my collection and that movie was the Rookie. For those who may not be aware of that particular film it follows the real-life story of a Texas high school baseball coach turned relief pitcher for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
The real life story of a Texas teacher turned Major League pitcher portrayed in the Rookie is one of the feel good movies about baseball. Photo R. Anderson
As a fan of the Devil Rays turned just plain Rays, I try to soak up as much of the team’s history as possible. Granted there are only about 15 years of history so far but I have lived each one of those years with the team and can remember covering the announcement of their birth into the league so I guess you could say they hold an extra special place in my heart.
For those looking for more on the real life stories of baseball one can really do no wrong by curling up on the coach and watching Ken Burns’ documentary Baseball and his followup Baseball: The 10th Inning which covered changes made in the time since the first documentary was released.
Burns is arguably one of the leading documentations of this era and his take on the history of baseball is definitely one for the ages.
Jackie Robinson is not the only player to get the big screen biography treatment. Baseball fans can catch movies with Tommy Lee Jones as Ty Cobb and John Goodman as Babe Ruth among others.
Of course not everything about baseball movies should be about dry stats and real life achievements and player biographies.
For a pure historical telling of baseball, warts and all, one should not miss the Ken Burns take on the subject. Photo R. Anderson
Sometimes a baseball movie should just be about pure unadulterated humor. For the strict humor baseball movies I tend to go towards the Major League films. Add to the equation that Charlie “Tiger Blood” Sheen did all of his own pitching in the film and you have the makings of a cinematic classic.
For more Sheen on the diamond one can catch Eight Men Out, a very well done look at the Chicago Black Sox scandal.
Of course there is also the whole sub genre of baseball films turned into romantic comedies. While I tend to steer clear of most “chick flicks” there have been times when the baseball elements of a romcom have caused me to go to the theater and see the movies. Fever Pitch was one such movie as was Summer Catch. But as a rule I prefer that the only sap in my baseball movies comes from the pine tar on the bats.
So there is a look at baseball through the cinematic lens. There are bound to be films that I have left out and I am sure each individual looks for something different in terms of what makes a good baseball film to them. So that is likely one of the reasons there are so many films about baseball to begin with.
Of course nothing quite captures baseball like an actual seat at the ballpark whether it be at the Little League level or all the way up to the major Leagues. Baseball is simply better live. But during those 5-6 months of the year when there isn’t any live baseball to go see movies about baseball can certainly help scratch the itch between the crowning of the World Series champion and the time players report to Spring Training.
Now if you’ll excuse me I need to make some room on my shelf for another baseball movie.
Tomorrow marks the 25th anniversary of the release of a movie about the ins and outs of Minor League Baseball.
The movie that is causing all of the hoopla is Bull Durham, or as I like to call it the base of the Kevin Costner baseball movie triangle that also includes Field of Dreams and For Love of the Game.
While Bull Durham enjoyed modest success during its theatrical run, it gained wider popularity in the years following to the point that celebrating the quarter century mark since it was released is kind of a big deal.
Tomorrow marks the 25th Anniversary of Bull Durham and people have been quoting lines from it ever since. Photo R. Anderson
While each of the sides of the Kevin Costner Baseball Triangle are good in their own ways, I have always identified more with the comedy infused Durham.
I still watch both Bull Durham and Field of Dreams each year at the start of the baseball season, and both still make me laugh and cry in various ways so many years later.
I suppose Bull Durham resonates with me so well because while I was never a Minor League Baseball player I was very much a Minor League Baseball fan and was attending games around the same time that the movie came out.
So, the movie showed me the parts of Minor League life that I didn’t see from my view in the stands.
The movie also provided several concepts that I use even today as part of my daily life.
The concept of creating your own rain delay when the grind gets to tough and you just need a day to catch your breath is a theme that I have embraced from the movie.
Although I have never turned on the sprinklers in the office, I have certainly found ways to give everyone a rain day here and there.
The movie also provided many timeless quotes with some of them being appropriate for repeating and some best left to the professionals.
In that respect, the current members of the Durham Bulls, the real-life team that inspired the team in the movie, made a hilarious video reenacting some of the crazier lines from the film.
What makes the video of the players recreating the lines so funny, and perhaps makes the rest of us feel a little old, is the fact that many of the players were not alive when the movie first came out.
There is something for everyone in the Kevin Costner Baseball Triangle. Photo R. Anderson
Another interesting aspect of the real life Durham Bulls is that they serve as the Triple-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays who were 10 years away from existing at the time of the film’s release.
As a bit of trivia the Bulls were a Single-A affiliate at the time the movie was made and were owned by one of the filmmakers.
But enough about things that weren’t around when the movie came out. It is time to focus on something highlighted in the movie that is no longer around.
In the movie and in real life, Max Patkin was the Clown Prince of Baseball. For over 50 years Patkin went to Minor League ballparks across the country and Canada performing his baseball clown act.
I was fortunate enough to see Patkin perform during an Orlando Sun Rays game at Tinker Field. Patkin’s act was shown in several scenes and Patkin himself got a dance to himself later in the movie.
While it was clear that Patkin was closer to the end of his performing career than the beginning by the time Bull Durham came out, to this day when I watch his performance scenes it is like I am right there watching him in person and trying to avoid getting sprayed by his water trick.
Although he died in 1999, Patkin will forever live on in his scenes from Bull Durham. That is both a testament to the man himself and to the filmmakers for recognizing the important role he played in conveying the essence of Minor League Baseball.
Another staple of both the movie and Minor League Baseball in general is road trips on a bus. Unlike the Major League players who travel in first class chartered planes, the Minor League players arrive by bus for all of their road trips.
Not much has changed with the Durham Bulls logo since Bull Durham came out. It is still one of the more iconic and recognized looks in the Minor Leagues. Photo R. Anderson
When Michael Jordan tried to make it as a baseball player in the late 80s, he bought a luxury bus for the Birmingham Barons to use.
Still, despite the “luxury” bus features it is hard to picture Air Jordan traveling through the cities of the Southern League in a bus.
As for the bus that was used in the movie, that was purchased by a man named Dale Earnhardt Jr. Dale Jr. is someone who knows a thing or two about motorized vehicles.
While Bull Durham has stood the test of time for 25 years, every once in a while a rumor surfaces about a potential sequel being made. Sequels can certainly be tricky business as few ever really are as good as the first or meet the lofty expectations set for them.
But, even with all of that being said, I would still watch a sequel to Bull Durham. Do I think it could ever be as good as the first movie? Probably not.
But, it does not have to be as good as the first movie. It just needs to help show where the characters ended up some 25 years after we left them on the porch and field.
I have my own ideas about what happened to the characters. So, if a sequel is never made I will still carry on my version of the story in my head. But it would be nice to see the cast get back together for one more trip around the bases.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I am off to swing for the fences and see if I can hit the bull to win a steak. And remember “This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains.”
Copyright 2013 R. Anderson
Covering the world of baseball one pitch at a time.
Southpaw Musings 