Roy Hobbs over Crash Davis? I weep for our future.

I voted for Hamilton Porter, aka “The Great Hambino.”

I liked Major League more than either of those baseball movies. The Natural is ponderous and pretentious, and tries to make baseball way more than just a game. Bull Durham is no doubt closer to the real baseball world. I liked, and felt empathy for Crash, but I heartily disliked the Susan Sarandon character. She was essentially an amateur team hooker as far as I was concerned, and if I was Crash, I’d think twice about taking up with her, after she turned her back on me, so she could prep Nuke, in bed, and out, for the bigs. Bull Durham did have some funny stuff in it, but I think Major League was funnier overall, and had no pretensions of higher meaning.

Stud Cantrell is better than Crash David.

Long Gone was an underrated HBO movie from 1987, includes a 26 year old Virginia Madsen .

Nothing underrated about Virginia Madsen at 26, great film.

Major League had no pretensions of higher meaning? Can’t argue with that.

Pump your breaks, kid. That man is a national treasure.

You’re about to cross some fucking lines!!

Sarandon > Madsen.

(1) Red hair > Else hair

(2) Forehead big-red-letters label “Fuck Me” > “Huh?”

Roles immaterial, whether slut, virgin, or rocket surgeon.

All you need to know about Major League was that it had Charlie Sheen in it. If there is a worse actor on the planet than Keanu Reaves, Sheen is the guy.

To top it off they had to throw in Wesley Snipes—the least athletic member of the cast—as Ricky Henderson/Willie Mays. The whole thing made my eyes bleed.

Bull Durham is by far the best of those three movies. It’s not even close.

Honestly, I always dug Tom Beringer’s Jake Taylor: The journeyman vet trying to eke out one more season, although Crash Davis does it quite well.

Major League had so many silly stereotypes that do actually exist in baseball: The Junkballing old man pitcher (Gaylord Perry), the HR hitter with a huge hole in his swing (Rob Deer), the talented, money obsessed player (ARod), wild fireballer (Mitch Williams or Steve Dalkowski).

Plus, Pete Vukovich.

Bates- as long as we are on the subject of stereotypes from Major League, don’t forget the sexy but evil female owner (Marge Schott).

Jobu needs a refill.

I like the Bull Durham the way I like the small of a woman’s back.

I’m going to go assume you are bing sarcastic regarding Marge Schott being sexy. I really, really hope you are being sarcastic.

I think the evil female owner may have been more modeled on Georgia Frontiere of the NFL Rams. Although she was no spring chicken either when she inherited the team.

Did you expect Roy Hobbs to be giving Bump Bailey a hot foot while he road the pine waiting for the Bumper to take a header?

Seriously what sort of character should Redford have played? He was pissed at himself for blowing his opportunity by following for that siren’s seductions.

Let’s put aside a 47-yr-old Redford with arthritic hands trying to convince the audience that he is a magical amalgam of Walter Johnson and Ted Williams (albeit more charming). HD would not be kind to this film.

I realize this is a Hobbs vs. Davis debate, but you seem to want to debate the merits of the movies as well. You did see Tim Robbins pitch, right?

HD wouldn’t be kind to a shit ton of movies.

The Natural is my favorite baseball movie ever, and it’s not close. I was once told by a close friend and usually smart guy that The Natural sucked because it was too fake. His favorite? Field of Dreams.

Field of Dreams. Bored me on the movie screen. Then it bored me in book form as well.

True story- Lou Pinella used a nude life-sized cutout of Marge Schott to inspire the 1990 Reds’ playoff run. Prior to the World Series against the A’s all that remained were four strategically placed pieces of adhesive backed cloth- one covering each breast, one over the pubic region and the final piece covering the upper left thigh.

The Reds promptly swept the heavily favored A’s.

That cut out inspired Billy Hatcher to play hard in that series vs the Athletics.

“North Dallas Forty” has some of my favorite lines of any sports movie, many of which would get edited out today were the film to be remade. Here’s a good piece of dialogue:

Phil Elliott: Jo Bob is here to remind us that the biggest and the baddest get to make all the rules.
Charlotte: Well I don’t agree with that.
Phil Elliott: Agreeing doesn’t play into it.

“That’s a nice way of saying that the movie is a fantastic display of overindulgent saccharine-laced sentimentality with a running time that would make Francis Ford Coppola blush”

It’s also a complete and utter betrayal of its source material.

The Natural, Field of Dreams, and Bull Durham. in that order of the ones listed. But 8 Men Out is might really be my all time favorite “baseball” movie.

I don’t need all the crudeness (albeit funny) to enjoy a movie. I bought the Crash Davis character, but like magnus said, Tim Robbins, seriously?

The Field of Dreams might be a bit pretentious, but it dealt with a subject many of us struggle with, reconcillation with a loved one that is not possible due to death (or refusal from the other side). I admit it, I lost it when he said “You want have a catch, Dad?” it still gets to me as I hurt watching my father diminish as he ages (he’s 85) and I remember as he was when I was a child.

The Natural ties to confirm in us what we all desire, to be heroric, to get a second chance, to make righ things we screwed up. It connects at a level (even if it’s too long or a bit pretentious at times) beyond visceral enjoyment of a game.

Too me, 8 Men Out is a better “baseball” film them Bull Durham.

No go back to breathing through your eyelids while you wati your turn to go to heaven in a Iowa cornfield.

Tim Robbins was the only thing wrong with Bull Durham. But yeah, that throwing motion was brutal. Kenny Powers looks 10x more believable as a major league player (or a Sandy Koufax league player) than Nuke Laloosh.

Humbly-submitted rankings*:

1) Bull Durham (Not even close; by far the “smartest” baseball movie.)
2) Bad News Bears (The original—no sequels [Astrodome notwithstanding], no remakes)
3) Field of Dreams (Heart over head)
4) Major League (Quote-worthiness places it this high)
5) Eight Men Out (Fact stranger than fiction)
6) The Natural (A baseball fairy tale—don’t overthink it)
7) Bingo Long’s Traveling All-Stars (James Earl Jones’ “other” baseball movie)
8) Bang the Drum Slowly (if FOD didn’t make you cry, this will)

I’d watch any of these eight again—not sure if I can say that about any other baseball movies out there.

• - I never saw 61*, so I’ll include an asterisk for the asterisk movie.

Haven’t seen The Natural since it came out, so maybe it’s improved significantly in the interim… I think the less you knew baseball the more you were apt to like the movie.

and along with One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Marathon Man, it has to be in contention for ‘the least understanding of its source material’. And yeah, all my movie experience is antiquated…

and speaking of old movies… another vote here for Bang the Drum Slowly.

Kenny Powers is the most accurate fictional baseball player.

“The world is made for people who aren’t cursed with self awareness.”

Is one of the great movie quotes.

It’s not a great movie, you have to like The Rookie. After all, couldn’t we all make the bigs if we just got one more chance. (And a 95mph heater).

True story.

“I know it’s boring, just WRITE. IT. DOWN.”

Inning By Inning

Oh, I don’t know, As good of a movie as it is, Kubrick’s Shining does a pretty good job of misinterpreting the source material ruminations on isolation, alcoholism, and the legacy of child abuse.

I really like The Natural but don’t actually like any other modern era baseball movies very much. Great story, great cast, and directed by Barry Levinson.

The reason that sports movies generally don’t work that great is that the harder they work to be real, the less it works. It is like trying to do people with cgi, the closer they get to reality, the more off putting it is. The Natural avoids these problems by depicting an earlier, more simplistic, more idealized, and less athletic era. By presenting the baseball action in a less realistic, more cartoonish, more stylized way, it sidesteps the problem of approaching but not achieving reality. The Natural also has a lot of different not baseball action threads going on that are at least as important as the baseball action. Finally, the humility, quietness, and solid character of Roy Hobbs are appealing.