VOTE: What Is The Greatest Baseball Movie Of All Time?
Take me out to the ballgame...in a movie theater please.
There's really no questioning how great of a team baseball and movies make together but when it comes to deciding on which baseball movie is the best of them all? That's about as easy as connecting on a Nolan Ryan fastball.
My choice is The Natural from 1984 starring Robert Redford, Robert Duvall and Glenn Close. Not only is it a great movie with stellar acting and a perfect score coming from Randy Newman but it also came along at just the right time for me. I was 11 going on 12 years old when I saw this movie for the first time and baseball was everything to me. At that age the baseball heroes of the 40s, 50s and 60s were like mythical figures. Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax....those guys were not human they were like comic book superheroes and that's exactly the approach The Natural took with this movie.
Sure The Natural is over-the-top. I get it; no man can literally hit a baseball so hard they will knock the cover off the ball but that's what kids want to believe. They want to believe the story that Babe Ruth pointed to center field and predicted his home run seconds before knocking it over the fence. The world needs its heroes folks and, for me, "The Natural" Roy Hobbs was that hero.
Below are 25 baseball movies from the 40s to today for you to choose from with a link to each film to get you up to 100 mph speed:
The Pride Of The Yankees (1942)
The Babe Ruth Story (1948)
The Stratton Story (1949)
Angels In The Outfield (1951)
Fear Strikes Out (1957)
Bang The Drum Slowly (1973)
The Bad News Bears (1976)
The Natural (1984)
Bull Durham (1988)
Eight Men Out (1988)
Field Of Dreams (1989)
Major League (1989)
The Babe (1992)
A League Of Their Own (1992)
Mr. Baseball (1992)
The Sandlot (1993)
Rookie Of The Year (1993)
Cobb (1994)
For The Love of the Game (1999)
61* (2001)
The Rookie (2002)
Moneyball (2011)
Trouble With The Curve (2012)
42 (2013)
Million Dollar Arm (2014)
So are you ready to step up to the plate and cast your vote? I brought the peanuts, cracker jacks and some buttered popcorn too. We may be here for a while.
You can listen to Eric Senich live on Saturdays from 10am to 3pm on 95.1 FM. You can also listen online by clicking here or by downloading the i95 ROCK Mobile App.