baseball movies Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Here's something I've figured out over the last few years: Most hardcore movie geeks are NOT sports fans, and I think I know why: Watching, discussing, and (perhaps) writing about movies is pretty much a full-time hobby. It sucks a lot of hours away, believe me. Sports? Pretty much the same thing. Unless you're a casual "glance at the box score" sort of fan, sports fanaticism means a lot of hours enjoying the games, clicking through highlights, checking your fantasy / roto stats, watching SportsCenter, reading the paper the next day, calling into sports-talk radio, and arguing with people about why your lead-off hitter is better than theirs.

But not me. I'm a sports fan, and a big one. Baseball and (American) football mostly, but I proudly support all of the Philadelphia teams. So please join me in one massive WOOO-HOOOOOOOO because my beloved Philadelphia Phillies just won their first World Series since 1980 and only the second championship in the team's 126-year history! (Yes, seriously.) And man oh man, that victory parade was awesome. Best of all, aside from a small handful of morons, nobody "trashed" the city at all. We were expecting mini-riots, believe me.

So enthused am I that I'm taking this odd opportunity (the END of the baseball season?) to provoke a little bit of discussion regarding Baseball Cinema. It's a fantastic little sub-genre, peppered with solid dramas, decent comedies, and a few true-blue classics. Of course I (or any movie fan) could rattle off a bunch of worthwhile baseball flicks, but I'll just opine the following and then open the floor: The best baseball film ever made is John Sayles' Eight Men Out, followed closely by Barry Levinson's The Natural. Discuss!

And thanks again to the Phillies for giving this city one awesome shot in the arm. What a great season.