Yankees Editorial: Ranking My Favorite Baseball Movies of All-Time

If you’re like I am, baseball season truly never ends. Sure, the regular season transitions into October, and three exciting rounds of postseason baseball culminates with the World Series, but even then, the countdown is always on until pitchers and catchers report in February. I like to start off my off-season by watching the epic story of the game’s history, but forcing my two small children to ensure 10 innings of Ken Burns’ Baseball.

From there, I try to catch some Australian League action, some Arizona Fall League play, and the Caribbean World Series when it rolls around. But there are times when I just need to throw in a Blu-Ray disc from my plethora of baseball movies. Depending on what type of mood I’m in, determines my selection, but they all get viewed at some point during the winter, most times more than once.

As spring training is now within striking distance, the Winter Meetings have come and gone, and most of the big name free agents have already signed, we watch, we listen, and we report on smaller, less celebrated moves the team makes, such as finalizing non-roster invitees to camp, veterans and youngsters looking for their shot at big league glory either for the first time, or one more time, and if you cover the New York Yankees likes the staff and I here at Yanks Go Yard do, the now daily circus show that has become Alex Rodriguez, the new Commissioner of Baseball, and of course the Yankees themselves. Absent from 2015 will be any retirement tours, and aside from A-Rod, we can get back to baseball.

But to celebrate the winter that was, and always has been, here in order from 10 to 6 in part one, then 5-1 in part two, are my favorite baseball movies of all-time!

Mandatory Credit: thesky.com

#10. The Rookie (2002)

Sure, it’s a Disney movie, but it’s baseball nonetheless. The Rookie is a nice story about dreams, comebacks, and how if you allow something to eat you up inside, it’ll bug you for the remainder of your life no matter how old you get.

Dennis Quaid portrays Jim Morris, who once pitched in the Milwaukee Brewers’ organization, but hurt his arm, which derailed and ended his career. The story is almost fairy tale in how it’s told, as Morris is now a science teacher in a small Texas town, one that doesn’t care too much about baseball.

Also serving as the high baseball coach, Morris grows increasingly frustrated with his situation both on the diamond and off, applying for a job to become coach at a much bigger school. After playing catch one day with his team’s catcher, it appears that Morris can still bring the heat, and soon thereafter, the rest of the team becomes aware of his skills as well.

In true Disney fashion, the team, which has always underperformed makes a deal with their coach: if they can win their district championship, he agrees to attend an open big league tryout, which they do, and he does. One of my favorite parts of the movie, is that he shows up in jeans, kids in tow, and has to change diapers while his little ones are excited about their Dad, especially his son, Hunter, played by Two And A Half Men’s Angus T. Jones.

While the movie is highly predictable, it isn’t a smooth ride back to the big leagues for Morris. His wife, Lorri, played by Rachel Griffiths, fears that Jim will re-injure his arm, along with the fact that after signing a contract with the then-Tampa Bay Devil Rays, the pay cut hurts the family’s ability to pay their bills at home. Morris also has a strained relationship with his father, a career Navy man, who never supported his son in his pursuit of his big league dream.

Of course Morris has success, and proceeds to move through the D-Rays farm system rather quickly, where he is an outsider as the old man among kids just starting their pro careers. Some view his comeback as a publicity stunt, and aren’t too kind to him. But after a September call-up, Morris realizes his dream of making it to the show, highlighted by whiffing Royce Clayton on three pitches. This is where history and Hollywood collide, as there are several inaccuracies in the film.

Morris actually struck out Clayton on four pitches, not three. The uniforms used for the movie were incorrect as well. Both teams used different uniforms in 1999, when film was supposed to take place. Alex Rodriguez was a member of the Seattle Mariners in 1999, and didn’t join Texas until 2001. Finally, the visitors bullpen was not where it appears in the movie, as anyone who has ever attended a Rangers’ game in Arlington would tell you. The details don’t matter, because it’s a heartwarming story of success, and intestinal fortitude, and shows that sometimes, even past your prime, dreams really can come true. That’s why this film comes in at #10 on my list.

Mandatory Credit: news.moviefone.com

#9. Eight Men Out (1988)

Based upon the Eliot Azinov novel, 8 Men Out, the story attempts to take a historical look at the 1919 Chicago White Sox, later dubbed The Black Sox. The movie has always held a special place with me, because I’m a history guy, and a baseball history nut. I love period movies, and director John Sayles did a wonderful job taking us back to the dawn of the roaring twenties.

The other thing I love about the movie, is that it is loaded with familiar faces, such as John Cusack as Buck Weaver, Charlie Sheen as Happy Felsch, Christopher Lloyd (Doc Brown) as Bill Burns, John Mahoney as Kid Gleason, and Michael Rooker as Chick Gandil just to name a few. The plot puts us with the White Sox on the verge of clinching the American League pennant, and headed to the World Series as the heavy favorites against the National League Cincinnati Reds.

Unlike the modern World Series, the 1919 version was a best-of-nine. Several players were unhappy about their pay, including Eddie Cicotte, portrayed by David Strathairn (Also of A League of Their Own), who had been ordered benched by cheapskate owner Charles Comiskey, to avoid having to pay Cicotte performance-based bonuses.

Multiple players were on the take, as gamblers with big money backing them, saw this as an opportunity to make even more cash, by fixing the series against the underdog Reds. Cicotte and Lefty Williams both got leveled in the first two games of the series, but unfortunately for the Black Sox, their promised pay for poor play, failed to come through. The fix might have been in, but some began to backpedal, and refused to take any further part. The Sox win Game Three, which upset the gamblers and begin to put threats of violence into motion against some of the players and their families.

All while this was occurring, two of the players who eventually were banned for life, Buck Weaver and Shoeless Joe Jackson, played hard and put up excellent numbers during the series. It was their knowledge of the fix, and inability to report it, which most likely cost both their careers.

During the series, a pair of sportswriters begin to hear the whispers of the fix, and start taking notes of plays that seem hokey. By the time all was said and done, the Sox had lost the series 5 games to 3, and the baseball world was turned on it’s ear. After the eight players that were accused of being in on the fix were acquitted during their trial, the baseball owners hired and handed all-wielding power to one Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis, who quickly banned all eight players for life, never to be involved in professional baseball again.

As with any historical period film, there are bound to be inaccuracies due to budget and time restraints, but the reason I love this film so much, is because it brings to light the saddest period in baseball history, while showing that some players, even having knowledge of the fix, most likely were punished much harsher than they should’ve been, like Weaver and Jackson.

Mandatory Credit: kettmann.com

#8. Fever Pitch (2005)

Before you fall out of your chair, remember, these are MY favorite baseball movies. If I was doing a straight 10-1 ranking, believe me, this film barely makes the top 15, let alone the top 10. However, this is a personal preference list, so it makes the list.

I’ve told the story dozens of times to friends over the years, but my now wife and I began dating shortly after the epic New York Yankees collapse during the 2004 ALCS to the Boston Red Sox. My wife is a diehard Red Sox fan, and I am the maniacal Yankees’ fan. This film, much like my relationship with my wife, developed hot and heavy in a hurry, and resulted in a marriage, two children, and an obsessive love for the game of baseball.

It’s never easy in my household during baseball season, as my 5-year old son has stayed true to the pinstripes, while my 3-year old daughter is a Big Papi gal all the way. Our schedules revolve around our baseball lives, big league, little league, it doesn’t matter. As a writer and editor for two baseball sites, not to mention my own blog, even my wife tired on the grand old game. Not this kid though, and we both enjoy Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore, as their love blossoms from the foundation of Fallon’s character teaching Barrymore’s about a love no one can understand unless you have the baseball bug.

Much like Barrymore’s character, my wife oftentimes has to remind me about what’s important, as I’m so focused on following everything baseball, I forget about what is truly important in life. The movie while not the traditional baseball flick, uses the Red Sox 2004 season as a backdrop for the love that develops between two people from polar opposite ends of the spectrum, and at the end of the day, they both figure out there is room for everything in one’s life. Fever Pitch always puts a smile on my face, and makes me remember why I love my wife so much.

Mandatory Credit: stlsportspage.com

#7. The Sandlot (1993)

I’ll be honest, I thought The Sandlot was a cute kids’ movie about baseball. I watched it maybe a half dozen times in the 15 or so years prior to my children being born. Since? It’s become a weekly staple of the Brost children’s baseball movie rotation, along with the animated movie, Everyone’s Hero, the final piece from Christopher and Dana Reeve before each passed away. I’ve fallen in love with The Sandlot so much, that one of my favorite t-shirts is a big picture of Ham Porter with the words “You’re Killin’ Me Smalls!” It still gets a chuckle out of folks I see around town.

You know the story by now. Kid moves to suburban Los Angeles in the early 1960s, doesn’t know anyone, and has zero clue how to play baseball. I can personally relate somewhat, as I was the new kid in a new town, with a month of the school year left to go. Fortunately for me, I did know how to play baseball, along with many other sports, but like little Scotty Smalls, this allowed me to make friends quite quickly–friends that I consider brothers to this day.

The story is predicable, but it’s fun to see the gang getting into trouble, not serious trouble, but acceptable boys will be boys type of trouble. Their summer days and nights were dominated by the baseball diamond, and as a result, a bond was built among the eight of them. Like in real life, people always go their separate ways, but the memories of childhood summers playing the greatest game on Earth, makes this one of my top 10 favorite flicks. Just like with most classic films, The Sandlot spawned two additional movies, the first was a shade above par, the second was forgettable to say the least.