your favorite baseball movies and the fantasy fictitious lineup of all time

[Neddy]

today is finally my day off! kids are at school, wife is still doing some paper work at the office but I am home, woke up at 10 AM, feeling great! I had hit 145/105 with my BP yesterday due to stress and lack of sleep in the last couple of weeks and finally, I am feeling somewhat normal again! was gonna spend the rest of the day watching my favorite baseball movies then it just dawned on me, that you guys must have your own favorites too and if you guys are anything like me, must have come up with a fantasy lineup of fictional characters to make your own all time teams. if you never pondered on fictitious lineup, that's okay too, but whatever your fancy was with your baseball movie stories you may have, let's have some fun and share right here.

my all time baseball movies list goes something like this...

#1 Bull Durham - just the best, most quoteable movie of all time, meat!
#2 the Natural - Roy Hobbs. the greatest of all time, period.
#3 Mr. Baseball - it's Jack Elliot san! "Big Hit, Happy Body!"
#4 42 - Jackie Robinson's biopic. said enough.
#5 for Love of the Game - the old ace Billy Chapel on the mound, team is sold, his love is at the airport... and he throws a...
#6 Major League - come on, who doesn't like Ricky the wild thing Vaughn, Pedro Cerrano, and WIllie May Hayes?
#7 the League of Their Own - Tom Hanks' best performance as an actor imo and Gina Davis looked like a HOFer.
#8 Field of Dreams - yeah I don't ranks this movie as high as others, but still a damn good film.
#9 Sand lot - "you are killing me smalls!" that phrase is now ingrained to our culture forever.
#10 the Fan - god Robert DeNiro was never better. what a chilling remake of a classic of completely different back ground.
#11 Rookie - who doesn't like a true story of an underdog?
#12 MoneyBall - the book was much, much better. and Peter Brand was nothing like Paul DePodesta.
#13 Hardball - does anybody remember this movie anymore? it maybe corny but I was teary eyed when G-baby died.
#14 Mr. 3000 - god that CG editing of Bernie Mack in actual playing shape was funny as hell
#15 61* - another biopic of a great era and injustice that was done by nostalgia worshipping sports writers of that time.
#16 the Scout - yeah it is a comedy and was not even close to being realistic but you have got to love Steve Nebraska's fastball.
#17 MIlllion Dollar Arm - these dudes are the founding fathers of Indian Baseball, how can you not love them.
#18 Trouble with Curves - more political than people think, another extension of Grand Turino for ole Clint, great flick none the less
#19 Little Big League - I know there are a few of us around here who was baseball trivia wiz as a kid.
#20 Bad News Bears - the movie "Hard Ball" was practically based on, a cult classic, with underaged drinking.

you guys can argue which was better than what, but it's all subjective why we feel certain movies become our favorites and some much more popular ones don't, but debate away fellas.

my fantasy line up among all these players are ( and true fictitious characters only, can't pick Jackie Robinson, for example)

1. R CF WIllie May Hayes - no better lead off
2. L RF Roy Hobbs -true to SABR. best hitter in the 2 hole
3. L DH Stan Ross ( it's fictional so Im going with a DH rather than a pitcher batting 9th)
4. R LF Pedro Cerrano - technically I believe he was a RF but gotta move him to LF for Roy
5. L 1B Jack Elliot
6. R 3B Roger Dorn
7. R 2B Minadeo
8. L C Crash Davis - yeah I know he was a minor leaguer, but Jack Taylor's knees are shot.
9. R SS Skillet

SP
1. Billy Chapel
2. Steve Nebraska
3. Nuke LaLoosh
4. Eddie Harris the ball doctor
5. Amanda
CP. Rick Vaughn.

yeah the pitching is entirely made of righties but it is what it is, few lefty fictional pitchers around.

you guys have any baseball movie thoughts to share?

[Ranma]

Great list and lineup, Neddy. I haven't seen close to that many baseball movies, so I'll have to check out a few on your list, but my watch list is as follows:

• The Natural: A beautifully cinematic tale about how a mythic figure could have his potential co-opted by corrupting influences surrounding the game.
• Major League: A funny movie with a memorable cast of characters pitted against their duplicitous owner.
• Mr. Baseball: A humorous look at the differences between life in American and Japanese baseball.
• 42: The story of Jackie Robinson's career as a Dodger giving us a glimpse of what he had to go through to break baseball's color barrier and why he was the right man for the job.
• 61*: I found this movie directed by Billy Crystal to be well-made in showing us the dynamic between two teammates over the homerun record with fans cheering for the flawed favorite player while deriding the less photogenic player for doing his best.
• A League of Their Own: I agree Tom Hanks gave another wonderful performance but the entire cast was just spot on as well. Geena Davis looked legit as the league's star player.
• Field of Dreams: A nostalgic fantasy romanticizing our love for the game.
• Moneyball: I haven't read the book, but thought it was a wonderful movie with great performances. Who knew that you could produce such an entertaining and enlightening movie from a novel based on sabermetrics?
• Million Dollar Arm: An interesting telling of how a couple of Indian pitchers made it to the major leagues. Not exactly "The Blindside" but decent.
• Bad News Bears: An under-rated classic giving a humorous but realistic look about the overly competitive nature of Little League Baseball while highlighting the lost purpose of organized sports for kids.
• Brewster's Millions: A guilty pleasure that is admittedly not that well-made but it features both Richard Pryor and John Candy in a tale about how a career minor leaguer must spend $30 million in order to get his true inheritance of $300 million without telling anyone why he's crazily spending away his newfound fortune.
• Angels in the Outfield: An after-school-special movie with Danny Glover and a couple of child actors who give good performances, but really nothing to write home about.

I Google-searched "baseball movies" and came across a few notable films I've mostly heard of except for "Bang the Drum Slowly":

• Eight Men Out: A telling of the 1919 Black Sox scandal featuring both John Cusack and Charlie Sheen.
• The Pride of the Yankees: A movie about Lou Gehrig featuring Gary Cooper. It's recognized for Cooper's great performance in the title role but is cited for the lack of accurate portrayal with Cooper's lack of athletic ability and right-handedness to Gehrig's left-handedness.
• Cobb: Tommy Lee Jones plays baseball's great curmudgeon.
• The Babe: John Goodman portrays George Herman "Babe" Ruth, Jr.
• Bang the Drum Slowly: A young Robert Deniro portraying a catcher with an incurable disease during his last season.

[Neddy]

I would also like to add Bobby Rayburn as my 4th OF and Parkman as a designated PH. also recenty arrested Benny the Jet as a utility player to my team... christ he maybe going to prison for 4 to 7 years for beating a man momentarily dead.

and oh man, John Goodman as Babe, he played the character wonderfully but my god, his swing.... yuck.

I too have never heard of "bang the drum slowly" either. Robert DeNiro as a ball player? I wonder how I missed that movie?