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Friday, October 16, 2009
Swing for the Fences
Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig in "Pride of the Yankees"

Few movies have the suspense and thrills of Thursday night's NLCS game between the Phillies and the Dodgers. But for sports fans who crave celluloid pennant races and World Series to fill up the time between actual pennant races and World Series games, may we suggest:

* Alibi Ike (1935) Rubber-faced Joe E. Brown as a rookie hurler for the Chicago Cubs who always has an excuse when he messes up. From the Ring Lardner story.

* Damn Yankees (1958) Aging baseball fan sells his soul to get a decent slugger (Tab Hunter) for the Washington Senators. Gwen Verdon as the Devil's Candy.

* Eight Men Out (1988) John Sayles' absorbing period piece about the 1919 Chicago White Sox team whose members throw the Series stars John Cusack, Charlie Sheen and D.B. Sweeney.

* Fever Pitch (2005) Appealing rom-com starring Jimmy Fallon as a Boston Red Sox diehard and Drew Barrymore as his baseball-averse sweetheart, set during the Sox 2004 miracle season.

* It Happens Every Spring (1949) Charmer starring Ray Milland as a professor -turned-pitcher, creator of a chemical that makes baseballs repel bats.

* A League of Their Own (1992) Penny Marshall's vibrant account of the All-Girls Baseball Leagues stars Geena Davis and Lori Petty as catcher-and-pitcher sisters who face each other in the League World Series.

* The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg (2000) Aviva Kempner's terrific documentary out the Hall of Famer who led the Detroit Tigers to multiple World Series while fighting anti-Semitism.

* The Natural (1984) Based on Bernard Malamud's allegorical novel, the film stars Robert Redford as a disappeared baseball legend who returns as the chivalrous slugger of the New York Knights who face the Phillies in the pennant race and the Pirates in the Series.

* Pride of the Yankees (1942) Terrific biopic starring Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig, the Yankees Iron Man who, despite a bad medical prognosis, felt he was the luckiest man in the world. Dare you not to cry.

Your favorites? What am I missing?

Posted by Carrie Rickey @ 2:33 PM  Permalink | 9 comments
Comments   
Posted 02:50 PM, 10/16/2009
garyk
TALENT FOR THE GAME perhaps?
Posted 02:51 PM, 10/16/2009
edwardcopeland
How could you leave out Bull Durham, though I guess baseball is almost incidental there. They may not be Major League, but there's always the original Bad News Bears.
Posted 02:54 PM, 10/16/2009
jonc
I'd add "Bull Durham" to your list. Great performances and an insightful look into the other guys, the ones who don't make it to the show.
Posted 03:41 PM, 10/16/2009
factcheck
C'mon, you ommitted Ray Walston, character-actor-supreme, as the satanic protagonist in "Damn Yankees"! Also, more recently, "The Rookie" and "61" are outstanding efforts, IMHO.
Posted 05:21 PM, 10/16/2009
edrose
How about the ultimate father-son baseball movie.. Field of Dreams
Posted 07:09 PM, 10/16/2009
Pash
OK, here's one for trivia buffs. Columbia made a tiny movie in 1962 titled "Safe at Home," directed by Walter Doniger and starring ... Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris (and the sublime William Frawley). A baseball film with Mantle and Maris? You can't top that, Miss Carrie.
Posted 04:57 PM, 10/17/2009
carrierickey
Excellent baseball films..but my list is strictly films about pennant and World Series races.
Posted 08:18 AM, 10/23/2009
daveelderkin
I'll add "Bang the Drum Slowly" with a great performance by DeNiro. And I'll second "The Rookie" which was a nice surprise. Question: Why are there dozens of great baseball movies, but very few for other sports?
Posted 02:19 PM, 10/23/2009
Chaquita/Philly
Major League is a wonderful baseball comedy. How can we forget "Wild Thing" in Philly. I also remember a comedy about a big striped cat called "Rhubarb", I think Paul Douglas was in it. It was probably made in the late 40's or early 50's.
9 comments
About Carrie Rickey

Carrie Rickey has been The Philadelphia Inquirer’s film critic for 21 years. She has reviewed films as diverse as Water and The Waterboy, profiled celebrities from Lillian Gish to Will Smith, and reported on technological breakthroughs from the video revolution to the rise of movies on demand. Her reviews are syndicated nationwide and she is a regular contributor to Entertainment Weekly. Rickey’s essays appear in numerous anthologies, including The Rolling Stone History of Rock & Roll, The American Century, and the Library of America’s American Movie Critics.

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All blog items posted before May 23, 2008, can be accessed at http://blogs.phillynews.com/inquirer/flickgrrl/.

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