My Top Ten Baseball Movies-1-5

My top ten baseball movies conclude today with my top five films.
Keep in mind that these are just what I like and my list may be far different than yours!
Again, please remember that documentaries are not rated.

1) The Natural
You could have taken any of these films and asked on a particular day, which is my favorite and gotten a different answer, but upon careful thought-The Natural wins this.
The film perfectly captures its time (1939) and the surroundings make one think of the parks of the time like the Polo Grounds and Ebbetts Field.
Robert Redford plays like an actual player and swings like Ted Williams and that gives you first place in my rankings!
Darren McGavin is great in an uncredited role as gambler Gus as one of the villains.
Interesting Note: The film was made at Buffalo's War Memorial Stadium, which hosted minor league baseball teams, but is better known as the home of the two time AFL champion Buffalo Bills from 1960-1972.

2) Major League
Major League was going to be a favorite of mine as soon as the film was written to include the Indians and not only was it funny with so many lines that trail baseball fields to this day, but it had so many younger actors that would become stars in both television and film.
Plus it has all of those shots of 1980's Cleveland, even though the film was made in Milwaukee!
Margaret Whitton (who recently passed away) should have been a much bigger star after her tremendous portrayal of the nasty owner of the Tribe-Rachel Phelps.
Interesting Note: The original ending was to have Rachel Phelps tell Lou Brown that her persona' was a charade to motivate the team and she never intended to move the team to Miami.
Screenings preferred Phelps as the villain and the ending was changed.

3) Field of Dreams
This movie features lots of great performances from Kevin Costner, Ray Liotta, James Earl Jones and Amy Madigan among others and every son has to be touched at one time or the other by the 'catch scene" at the end of the movie.
Similar to For the Love of the Game, another Costner vehicle, baseball is what ties all the film together.
It may be overly sentimental, but if you ever played baseball with your dad-it gets you every time.
Interesting Note: Ray Liotta played Shoeless Joe Jackson as a righthanded batter when he actually was a lefty swinger.
The people involved with the film decided to lose a little historical accuracy to gain with Liotta looking like a legitimate player batting his natural righthanded stance.

4) Eight Men Out
The only film that is based on a real team, the Black Sox scandal of 1919.
It tells the story reasonably accurately and the baseball holds up as well.
The young stars of the film (Charlie Sheen, John Cusack, and D.B.Sweeney) all look like real ballplayers.
The only downside is the bad guy gamblers that set the scandal up are pretty much the stereotypical bad guys without any fleshing out.
Interesting Note: D.B.Sweeney actually played pro baseball briefly with the Kenosha Twins.

5) Mr.Baseball
I'm not the biggest Tom Selleck fan in the world, but he was perfect for this role as a former major league star with faded skills that carries his name to the Chunichi Dragons of the NPB in Japan.
The story is based on former Expo Warren Cromartie's Japanese career and it explains many of the differences between Japanese baseball and American.
It's not drop-dead hilarious overall, but if you are a hardcore seamhead, this film is worth a look.
Interesting Note: The love interest of Selleck in the film (Aya Takanashi) is reported to have left show business after this film.

Hope you enjoyed this two-part series.
I might do another one sometime maybe with other sports films.