Category: Rob Neyer

The Best Baseball Movies of All-Time

March 6, 2008 by cubsnet

ESPN.com's Rob Neyer provides his list of the top baseball movies, stemming from this list:

1. Bull Durham
2. Eight Men Out
3. The Bad News Bears
4. Fever Pitch
5. The Natural
6. The Sandlot
7. 61*
8. Pride of the Yankees
9. A League of Their Own
10. Babe Ruth

I have not seen 4, 7, 8, or 10, so cannot comment on those. I will merely say that putting Bull Durham No. 1 is "the dumbest, most outrageous thing in the history of [sports movie lists], and ... I will not argue about this." Neyer criticizes Field of Dreams for making Shoeless Joe Jackson into a right-handed hitter, but ignores that Bull Durham features a star pitching prospect who throws like a girl. Bull Durham is not a baseball movie. It's a chick flick that thinks it's a comedy. And a bad one at that.

I have only seen two baseball movies worth seeing again: 1. The Natural (the book is terrible); and 2. Eight Men Out (the book is even better).