I Have a Fever and the Only Cure is Baseball
My favorite baseball movies
Who doesn’t love Martin the Martian as Satan in Damn Yankees?
Since I moved up to the Sacramento basin, the allergy capital of the world, my spring hay fever has always coincided with my Baseball Fever. Achoo! One of my least favorite things combined with one of my most favorite things—at least I know my hay fever will end when the hills turn brown (soon, I hope) but, if caught, Baseball Fever(has been for me), is a chronic condition.
I associate my love of baseball with my baseball-loving father. (I inherited my love of reading from my mother—I also have a list of favorite baseball books, maybe some other time). Being from near Tulsa, Dennis Miller was a Cards’ fan, but, after moving to the L.A. area, he settled for the Dodgers. My earliest baseball memory is listening to the incomparable Vin Scully announce the daily Dodgers’ game on the radio. At around six-years-old, the words, were at first, meaningless. Soon, however, I began to understand the game better as the words formed into vivid pictures in my mind. Then Koufax and Drysdale, Maury Wills and Willie Davis, Johnny Podres, etc, wormed their ways into my young heart and I have been smitten ever since. My family bonded over baseball, softball, the Dodgers, and the special treat of a televised game!
Today’s pro-game is far different from back when the sport was just barely integrated. However, when my #3 grandson Jackson “Cheetoh” Henry’s (what a great baseball name) Pony League season started in March, I sat in the visitor’s stand, absorbed the vibes and said to my daughter, “God, I love baseball.” From automatically hating the seemingly seeing-impaired umps, to cheering for all the players from both teams, as long as they give it their best shot, I feel a continuity to my life that has been filled with dramatic ups and downs.
Anyway, I thought I’d share with you my favorite baseball movies—not in any order because I cannot choose one over the other—they are all my favorites. Plus one baseball TV series I really enjoyed.
Let me know if you have a fave baseball movie and give me recs for some I have not yet seen. The synopses of these movies come from MLB.com.
Pride of the Yankees:
I think this was the first baseball movie I ever watched on our black and white TV, which was fine because the movie was filmed in black and white.
Gary Cooper is an instantly iconic Lou Gehrig -- people to this day still think Gehrig looked like Cooper -- and don't forget the terrific portrayal of Babe Ruth by ... Babe Ruth!
There was a TV movie starring Edward Hermann as Gehrig and Blythe Tanner as Eleanor Gehrig in 1978. It went in more depth about his incurable disease (since named after him) and their relationship: A Love Affair: The Eleanor and Lou Gehrig Story. I also loved this movie.
The Sandlot:
This is a movie my entire family, from myself to the youngest, can watch over and over again—and we do!
The kids classic snuck up on people when it was released, but its nostalgia is even more powerful now. And it has the one quote you'll surely see on a T-shirt every time you go to a game: "You're killin' me, Smalls!"
The Natural and Field of Dreams
I put these two movies together because, for some reason, I associate them. Maybe I watched them around the same time on some cable network like HBO? They both made me cry.
Personal note: The 2nd Saturday that I was camped in Crawford at Camp Casey in August 2005, there was a huge rally at our site near Bush’s pig ranch. People gathered at the Peace House in town to drive up to Camp for the rally. I was led to a bump in the landscape and I could see a steady stream of cars winding up Prairie Chapel Road to Camp Casey—someone there with me said, “If you build it they will come.” I still get goosebumps thinking of that experience and the end of that perfect movie.
The Natural:
Director Barry Levinson changed the ending to let Roy Hobbs be the hero Robert Redford played him as, and while the book might have more tragic resonance, the movie sure does hit the romantic sweet spot.
Field of Dreams
Dads and their kids will cry every time they hear "have a catch" for the rest of time because of this movie.
Bull Durham
The conversations on the mound. The tricks for getting out of a slump. The managerial motivational tactics. Which hand to swing with in a fight. "Bull Durham" is a movie that understands the romance and madness of baseball better than any movie ever has, and it has an all-timer cast. The only thing better than watching this movie is watching an actual baseball game. And only barely.
One of the stars of Bull Durham and I in May 2006
Three honorable mentions of movies I liked, but for some reason did not completely love, are: A Game of Their Own, Major League, and The Bad News Bears.
Another random note to drag politics into this discussion: Even though, I will forever idolize Jackie Robinson #42, I did not watch the movie 42. Why? I just can’t get over the fact that he testified in Congress for HUAC against the heroic Paul Robeson. I want to make all kinds of excuses for Jackie, but, why, Jackie, why?
There is a streaming service baseball series that I really loved, despite it being one of the raunchiest spectacles on screen: Brockmire. Hank Azaria plays a disgraced, but brilliant, alcoholic baseball announcer named, you guessed it Brockmire. He is given a chance to announce for a minor-league team (the Morristown Frackers) owned by Jules James (played by Amanda Peet). Jules is trying to attract fans to the stadium and re-build excitement for the team. The reason I loved it? It oozes baseball culture and a profound love for the game. Being no prude myself, sometimes the show made me uncomfortable: be forewarned. The side characters are also charmingly dysfunctional, but it works.
I know this may seem to be a frivolous topic in today’s reality of constant emotional, physical, and psychic destruction. I don’t know about you, but, sometimes I just need to take a break from all of that and re-connect with my bliss. Baseball combines many of my loves: Going on long-walks (to the field); connecting with my children and grandchildren; getting sunshine and fresh air; and second-guessing authority figures. What’s not to love?
Or, your grandma
What do you think?
ONE OF THE PAID SUBSCRIBER BONUSES IS CINDY’S MYTH AMERICA: THE 20 GREATEST MYTHS OF THE ROBBER CLASS AND THE CASE FOR REVOLUTION
Moneyball
Ken Burns did a good one on Jackie Robinson.
Cindy, you spoke to me and I have tears in my eyes. I, too, love baseball due to my father. He came back from WWII a quiet, distant person. I didn't understand until1967 that he was suffering from PTSD. He was part of the first wave in the Normandy invasion, sent to build the airfields. We communed over Yankee games, and those are the memories I cherish. He hated my anti-war activities during Vietnam, and I wish I had been able to communicate with him. Maybe he would have admitted to his PTSD/moral injury and come around to my side. He died too soon. But we always have baseball. And Cindy, I love your movie list and now I will get an extra goosebumps moment when I not only relate "if you build them, they will come" to Field of Dreams but also the procession to Camp Casey. Thank you.