$212.46. That is what the average family of four spent at a major league ballgame last year. For the budget-conscious, that price tag makes it mighty tempting to stay home and enjoy the boys of summer on TV—either a live game or a classic baseball movie.
But watching some of the most fondly remembered films about the national passtime suggest that maybe both the game’s time and what made America great are passing. Here are five films that make the case.
5. Moneyball (2011)
Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill take the Oakland Athletics from a mediocre, going-broke franchise to a cash-cow winner by using analytical, evidence-based “sabermetrics.” The film garnered six Oscar nominations, critical acclaim, and box-office success. That’s terrible. Celebrating the “corporatization” of baseball is not a good thing. Sure, making money is a good thing. “Last season,” Forbes reports, “MLB saw gross revenues of over $8 billion, and the expectation is it will reach $10 billion within a year or two.”
But where is the gut, the intuition, the love of sport for sport’s sake that we learned from movies like The Pride of the Yankees (1942), Gary Cooper’s epic portrayal of the greatest star of baseball’s finest hour?4. Field of Dreams (1989)
A disembodied voice tells Kevin Costner to build a diamond in his cornfield. Costner gets to meet “Shoeless” Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta) and the voice of Darth Vader (James Earl Jones). It’s sentimental slop, but this New Age comfort food of a film was the smash summer hit of ‘89. But it is missing all the courage, sacrifice, and teamwork—the core values we want the sport to teach our children.
Damn Yankees (1958) is fantasy movie that imparts the real values of baseball. In this musical comedy, Tab Hunter not only beats the devil, he helps his hapless team win the pennant.
3. The Natural (1984)
What could be more natural than to take one of Hollywood’s hottest stars, Robert Redford, and turn him into an unbeatable baseball star? And it works. Fine acting combined with an incredible musical score earned this handsome film four Oscar nominations. But the movie is more an homage to the film star than a story about the perseverance and hard work needed to be a real hero in sports or life.
The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg (2000) is a real movie about heroic baseball. Greenberg battled antisemitism, interrupted his career to fight in WW II, crossed the color line to welcome Jackie Robinson into the big leagues, and still found time to come within a hair of Babe Ruth’s home run record.2. Bull Durham (1988)
Kevin Costner is a minor league veteran who teaches a rookie how to become an all-star. This romantic comedy won all kinds of awards and made all kinds of money, but it is hard to find a less admirable cast of characters in a sports film.
For an uplifting contrast try The Rookie (2002), starring Dennis Quaid. It’s the true story of a small-town, married veteran who—at 35 years old—gets a second chance to pitch in The Show. It’s a moving sports movie that far too few have seen.1. Major League (1989)
It’s fine to have fun with baseball. And no film has a better time with the game than this comedy starring Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, and Wesley Snipes. It’s entertaining to watch an oddball collection of talent help the hapless Cleveland Indians become a winner. The film was a winner, too, debuting at #1 at the box office.
But why settle for just laughs when there are films that also have real heart. In The Kid from Left Field (1953), Dan Dailey knows everything about baseball even though he is only a peanut vendor. His young son, however, is a bat boy who passes dad’s advice on to the players. The team gets so good the kid becomes manager, and they battle their way to the World Series.
The virtue of baseball is that it teaches our young how to fight as a team and what it takes to win. But some films are so “sophisticated,” they lead us away from the best lessons of sport. The more we gush over those movies, the more we diminish the sport and ourselves.
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