Baseball In Movies – If You Build It

As we fast approach the start of the Major League Baseball regular season, I asked some of the movie people I know to pitch their favorite baseball moments at me so I could share their thoughts on here. My own personal selections, some of which were covered in what you are about to read and watch, will follow shortly. Let me just say a huge thank you for every minute of time I took up, and for every word you sent my way. Let’s play ball.

Jonathan Holmes:
Drew Barrymore runs across Fenway Field in Fever Pitch. The scene itself (rushing in a crowded venue to be with your loved one) is clichéd and done various times, but it’s how it’s done that’s really impressive: Lindsay (Barrymore) learns through her girlfriend that Ben (Jimmy Fallon) is prepared to sell his beloved Red Sox season tickets as proof that he loves her more than his home-town team, and she rushes onto the field in order to stop him from signing away the tickets as proof that she can accept him and his fandom for Boston during a crucial post-season game. What makes this moment so special is twofold: first, that sequence was done after a home game where Boston throttled Tampa Bay in mid-September, with half of the crowd that stayed behind was cast as extras. Mid-game or not, the fact Barrymore got to run across one of baseball’s most iconic stadiums had to have been a joy to do on the day. Second, the scene in particular had to be re-done when Boston went on their miracle post-season run where they won the World Series after an 86 year drought (The original ending had the Red Sox presumably losing again).

“Wanna Have a Catch?” from Field of Dreams. This is not only an iconic moment in sports movie history, but a great moment ever captured on film, period. Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) is told by a disembodied voice that “If you build it, he will come.” At the end, after everything he endures, he is granted with his reward: seeing his estranged father as a young man catching for the Yankees, and having reconciliation between father and son by simply playing catch with each other. It’s a simple moment, but it speaks volumes to the power of forgiveness without having a grand, emotional speech tacked on at the end. It’s poignant as it is life affirming.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz1TJ4r7bOU]

Brian Perry:
The “Hey, dad. You wanna have a catch?” from Field Of Dreams always gets me, because my parents were divorced, and I didn’t hang out with my dad too much.


Steve Schweighofer:
My father was a major baseball fanatic. The sound of the game on the radio as he washed the car is an indelible memory of childhood, but I, unfortunately didn’t share the passion. Even when he took me to Yankee Stadium in ’61 to a double header with Detroit in the midst of the battle of the titans – between Mantle and Maris – I only clearly remember the fact that I ate 7 hot dogs. He made several attempts, as did I, at playing catch regularly in the back yard, but eventually I completely lost interest and eventually declined the invitations.

As I got older, our politics also came to blows. Just about everything sat at polar opposites. When I saw Field of Dreams decades later, I was absorbed in everything from the inner unresolved conflict of the main character to what Kinsella describes as “the smell of the grass”. In the last scenes of the film when we see the figure standing in the field, I went, “Oh, god, it’s his father.” The reunion alone would have sufficed, but when Ray asked, as his father’s ghost walked away, if he’d like a game of catch, it was a major cathartic moment for me. The smell of the grass is primal and trumps all the other trappings we think are important, whether they tie us together or keep us apart. Movies can sometimes capture moments like this. Although I’m a hockey fan now, baseball has a special magic. Like Kinsella said, “The memories will be so thick they’ll have to brush them away from their faces.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_wnD6jxREU]


Emi:
Don’t forget the Walt Whitman! The end voice over from Bull Durham where she reads the Walt Whitman poem about how baseball “will repair our losses”. The Susan Sontag reference in the speech is at her house, his list of ‘beliefs’. Definitely the best baseball movie moment.
This gets a nod, the ‘there’s no crying in baseball’ from A League of Their Own.

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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8W8GGdD6pc]

Al Robinson:

This is my favorite moment in arguably my favorite movie about the game of baseball. In A League of Their Own the men are overseas fighting in World War II. Baseball wants to continue along, so they create an all-women’s baseball league. Jimmy Dugan (the great Tom Hanks) is tasked to manage the Rockford Peaches, one of the 4 teams during the first season of the league. He’s a former player himself, who has a reputation for being a hot-head. During one game, Evelyn Gardner makes a bad play that costs the Peaches a 2 run-lead. I love this scene because even though these are women, he still treats them like athletes. That means he thinks of them as equals. I think there is a big significance in this moment, and frankly, the whole movie. It proved that women are just as powerful as men, and that movies about women can be just as important, and engaging
.


[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx8cCDthsuk]

Tina Kalogeropoulos:
There are many great sports movies (Hoosiers, Rocky, Bull Durham, Raging Bull), but, for women in particular, “A League of Their Own” is a right of passage for girls who play(ed) sports. With the exception of the ridiculous choice to have Dottie drop the ball ON PURPOSE for her bratty little sister, Kit, this is a perfect movie. P.S. For any girl who grew up in the 90’s: the dropped ball will never be forgotten. #NeverForget


[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndL7y0MIRE4]

Paul Williams:
The Natural, 1984. The final home-run scene. Hobbs (Redford) comes to bat with ‘Wonderboy’, his enchanted bat made from a splintered tree struck by lightning. With just one, or maybe two swings, of the bat, this scene manages to wrap up all the threads of the story. Having almost lost his way again, succumbing to bribes to throw games, Hobbs finally comes to understand his failings and, now, his purpose in life. One swing of Wonderboy hits a foul ball and splits his bat in two. This breaks Hobbs free from his previous wrong-doings, from his youthful and selfish pursuit of being the best. And his second swing, with a new bat he made with Bobby – in essence, a kids’ bat – hits a home-run that smashes into the outfield lights. It sets off a magical event as glowing electric sparks drop down all over the field, as Hobbs runs round the track. In this unselfish act he’s come full circle, finding a way to return to the love of the game, and of the life he had as a child.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i94ldGNNSQ0]

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Author: Robin Write

I make sure it's known the company's in business. I'd see that it had a certain panache. That's what I'm good at. Not the work, not the work... the presentation.