Best Baseball Movies? Best Baseball Books?

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hmmmm ....

Postby Cowboy7130 » February 27th, 2008, 12:07 pm

Only one vote for "Pride of the Yankees"? That is sort of surprising to me!
But, I am a big Lou Gehrig fan and I love Gary Cooper's rendition of the Greatest Athlete Speech of All Time.

Good ideas on the books, fellas. I guess I will hit Amazon.com during lunch this afternoon.

One book I would recommend: "You Know Me, Al," by Ring Lardner. It is a series of letters from a minor league pitcher with an over-inflated opinion of himself and his talents, who is prone to making excuses for every setback and defeat that comes his way. (I think "Alibi Ike" may be based on this!) It is set in the early 20th century, and has some good "period" dialogue.

"The Natural," by Bernard Malamud, was a real disappointment for me. Unfortunately, I saw the movie first. The book does not end like the movie. Loosely based on the Black Sox scandal, Roy Hobbes is a re-working of the Shoeless Joe Jackson tragic, flawed hero figure, only there is no redemption at the end of the book.
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Postby vintagebrett » February 27th, 2008, 1:10 pm

If you like fiction and fantasy, I would check out Michael Chabon's "Summerland." This book is written for a young adult audience but I thought it was a fun read. Chabon has written a lot of great books for adults and I thought he first forary into the young adult genre was well done. It has a lot of fantasy elements so if you don't like that type of thing, steer clear.

I see that John Feinstein has a baseball book coming out in May - that should be good - he is one of my favorite authors.
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Postby Deacon » March 5th, 2008, 8:18 am

not a movie or a book but not to be left out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sShMA85pv8M
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Postby Mike_2007 » March 5th, 2008, 3:19 pm

Deacon - A classic! Still funny today :lol:
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watch costello's grip

Postby softball66 » March 6th, 2008, 2:02 pm

Is Lou a lefty swinger or did he try that cause Bud was to his right? And look at his grip a couple of times: the Cobb/Lajoie separated hands.
Some Notes for you guys:
Costner is a pretty good ball player. Much Better than Perkins, Bendix, Cooper, Tim Robbins. Found this out in New Mexico.
Read "False Spring" by Pat Jordan. My favorite part, where I think it's El Rod Hendricks beats the crapola out of Jordan.
Not baseball movie but great scenes, Steve McQueen playing catch with the ball off his cell wall in "The Great Escape"
Morgan Freeman warming up for some prison yard catch in "The Shawshank Remption". Freeman's a lefty and not bad while ol' Tim Robbins (Nuke Laloosh) looks on. I read King's short story version of this movie, "Rita Hayworth" long before the movie.
The Stratton Story movie's world premier was in my home town of Greenville where Monty was lived after baseball and actress June Allyson was there for the gala event at the Texan Theater.
I later played ball with Monty Jr. on the high school team and got his uniform when he left the team, also with Monty's younger son, Dennis.
I'm the answer to the trivia question yes, "who played ball with both Monty Stratton Jr. and Mickey Mantle Jr.?
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Postby BigD-Moonlight » March 6th, 2008, 3:15 pm

Very interesting string.
Sorry JD, but my favorite is a toss-up between "For the Love of the Game" and "Field of Dreams".
Have to admit that I like nearly all of them.
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Movie Star Ballplayers

Postby Cowboy7130 » March 6th, 2008, 3:38 pm

Costner is a good ballplayer onscreen, because he was once a ballplayer himself. Another good ballplayer as far as actors go is Martin Sheen, the "Wild Thing" from Major League. He played ball, too, didn't he?
Supposedly Tony Danza was a ballplayer, but he looked like poo in the Disney Angels in the Outfield.

Any other ballplayers-turned-actors-playing-ballplayers y'all can think of? Major Leaguers who make cameos in movies don't count.

What was the movie in which Mantle and Maris made a cameo, trying to talk a kid out of his hot dog in the stands, or something? :?:
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oh yeah ...

Postby Cowboy7130 » March 6th, 2008, 3:49 pm

oh yeah... I forgot DB Sweeney in Eight Men Out ... played ball in high school and college.
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Postby wjr953 » March 6th, 2008, 4:23 pm

As far as movies go, I have to go with The Natural, Field of Dreams and then League of Their Own, Major League in no particular order. As far as books go, Lefty's Legacy, the Sandy Koufax story was an eye-opener. That guy posted some unbelievably awesome stats in a ten year career in which he pitched in a whole lot of pain. Off the charts, really. Boys of Summer by Roger Angel was excellent, Ball Four was funny in parts too but overall I found it to be just okay. Eight Men Out was a good read. There's also another book written by David Halberstram (I think) about the baseball friendship between Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr and Dom Dimaggio. That was a very interesting book, especially for old time Red Sox fans. It gave a lot of insight into all three, but centered mostly around Williams.
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Movie Glove-D. B. sweeney

Postby softball66 » March 6th, 2008, 7:20 pm

Cowboy, you'll love this: About 4 years ago I purchased off eBay a glove from England and signed by the cast of the movie being made there of "Memphis Belle", the WWII bomber movie that runs every now and then on TV. The seller had gone by the set with an Ozzie Smith glove and got some members of the cast to sign. Among those was D. B. Sweeney (Shoeless in 8 out). Billy Zane, Mathew Modine (sp) among those I remember.
I like the WWII films and what could be cooler combo memory than this?
Don't forget Johnny Beradino, the former major leaguer with Cleveland, who later went on to acting on TV's "General Hospital." And there was a tall Cowboy guy, Lucas or Chuck something, who could get off a few quick rounds with his trusty Winchester. Played MLB and pro basketball too. Lasorda said there were few people who cussed better than Chuck too.
Wasn't Danza a boxer at one time?
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Postby vintagebrett » March 6th, 2008, 9:06 pm

I think Danza was a baseball player on "Who's The Boss" but not sure about real life.
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Books

Postby ebbets55 » March 7th, 2008, 12:21 am

Cowboy, that Mantle & Maris movie was Safe at Home.

I finished a book last month entitled "The Card - Collectors, Con Men and the True Story of History's Most Desired Baseball Card" by Michael O'Keeffe and Teri Thompson. It traced the history of the Gretzky/McNall T206 Wagner and all the characters involved along the way. It was a tell all of all the major players in the hobby, most notably, Bill Mastro, Rob Lifson (Robert Edward Auctions), Michael Gidwitz and Dave Bushing. It told of how Bill Mastro and Rob Lifson's relationship started and deteriorated over the years and why. It didn't cast Mastro in a very positive light and pulled some punches on Bushing as well. The book delved into a lot of controversial issues about the card like the fact that it was possibly trimmed and the circumstances in which PSA graded it and why it will never be taken out of it's slab.

It was very, very juicy. Dave B., if you are reading this, what did you think about it? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Anyway, I read a baseball book or two every month and that one stood out in last month's batch. I'm currently reading "But Didn't We Have Fun". It's about the 40 year history of baseball before the National League started in 1876.

JD
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Postby BretMan » March 7th, 2008, 12:58 am

Ballplayers turned actor:

Yep, John Berardino. Played from 1939 to 1952 for the Browns, Indians and Pirates, missing a couple of seasons for the war. He has a long list of film and television credits, then like a thirty year run as Doctor Steve Hardy on General Hospital.

Of note, he appeared in many early TV classics, including Dragnet, The Untouchables, many westerns, The Adventures of Superman and even on Batman in the 1960's. Also appeared in the 1981 TV movie Don't Look Back: The Story of Leroy "Satchel" Paige.

Even more of note- he actually had a Rawlings-issued endorsed glove, with the endorsement being his nickname "Bernie" Berardino!

Chuck Connors was the actor that played The Rifleman in the TV western. His Major League career was brief- a cup of coffee with the Brooklyn Dodgers and half a season with the Cubs in 1949 and 1951. Before and after, he played in the minors for many different teams.

Even more amazing- before trying his hand at professional baseball, he was a member of the Boston Celtics for the 46-47 season

Actor Kurt Russell was a minor-leaguer in the Angels farm system in the early 70's, before a career-ending shoulder injury led him into acting. Friend Ron Shelton wrote the screenplay for Bull Durham with Kurt in mind as the lead, but the studio insisted on Kevin Costner.

Kurt's father was Bing Russell, one-time owner of the class-A Portland Mavericks baseball club. Himself an actor, Bing Russell appeared in the film The Magnificent Seven, was a regular on the TV series Bonanza and had his own long list of film credits.

And one more- if we're talking ballplayers turned actor, how can we forget the one-and-only Bob Uecker!
Last edited by BretMan on March 7th, 2008, 1:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby mittmutt » March 7th, 2008, 1:15 am

Old Chuck Connors was also drafted by the Chicago Bears but never played pro football. This brings up another question. Can we name the 12 men who have played both major league baseball and professional basketball. I get #1, the current general manager of the Boston Celtics, Mr. Danny Ainge. Michael Jordan doesn't count, he never made
the bigs.
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Postby Studboy » March 7th, 2008, 6:45 am

I'll throw a couple NBA & MLB guys out there: Dave DeBusschere played for the White Sox & the Knicks & Gene Conley played for the Red Sox & Celtics. As for "Professional" how about Bob Gibson with the Cardinals & the Globe Trotters and I think Jim Thorpe probably played about all the sports professionaly at one time.
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