Top 10 Baseball Movies

This is one of my favorite times of the year – the start of the baseball season. Of course, being a fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates (yes, I freely admit that), it’s also a time to ask that question that is quickly becoming an annual tradition for the Pirates faithful (all 29 of us, lol)… “How bad will they be this year?” Truth be told, it’s a shame they aren’t better, because PNC Park is by far one of the most beautiful places to watch a baseball game in the country. Of course, having only ever watched a game from 4 other stadiums, one of them being a minor league stadium, my opinion is thoroughly biased.

So, as I prepare for keeping track of another season of potential futility, my mind begins to wander…and I start compiling a list of my favorite baseball-themed movies of all time (of at least the ones I’ve seen).

So here’s my list. Feel free to comment and add to it.

1) “The Natural” – Of course you can’t knock the cover off a baseball, but it was cool to watch!
2) “Bull Durham” – okay, a bit irreverent, but some of the most memorable baseball characters of all time came from this movie: Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) and Nuke LaLoosh (Tim Robbins)
3) “A League of Their Own” – A close friend of my grandparents played in the AAGPBL, so I have some ties to this movie and the historical aspect of it.
4) “Field of Dreams” – Yeah, it’s a bit hokey, and a little over-the-top, but let’s face it, everyone knows that ‘If you build it, he will come.’
5) “The Scout” – little known movie starring Albert Brooks and Brendan Fraser. Brooks plays a scout who is on his last legs professionally. He discovers Fraser, a pitching phenom playing in Mexico with more quirks than all of John Cusack’s characters put together. It’s not a laugh-a-minute riot, but still a movie worth checking out sometime.
6) “Angels In The Outfield” – the original version about the Pittsburgh Pirates. Really, for no other reason than it’s about the Pirates. Although, they did start quite a run in real life a few years after the movie came out.
7) “Major League” – Again, a caricature of baseball players, with no real redeeming qualities other than how a rag-tag group of has-beens and wanna-be’s can come together and form a team, and together accomplish something that is truly greater than themselves. Plus, some more memorable characters in Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn (Charlie Sheen), Willie Mays Hayes (Wesley Snipes), Pedro Cerrano (Dennis Haysbert), and the wonderfully obnoxious fan in the outfield stands played by Randy Quaid.
8) “Eight Men Out” – A fictionalized telling of the 1918 Black Sox scandal, which has kept “Shoeless” Joe Jackson out of the HOF to this day, even though it’s all but been proven he never participated in throwing the World Series that year.
9) “The Rookie” – Another ‘based on a true story’ tale of a high school pitching coach, Jimmy Morris, who decides to try out for the major leagues after his team miraculously wins the Texas state championship. Morris did pitch in the bigs for two seasons as a reliever.
10) “The Sandlot” – The movie is more about the bonding of a group of kids growing up, but the fact that it takes place around a makeshift baseball field makes it all the more enjoyable. And, let’s be honest, how many of us have lost a ball or two to the scary neighbor’s backyard?

So there it is, my 10 favorite baseball movies. There are so many more to choose from, but these are the ones that I will stop and watch anytime I flip by them on the TV.

Full Count???

Well, here we go. My first attempt at blogging. As I sit back and try to determine where to begin, I think that perhaps the best entry point would be to explain the title of my blog – Full Count. I grew up playing baseball, and I excelled at it. I love baseball. I love the intricacies of the sport, how every pitch can change the course of the game. I dreamed of playing in the big leagues like most kids do. Obviously I didn’t make it, but I continue to remain active in the sport, even if it’s now on a softball field – same concept, one additional player.

So, why Full Count? Well, I’m sure some of you have listened to a baseball announcer make some statement like this:

“Here it is, folks. Tie score. Bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, full count. A classic confrontation.”

That is, in its purest form, what baseball (and softball) is all about. That pressure situation where one pitch will determine the outcome of the game. Many times, we think about that situation, and we think the pressure is all on the pitcher, or maybe it’s all on the batter. But the truth is, everyone on the field at that moment in time, and even a few in the dugout, is feeling the same pressure. The questions abound – What pitch do I throw? How soon do I swing? How shallow or deep do I play? How big of a lead do I take? Everyone on the field has a decision to make, and the manager of the team has to consider all of the variables and communicate to his players exactly where they need to be and how they should react. And all of this takes place in approximately 3 seconds!

Baseball is the purest team sport there is. With every pitch, each player on the field needs to be thinking “What am I going to do when this ball is hit to me?” The actions and reactions of each fielder is dependent upon the actions and reactions of their teammates. It’s true in baseball (and softball) and it’s true in life in general none of us can do this alone. There are many people in our lives that we depend upon to get us to the next play – our families, our friends, our co-workers. These are our teammates in life, and we are accountable to them as they are to us. So when we face those ‘Full Count’ situations in our life, we can rest assured that if we do our best to get the job done, there are people around us ready to support us and provide an assist if something goes awry!

So take a look around and see who your teammates are. And then go out there and throw that pitch! Once the ball leaves your hand, you never know what's going to happen, but whatever it is, it is bound to be exciting!