I was an extra in Moneyball, and it was actually surprisingly dark during filming. Filming took place at the Oakland Coliseum 9pm to 5am. Maybe it was a city ordinance due to the hours filming took place, but only a few of the stadium lights were on. Other unrelated details: 1. It was COLD! We weren’t allowed to walk around, so having to stand/sit in one spot for hours made it worse. 2. Catering was actually just Coliseum food (which was awful) 3. There was a prop churro that obviously wasn’t seen on screen, but yes… there was a food vendor in the stands twirling a rubber churro between takes. 4. There was a standup comic doing his best to keep the extras upbeat during the shoot. It was cold, food sucked and filming is already tedious as is. He did a surprisingly good job. 5. Brad Pitt wasn’t a part of the shoot, but he was still there on-set for the first few hours in his normal clothes occasionally being social with extras. 6. This is gonna sound like BS, but I got to high-five Chris Pratt several times. One of the shots was him leaving the dugout heading towards the tunnel to the clubhouse. These are exposed walkways at the Coliseum. We high-fived in the first take and they wanted us to keep doing it for a few more takes. 7. The closest I got to being visible on screen was in a shot where Jonah Hill is in the stands and he stands up to react to something happening on the field. I was one row up, and one seat diagonal to him. However the shot was framed tight and alas… it was my Moonlight Graham moment.
I wanted to be an extra for Moneyball so badly! Unfortunately, I was still in high school and my mom would not let me stay out after dark for it lol. I did see the lights added to the Coliseum for the shoot while taking the BART home on occasion...some of the brightest lights I've ever seen in my life, which makes the dark results all the more confusing for me.
I was an extra in Moneyball as well. Can concur it was dark as hell when they were shooting. I remember the guy who was playing T-Long couldn't nail the scene where he muffs the ball in left field that they switched the actors so they could get the shot. I got to meet Philip Seymour Hoffman when he was walking through the stadium.
I watched an hour of this only for you to put airbud as #1 unbelievable finally someone gives it the recognition it deserves as a truly accurate and realistic baseball movie.
Now we're talkin' 1. Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch - 1:09:00 2. Bull Durham - 1:04:44 3. Little Big League - 1:01:29 4. 42 - 58:42 5. Major League - 57:02 6. For Love of the Game - 55:01 7. Sugar - 53:13 8. Touching Home - 52:10 9. 61* - 50:24 10. A League of Their Own - 48:49 11. Mr. Baseball - 47:50 12. Talent for the Game - 45:38 13. Field of Dreams - 43:24 14. Mr. 3000 - 41:29 15. Moneyball - 40:38 16. The Natural - 39:25 17. Everybody Wants Some!! - 38:52 18. If the Sun Rises in the West - 38:08 19. Soul of the Game - 37:27 20. Summer Catch - 36:34 21. Trouble with the Curve - 35:35 22. The Naked Gun - 34:58 23. Major League II - 33:18 24. The Rookie - 31:34 25. Rookie of the Year - 30:50 26. Angels in the Outfield - 28:56 27. Eight Men Out - 26:58 28. The Scout - 24:40 29. Baseball Girl - 23:57 30. Undrafted - 21:24 31. Cobb - 19:20 32. Brewster's Millions - 18:00 33. Home Run - 17:04 34. The Fan - 14:49 35. Ed - 13:23 36. Joe Torro: Curveballs Along the Way - 12:48 37. Angels in the Infield - 10:59 38. The Babe - 9:13 39. Major League: Back to the Minors - 7:13 40. A Mile in His Shoes - 3:18 P.S. 1st place - that's a nice one 🤣 P.P.S. I'm not from the USA and just starting to get into baseball, this is just a breath of fresh air. Brilliant work on reviewing all this stuff 🤘
My grandfather's brothers bestie was actually a grounds keeper for the Yankees back in the day around that time frame. Wetting the fields was not a thing until somewhere in the mid 20's. It actually became a thing because someone who was a grounds keeper for a different organization got fired and decided to spray a field before game play out of spite and it actually made the play better. My grandpa always told me it was the chocolate chip story of baseball. Commenting on your debate for dust accuracy.
Someone in the production side of Little Big League HAD to be not just a massive baseball fan but a massive Twins fan, because there are SO many little details in that movie not just about the Twins but about Minneapolis and St. Paul that could have been missed. Also props for noting John Gordon's presence in the movie. I do miss Gordon and his booth mate, Herb Carneal, as good as Cory Provus is. I think the Twins may have been the last MLB franchise that didn't have a regular color man who was a former MLB player through Carneal's retirement, shortly before his death - neither Gordon nor Carneal played a day of professional baseball, they were just solid, old-school broadcasters.
Mr. Baseball was my favorite film growing up. It and major league. The sound in Mr. Baseball was CRITICAL for me. It was a stylistic choice that made the entire experience feel more foreign. I loved it. It's one of my top 3 films that explore what it's like to be a foreigner in Japan because not only is the character dealing with it, but they are sort of making you deal with it too with all the aesthetic choices they make with the cinematography, lightning, sound. It's so crazy.
I think I agree the sound of the bat sometimes is just for affect to stress the moment I don't mind it if it fits. But nowdays we have come to expect a pretty dead on portrayal of our sports movies. Really our bar has completely been raised on really everything people think cgi can do anything hahahah
Plus if you also recognize he seems pretty not picky anyways. He talks about the homerun in the natural like it totally takes you out of the movie ..I just dont see it. To me that's a pretty classic baseball movie moment. The movies w the stupid shit in it and the aweful baseball I agree it's not hard to go to a local div 1 college and ask a few kids to play around for a couple hundred bucks or whatever. After their season about 90% of those guys are done w baseball forever anyways most would do it for fun prolly.
@Steven Shaker A-ball players average something like $25k a year, I guarantee you could get a local team to agree to film for a few days by offering a little cash and free food.
I'm sure part of the reason Field of Dreams is so good is because of source material and its author. W. P. Kinsella had a lifelong romantic obsession with baseball. Although the movie replaces the book character of real-life author JD Salinger with the fictional Terrence Mann, the relationship Mann has with the game is really Kinsella's.
This video is probably one of the best that I have seen. I wasn’t waiting for it to end or skipping boring parts. You had such good detail and facts to follow along with. Great job!
I completely agree with Little Big League. Have watched it several times again as an adult now, and was also impressed with how authentic the baseball play is. Also helps that I was a 90's kid growing up outside of Seattle ;)
The Natural is not just a baseball movie but a heavy esoteric movie with deep meanings hidden throughout. It has masculine and feminine themes. The book was different but the producer wanted it to be this way. Excellent movie when you realize what they are doing. Really two different movies at the same time.
It's my fav baseball movie, probably sports movie. The drama, love story, father and son relationship and excellent soundtrack by Randy Newman overshadows the unrealistic fantasy like moments.
I understand they're disqualified because of players age, but The Sandlot and origional B.N. Bears deserve honerable mention for capturing the joy of baseball as a kid. My first little leauge team was all 1st & 2nd year players - we won a single game that season...4 years later - with almost all the same kids - we won the championship.
Based on watching Ken Burns' miniseries about baseball with all its many famous talking heads waxing poetic about the game, I feel like The Natural might be the most accurate depiction of baseball. Not the game as it actually is, but rather the game as diehard fans see it.
In "angels in the outfield" there was a scene that addressed the issue of only being home games, and it was explained by the little boys couldn't go to any away games.
Bill Simmons did a fascinating interview with Costner about "Love of the Game". Apparently Costner threw 200 pitches the day they filmed the game scenes.
The reason that Bull Durham was so realistic is because Ron Shelton (writer-director) played minor league baseball. You hit on one of my favorite points in the movie; how cruel baseball can be. Crash Davis, a switch-hitting catcher with power could never break through for more than those three glorious weeks. I loved his speech on the bus about how Nuke didn't respect the game despite the fact that The Gods gave him a thunderbolt for a right arm. Crash was a guy who loved the game that didn't love him back. I also like that his record-breaking home run wasn't a big dramatic moment to win a big game. It went out of the park and into obscurity. Ron Shelton had a great line about the theme of baseball in the movie: careers don't end with game-winning home runs, they end on two-hoppers to second base.
Bull Durham was more about the other fave American "sport" than baseball. Costner's pontificating got tiresome halfway through the movie. Yeah, we get it, "Nuke" LaLoosh is a lunkhead that doesn't respect the game, at least according to "Crash's" standards...yet, WHO ends up in the "show", and who's a de facto minor league coach? At least Crash gets the girl and finds his true niche in baseball is coaching/managing.
Actually, Tim robbins' character was loosely based on a pitcher that was in the Orioles farm system that never made it to the majors. He was supposedly the hardest thrower that ever lived and also the wildest. His name was Steve Dalkowski. I don't know if there is any footage of him throwing or not.
@C moore Or Ryne Duren, who pitched for the Angels in their formative years (1961-1962), the Orioles, KC Athletics, Yankees, and several NL clubs before finally ending his "reign of (t)error" with the second incarnation of the Washington Senators in 1965. Duren's blazing fastball and his poor eyesight, questionably helped by his "Coke Bottle" eyeglasses, made him FEARED by hitters...that they'd get plunked!
@C moore I thought you meant this Steve Dalkowski threw a lot of wild pitches, but it seems like the thing that really stopped him from succeeding was his wild lifestyle, being an enormous alcoholic. I guess he was the wildest pitcher both literally and figuratively. But yeah the guy must have thrown exceptionally hard to be remembered and have movies made about him and books written about him despite never progressing further than the minors. It's a shame, probably only a small change or two would have been needed for him to get to the major leagues. Like Randy Johnson, when Tom House and Nolan Ryan told him to start landing his front foot on his toe instead of his heel, he went from being very inconsistent to being the best and scariest pitcher in baseball. But then again, that kind of information wasn't available in Dalkowski's time (cos Tom House was one of the first pitching coaches to really take advantage of the new technology of computers).
Another issue with The Rookie, that if you follow baseball or are a Rangers fan like I am. They had Dennis Quaid warming up in the home bullpen and not the road bullpen where he should be. I also remember watching this game on TV.
9:13 I recorded The Babe back in 2020 when sports channels did not have anything else to broadcast, then sports movies. I assumed the movie was pretty historically accurate. I looked certain things up. Aside from all the things you said in that video. I noted a couple of other things. Jumping Joe did not play with Babe Ruth in Boston in the Babe's 1st year. He appears in the movie as a big brother to Babe, when Ruth joins the MLB in 1914. But in fact Joe joined the MLB in 1917 in Philly (A's). They first played together with the Yankees in 1922. Also in the movie you get the impression that the Babe played his last game at Forbes field when he hit 3 homeruns with the Boston Braves. But he played a couple more games then retired. I wonder if they really hired someone to do research on the subject. Maybe someone said something like '' Well aside from baseball nerds, nobody will be able to verify this stuff.'' Before the internet you would have to go to libraries or baseball museums to check this out. But now it's quite different. Also the part when he is a kid, get from someone who never played baseball on the 1st pitch. But in the 2nd pitch hits a homerun. And then chaining dingers on every pitch to finally hit one that breaks a window on the bell tower past the center field's wall. Come on!! Does it have to be that incredible? Would have been more credible if we saw him hit solid balls in the outfield.
Great video, good list of movies. I loved Rooke of the Year and Angels in the Outfield as a kid (I even caught that terrible Angels in the Infield once at a friend's house). I'm glad to see they were relatively higher than I was expecting them to be. But then I was pleasantly surprised to see The Naked Gun make the list, forgetting that yeah, there was a significant portion of baseball in that movie. One of the funniest movies ever made, in my opinion.
I live in Tampa Bay, and have been a fan of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays ever since I was a kid, you are absolutely correct about the uniforms. I don't even remember the green black and gray uniforms even coming into existence until like 2002-2003. Regardless, I always liked the rookie because the fact that it was about my hometown team, not much is talked about with the Devil Rays until just recently when they won 13 games in a row to start the 2023 season. And, Bull Durham being about the Rays minor league organization is absolutely fucking fantastic, it's just such a good movie, and the fact that the Durham bulls are so good currently along with the rest of the organization from single A to the majors is just great. I need to get a jersey of theirs to go in my collection, they have a really cool one where it is the '90s colors on the coat of the bull and it's just so good.
The fact that he mentioned Jamie Moyer still brings back PTSD from the umpire calling strikes in 2008 on pitches that almost hit the plate and BJ Upton laughing in disbelief.
Watching this as someone who doesn't have baseball as a sport in my country, nor do I have a particular interest in it as a sport, but I'm a BIG fan of anime and movies about Baseball. So getting this video recommended to me was like striking gold. Don't know if you'd ever consider looking at different baseball anime since I imagine that is way out of your line of interest and watching series is a bit more intensive than watching a bunch of movies, but genuinely thanks for the list! I always love finding niche-ish topics covered by passionate people.
As someone with Asperger’s, I had no idea I could throw 100 mph; I’ve topped out at Tim Wakefield’s late-career heater, so clearly I’ve been misdiagnosed for the past 16 years
I never heard of this movie before this video but was not surprised that a bottom of the barrel sports movie starred Dean Cain in the store brand Kevin Sorbo phase of his career
Ahh man it tore me open when I got brought back to Angel's in the Outfield and lost it when Rookie of the year was right after. My grandma introduced me to both and watching little league games was probably her favorite thing ever. She was an amazing lady and I'll never forget her.
Great analysis! I do wish there were two other movies that had been included, although I understand why they may have been forsaken. The films are The Pride of the Yankees, and It Happened in Flatbush. Both are baseball films set in New York that were released in 1942. I assume you wanted to stick to movies most members of my generation had seen. However I grew up in a household without TV and to go to the theater was a once a year treat, usually around Christmas. We did have an old VHS player, so I saw these two, and an old copy of Rookie of the Year fairly often, and Field of Dreams once. First, I feel that any baseball fan should watch Pride of the Yankees starring Gary Cooper in a biography of Lou Gerig. I am by no means a Yankees fan. However, the film is such a wonderful piece of work that I actually enjoy rooting for the pinstripes. The film rounds out the onscreen team with several actual Yankees players, including the Babe himself in the flesh. The baseball action is surprisingly good, featuring many wide shots of the infield. Unfortunately it's kind of hard to see where the ball is at times. Cooper is definitely an actor first and a ball player second, but I found his playing moderately believable. The best part is undoubtedly Lou's retirement speech. If you haven't seen the real one either, look it up. It's definitely worth the watch. The other film I wish could have been included is It Happened in Flatbush starring Lloyd Nolan as a knockoff Leo Durocher. This film is a guilty pleasure of mine, as Lloyd Nolan is one of my favorite actors. Again, the baseball scenes are believable, even if they aren't anything special. While not as good as The Pride of the Yankees, I would still recommend it for anyone who wants to see a fictional Brooklyn Dodgers take the 1942 pennant. Overall I think both films are good. If you are going to watch just one, go with the one featuring the most legendary baseball player in history.
So glad you pointed out the Ozzie Smith at bat in The Scout. So weird that I had to explain it somehow to myself. I figure he had a minor injury, not serious, but they sat him the first game to let it heal - dislocated pinky finger maybe. Until... they were about to get P'd and had to send him in to try and break it up. Maybe? Or did they announce that he was 0 for 2 in the game? I forget. Anyway... I dismissed the preposterous story line because this wasn't really a baseball movie, but a remake of King Cong. The ORIGINAL! lol I loved Steve's tryout with real players' cameo appearances and all of them asking Percolo: Where's my money? And another thing: The second pitch in the Ken Strout at bat in For Love of the Game. After shaking off two curve signals, Sinski should have signaled a shaking fist at Chapel as if to say, quit shaking me off!! But in reality it's their signal for a knuckleball which no one in the world suspects Chapel has. He's been working on it in secret. It's a strike and the movie goes on. In his condition at that point, a curve ball probably wouldn't have made it all the way to the plate.
I read an article years ago where Freddie Prinze Jr. said he was clocked in the low-80s during a baseball camp he went to in training for "Summer Catch". Maybe that was the case (he'd have been a fit actor in his mid-20s) for just a "throw the ball as hard as you can at this target" sort of deal like at a county fair, but his mechanics on the mound undermine those high velo claims.
Kamikaze Tanaka from Major League 2 was played by Takaaki Ishibashi and he was one of the biggest and most powerful celebrities in Japan back in the late 80s, all throughout the 90s and into the first decade of 2000s. He is one half of the comedy duo Tonneruzu (Tunnels) and they had major comedy/slapstick sketch shows back in the day, all the way up until their longest and what's become their only running show which was finally retired in 2017 after a 30 year run. He got the part in ML2 at the height of his career. What many may not know about him is that he is the biggest baseball fan, having played for the prolific Teiken High School in Tokyo, which was and is still a baseball powerhouse (tho he was not a starter), and have continued to demonstrate his affection for baseball during his shows, often inviting professional players as guests. Even though he does not have a show on broadcast TV anymore, he started a ITvid channel a few years ago which has 1.6 million followers and regularly talks of baseball, including a sports corner every Monday during the season, covering all kinds of sports, especially baseball. He regularly meets current Japanese baseball players and there's also footage of him meeting Shohei Ohtani in LA along with some of his Angels teammates, and most recently meeting Yu Darvish for a meal when Darvish was back in Japan.
The most surprising thing about this list, is all the movies I have never heard of. I always liked sports movies, binge watched them on Netflix and such when I found them. I will say I watched probably more than half of them though. It is odd how rare it is to get a good baseball movie that actually includes baseball. Most the better ones focus off the field drama. You know the usual 10 minutes of games, 90 minutes of other issues.
I think I remember a small detail from Angels in the Outfield about the away games… Danny Glover picks the boys up for an away game in the team bus at one point cause one of the kids was traumatized from living in his mom’s car. I think they mention it again very briefly immediately afterwards as something that needs figuring out.
Mr. Baseball is my favorite baseball movie and is a major reason why I'm taking a trip to Japan in a week to go see a couple NPB games. I was bummed it fell just short of the top ten, but since Air Bud is #1 I guess it kinda made the cut. 😁
@redherronrecords @verde7595 Trip was great. Hiroshima Carp game in Hiroshima got rained out unfortunately, but not before I was able to get some beer, food and souvenirs. Hanshin Tigers game at Koshien was amazing. They have a fantastic museum and tour. That stadium is huge, only one deck and is 99 years old! Highly recommend a visit there. I plan on going again in 2024 and hopefully check out the Tokyo Dome or maybe Yokohama.
same I'm like what is number 1????? thinking like idk maybe sandlot ig because of the ending he was in the majors or maybe some movie I've never heard of. but then I was like you gotta be kidding me lol well played sir.
Amazing video. Angels In the Outfield pulled in elite actors but some were not elite at that time. Brody and mcconaughey were many years away from being near their prime. JoGo was also many years away from being elite. Nobody could have seen any of that coming.
Great watch. Just came across your channel and you got me to sit through an hour. I’ve never met anyone who’s seen A Talent for the Game but there it was on your list. The ending is silly but I loved it as a kid. It helps that I’ve been a lifelong Angels fan.
I liked the film called Sugar (2008) as the baseball played looked believable. The title character (his nickname was Azucar) played in the Latin America pipeline for a fictional MLB team in KC but other than that...nice character study. Trouble with the Curve's big baseball issue was the idea of any team drafting a kid first overall whom they hadn't thoroughly scouted to notice he couldn't hit anything but batting practice fastballs.
Home games issue with Angels in The Outfield: The kid can only go to home games, he doesn't travel with them on away games. He can watch away games on tv, plus If he gets a feeling before or during away games he is to call the dugout phone to let the coach know who the angels are helping. They mention this before a series of road games in the movie.
I never heard of the movie Home Run, but I did recognize the uniforms of one of the teams. It is a college summer league team that plays in Hampton, VA -- the Peninsula Pilots. They had the same color uniform and same exact hat. I would be interested to know where they got the idea for the team in this movie and if they got permission to use their uniforms.
That line drive by Liotta in field of dreams actually happened and was not a choreographed stunt as you assumed, which is why Costner's reaction is so good, and he managed to stay in character
Nah. They used a pitching machine. Imagine if the studio really let Costner stand there and pitch to someone lol then he gets killed by a line drive....
@Andy F Anyone swinging a bat can cause instant death at that distance. He def lied lol. Theres no way that was a natural accident hitting the bag of baseballs like that and his over the top kicking up dirt fall. Looked great on camera. Too great to be real. I love me some old school Costner tho so screw it im willing to believe it was real why not.
@Tom Gilligan Well if you watch the bonus features (I believe it was in the commentary with the director) you will learn it actually did happen and the reason they were able to use it like they did, was because Costner stayed in character and said a funny ad-libbed line "Yeah, yeah you can hit the curve ball". But according to the director as well as Costner himself, they said it actually happened. Could they both be lying, of course they could, but I'm taking them at their word.
Great video response! Love your thought process with the decade leaders. That 53 Bowman color Ashburn is awesome. I love all the bats in the background.
How could you miss "The Bronx is Burning" (I know...miniseries, but still!) and "The Winning Season?!" 😭 I was happy to see 61* make the top ten, as it's definitely my favorite baseball movie, and I have to say I think I agreed with all of these (for the ones I've seen). Well done!
I can't believe you didn't mention that the knucleballer in 61 is played by Tom Candiotti, knuckleballer extraordinaire! Otherwise great video, glad I stumbled in to your channel randomly today!
The 2 best actors to ever play ball players were def Costner and Sheen. I heard Sheen, who obviously grew up playing the game, was throwing in the mid 80’s during filming for Major League. You can tell from his wind up to his delivery and his follow through that he’s actually throwing that ball pretty hard. The scene where he throws the ball over the catcher’s head and in between the coaches and it shatters the sign looks like it’s at least mid 80’s. I always wondered how they did that scene with those 2 guys standing so close to that pitch.
40. A Mile in His Shoes(2011) 3:19 39. Major League: Back to the Minors(1998) 7:13 38. The Babe(1992) 9:12 37. Angels in the Infied(2000) 11:00 36. Joe Torre: Curveballs Along the Way(1997) 12:48 35. Ed (1996) 13:23 34. The Fan(1996) 14:49 33. Home Run(2013) 17:04 32. Brewster's Millions(1985) 18:00 31. Cobb(1994) 19:19 30. Undrafted(2016) 21:24 29. Baseball Girl(2019) 23:57 28. The Scout(1994) 24:40 27. Eight Men Out(1998) 26:58 26. Angels in the Outfield(1994) 28:56 25. Rookie of the Year(1993) 30:49 24. The Rookie(2002) 31:33 23. Major League II(1994) 33:17 22. The Naked Gun(1998) 34:58 21. Trouble with the Curve(2012) 35:35 20. Summer Catch(2001) 36:34 19. Soul of the Game(1996) 37:27 18. If the Sun Rises in the West(1998) 38:08 17. Everybody Wants Some!!(2016) 38:52 16. The Natural(1984) 39:25 15. Moneyball(2011) 40:38 14. Mr. 3000(2004) 41:29 13. Field of Dreams(1989) 43:24 12. Talent for the Game(1991) 45:38 11. Mr. Baseball(1992) 47:50 10. A League of their Own(1992) 48:49 09. 61*(2001) 50:23 08. Touching Home(2008) 52:10 07. Sugar(2008) 53:13 06. For Love of the Game(1999) 55:01 05. Major League(1989) 57:02 04. 42(2013) 58:42 03. Little Big League(1994) 1:01:29 02. Bull Durham(1988) 1:04:43 01. Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch(2002) 1:09:00
@Migs He said he was born in 1984. The Sandlot came out in 1993. The reason it's not on here is because of the criteria he laid out before. No kids' baseball teams. College level or higher. That takes The Sandlot right out.
Earned my sub after this video. A real love for the game, attention for detail, lots of 90s baseball, a fellow Brewers die hard, and a Yount mention? New favorite baseball channel.
Go Brewers! I'm actually in Mr. 3000. I'm in the front row behind home plate for a few shots, including one close up. Great list! I also was in the crowd for a night when they filmed Major League as a kid. Great memories.
The video I didn't know I needed. It's almost hard watching any baseball related movie because you just know there's a good chance the actors don't know how to throw or you get unrealistic game situations
This was a great video. 61* is currently my favorite baseball movie but I haven't seen Sugar or Bill Durham so I look forward to checking both of those out. I laughed very hard at the end. Thanks for making this it was very good!
As a Cardinals & Yankees fan... Mr. 3000 was underrated as hell because Bernie Mac was in it... And the 3rd place thing was realistic because back then, Milwaukee wasn't great during the 90s and early 00s... But at least that movie had a happy ending for Brewers fans... As for Fever Pitch... Oi... EDIT: I'm suprised a certain lead actor from Mr. Baseball wasn't talked about.... Selleck actually played MLB baseball to help with the movie, he played a spring game for Cincinnati in 1989, and there's footage of him at the plate... So accuracies were helped there
Glad to see Little Big League up so high. When I watched it as a kid, I loved that it actually looked like MLB gameplay (unlike Rookie of the Year). Thanks for putting this together, it has always been something I wondered in the back of my mind how well movies depict actual baseball.
It always amazed me that Little Big League and Rookie of the Year came out around the same time, but Rookie of the Year seemed to be more well known. I've always loved Little Big League. The kid didn't earn his spot through magic, he was just smart. He accomplishes so much with intelligence, I love the scene where he gets the grumpy pitcher to play hard by pointing out he's tanking his free agent value. And the way he was smart isn't too far from believable, a 12 year old can be excellent at something if they focus all their energy on it, which he did. The baseball action blew me away, I still wonder how many takes some of their montage plays must have taken.
Look...it was a rough time for Dean Cain lol. Couldn't agree with you more on The Natural. Dude...Mr. Baseball is a CLASSIC!. It gets a 10/10 just because Tom Selleck legit looked like every first baseman in the MLB at that time. 61 was a great movie (I get that this is besides your requirements), still one of my favs I rewatch from time to time.
I attended one game at Milwaukee County Stadium when the company I worked for sent us to revamp a newly acquired warehouse circa 1999. They were trying to figure out what to do about the crane failure at the new ballpark being built. As I strolled through quite a bit of the stadium, I had no problem understanding why a new stadium was necessary. Some areas looked like they were ready to crumble.
Costner was clocked at low to mid 80s in Love of the Game and the home plate umpire said his curve ball fell off the table. And JK Simmons was excellent as the skipper with the smile and the Pat on the butt.
Finally someone that gives Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch the credit it deserves. If you have to take the premise that a dog can play baseball as a reality this movie nails it.
Cheers for putting "Little Big League" at #3. Underneath the ridiculous premise of a 12 year old managing an MLB team, it is a very smart baseball film. It covers situational strategy, hot streaks and slumps, free agents, contract disputes, cuts, injuries. On top of that it has incredible action as you pointed out. It will always be underrated and overlooked, but it will always be one of my favorites.
Agreed! A ridiculous premise that turns out to be a hidden gem of a movie. I kind of wish it was all a dream so more people could take the movie seriously.
100% agree. It's a film that loves and respects the game, plus it also helps it has some amazing hall of famers in it like Ken Griffey Jr, Randy Johnson, and Pudge!
i don't know a whole lot about baseball but that was an incredibly interesting video. i got more and more invested the longer i watched until i literally stopped everything i was doing just to focus solely on the video once you got to the top ten. thanks for the laugh at the end
Mr. Baseball captures the gaijin culture shock so well, especially the bit with the toilet. (During our exchange student orientation, we had how-to demonstrations.) I always recommend it to anyone going over there for an extended period.
What bothered me about The Fan (as a Giants fan) was that they didn't even bother trying to make the ballpark look like Candlestick Park other than a few wall decals. Also, it doesn't usually rain in the Bay Area during baseball season. I think the Giants have had a total of like three rainouts in the last 20 years and almost all were in the first few weeks of the season.
The reason every angels game they went too was a home game in angels in the outfield was because the kids couldn’t travel with the team on the road. If I remember correctly there is a scene he watched a road game on the tv.
Yep, I noticed that too. Showed a lack of knowledge. I'm guessing he thought "oh, Ozzie Smith is a Hall of Famer. He would never bat ninth in a World Series." Without knowing that Ozzie had a .666 OPS and was never a great hitter. And he actually hit ninth in seven World Series games. Trying to pick apart movies for mistakes, but landing on something they actually got right (unintentionally or not) and calling it a mistake. Pretty embarrassing.
Hey BND, this was great work. Been a fan for a while now. I was fortunate enough to have played the role of Tom Selleck’s agent in Mr Baseball, and was hoping it would make the list. I had no idea it was used to help American players headed for Japan! Thanks for your hard work, it’s definitely appreciated.
When I watched Moneyball i wasn't paying close attention as it pertains to baseball accuracy in reference to watching the on field stuff, but I vagueley remembering it to have been somewhat decent (how much should it be docked for the creative choice to film it dark, should it be that big of a ding against it?)), but I'm surprised to find that it's not ranked better. And while I realize the show likely keeps the systems used to rank a players true value simple, so simple in fact that you would almost think that they were only acquiring players who had a good OBP, but If I were to guess they may have only needed to fill one high OBP player into their lineup in the offseason, but I didn't take it as though they were looking to stack their entire time with OBP players.. There were some other paradigms they were breaking with their system to obtain a maximum value team for what their team needed and another one that I'm remembering off the cuff was, since they ran into an issue with duplicate position players on their team, rather than moving a good hitter to the DH or losing value in a trade, move him to another position where you have a hole and in the offseason train him in that position. The only thing I know for sure is that baseball is loaded to the gills with more paradigms and stubborn ways of doing things than arguably any other sport and I'm of the opinion that a lot of it isn't rational and from what I gather if the scenario is to be believed or take partially at face value, the A's broke certain paradigms when it came to filling their roster on a limited budget with the most value in mind.
Not a baseball fan or anything and I must admit that my knowledge regarding baseball movies and books are Field of Dreams, that one with Keanu Reeves being a coach and "The Twelfth Angel" book (which I don't recall much, other than crying a lot as a kid). Sadly you didn't talk about the Keanu one, so I can't tell if it's good or not. I enjoy the trope of coaching misfits and getting them to become really good, so I'll say it didn't make the list because they're kids.
I remember watching Natural as highschooler. I loved the idea of wanting to be the best their ever without selling your soul to the corrupting nature of the game at that time. Yes it's overly dramatic, but what kid couldnt identify with wanting to be a major league player even if only for a season well past their prime.
this video earned my subscribe click. the balls to place that number one pick on an hour long video. hats off good sir. i will be binge watching some more videos and put some of these movies on my watchlist. thx for the work you put into this one.
Heard a story from an old duck guide…Babe Ruth certainly played drunk as well as hunting drunk. He never missed according to the guide who reminded me I’m no Babe as I whiffed on a easy shot. He also hunted with Cobb and Gehrig as well as many baseball legends.
I'm so glad you had Little Big League so high on the list. It's my favorite baseball movie. I'm not really a baseball fan, so I never knew how accurate it really was. And I did grow up watching it, so part of my love may be nostalgia, but still. It's nice to see it getting some love.
Tim Busfield, the putative 'star' of LBL, played HS baseball 20 years earlier. (He was an ok player, not a star) His character was supposed to be an All-Star, but didn't have many action shots. Some of the baseball extras were very good in addition to the shots edited in of MLB stars such as Griffey.
"A Talent for the Game" I didn't know this movie existed until a year or two ago. I was home sick from work for a couple days and I binged a bunch of baseball movies. This one came up as a suggestion (Netflix maybe? I don’t remember.) Pretty good for what it is. But I have no idea how I hadn't even heard of it until then. Good baseball, fun (if implausible) story, fair movie.
I was really hoping this video was about ALL baseball movies. "The Stratton Story", "Fear Strikes Out" and "Bang the Drum Slowly" are some of the greats.
Was reluctant to watch this video due to the length, but that was a quick hour. Mostly agree with the list, especially the props to Little Big League: awesome family film with great baseball. Great video!
I’ve seen some of your videos before and I’ve enjoyed them, but not quite enough to subscribe. This video was phenomenal and went right into my favorites but I wasn’t quite ready to subscribe throughout. Then, #1 happened and I instantly subbed and turned on all notifications. The commitment to that bit is absolutely astounding, well done in all regards.
I have to admit, I was so excited to find out #1. I had a small list in my head... and I was baffled, was there a baseball movie I did not know about. A masterpiece missing from my knowledge. A film about baseball better than Bull Durum! And 42, and Major League... etc Sigh. All must bow down to the great Air Bud
I watched the Fan in a college class for physiology. And uhhh.. let me just say I was laughing through the whole film and just shaking my head 😂. Everyone was looking at me like I was crazy. I got an A on the paper for the movie and it was very difficult to keep my personal opinion about actual baseball out of the paper
Bang on good job. I was an Extra in a early Netflix movie in 2011 - A Mile in His Shoes, mostly about baseball. So many hilarious stories how the director, crew and actors didn't know baseball at all. There was scene with a broken bat, where we were told to throw crushed up Cheerios to make it look like dust flying from a broken bat. (That bat was perfectly ban swan in half). One scene I was catching and they wanted me to catch a live at bat without a mask with the Camera infront of the plate. So they could see my face. The Umpire was an actor and used the safe sign for out and vice versa the whole movie.
I would be interested in your evaluation of 'The Comrades of Summer (1992). Yes, it is a tv movie. I have not seen it in many years, but I remember at the time thinking it was not that bad regarding the baseball scenes.
I was at the game in Arlington when they shot the film The Rookie. They shot it after the real game, and fans were invited to stay to be extras in the stands. Watched Dennis Quaid jogging in from the home bullpen instead of the visitors, which was annoying. Overall a fun experience, they gave away a Dodge Ram truck to a random fan too
I just love the nostalgia of the movie. I'm from a small town. I moved to Arlington when I was 20. My reaction to the Ballpark when I first saw it was the same reaction the kids had in the movie.
Everybody Wants Some got dinged way too far for not having an actual game if you put Touching Home at #8. Many of the actors in Everybody Wants Some played college baseball, and a couple of them played professionally. As a former college baseball player, everybody wants some absolutely nailed the feel of being on a college baseball team. IMO you severely underrated it
I know you said no kids movies but. The finals season. Mickey. And hardball with Keanu reeves are great baseball movies that all baseball fans should take a look at. The only movie on the list I had not really heard of was sugar which I’m definitely gonna take a look at. Great vid man!!
Honestly, respect for actually rolling credits. So many people do the roll credits joke just to back out, but got to respect someone actually doing it. And to make such a great point as well.
Little Big League was always one of my favorite baseball movies. …. Actually no, one of my favorite movies. Junior is such a great villain. And I always had an idea that most of the “Twins” were actually ball players.
I was working at Castle Rock when they made Little Big League and you are right: the producers were super focused on showing off how they would get the baseball right. It was more about rubbing elbows with them, but one of them had befriended Elster, who got the other MLB folk to come aboard. They told many many stories about Elster and Timothy Busfield that should not be mentioned in most company. The same can be said for For the Love of the Game - Costner was super insistent on getting it all right. (Loved this vid bc good friends of mine worked on about 12 of these films, my dad worked on "Babe," and I worked on "Sugar.")
Moneyball and trouble with the curve are two different stories. One is about drafting the best player in the upcoming draft where as Moneyball is about a team that needs to turn things around. It would make sense the the scouts play the bad guy role because they have driven the team to this point.
At 1:09:44: Considering how much of this movie they got right, I'm guessing the actual stats of some unnamed pitcher was used for the stats box. The apparent discrepancy occurred because the innings pitched stat got rounded to the nearest whole number. So he allowed 83 earned runs while pitching 210 2/3 innings, which got rounded to 211 innings, giving him an ERA of 3.55. It's all legit.
How incredible was it to see Robin Yount get his 3,000th hit in person? What an amazing ball player. The most epic thing I ever witnessed in person was watching Mike Cameron hit 4 home runs in 4 at-bats in 2002 when he was on the Mariners vs the White Sox at Comisky Park in 2002.
I saw Kerry Woods throw a shutout. I also saw a player on the Nationals get a standing ovation and have to tip his hat to the crowd after catching a routine infield pop up. He had dropped 3 earlier in the game.
I remember that game. A total blowout too of the White Sox. 10 runs in the first inning I believe. I saw Albert Pujols get his 3,000th hit against the M's in Seattle a few years ago.
I agree that Major League 3 is not a good movie, but worse than Ed? Not a chance! I think Angels in the Outfield is better than Rookie of the Year, as well. I hated that movie, but at least enjoyed the former, as a kid. I’m impressed you had Little Big League ranked so high. They used mostly real baseball players in that movie, which is why the ball stuff looked so good. Out of the three 1994 baseball movies I remember so fondly, it’s definitely the best one. Nice trolling on that first-place entry. I admit it: you got me, haha! My Top 2 are Bull Durham and A League of Their Own.
My nickname was "The Babe" for obvious physical reasons. A true lefty hitter as well as threw lefty. I was in my late 20's when the Goodman Babe movie came out. I always told my friends if I knew when auditions were being done I would have showed and they would of casted me on the spot. Besides the obvious I played baseball up to college level and had natural swing and could hit with power. And I could pitch lefty with control. I would of even saved them money probably taking half the pay Goodman recieved. Goodman was too heavy as the Babe and his swings were awful. I like John Goodman as an actor but in the Babe I would have been better.
I legitimately had to pause the video at 32:40 after that sidebar about Mantle and Maris to just reflect on the sheer depth of information provided here. Such an incredible amount of detail that went into the editing, and the data collection for this video. It's always a joy to see sports channels take their knowledge to other subjects, which is clear by the vast understanding of film as a medium, showcased all over this video. Also, the scene of Maris and Mantle in Touch of Mink is great.
Just wanted to mention for angels in the outfield, the games were all at home cause the kid who sees the angels and gives the signs to the coach about them was 11 and couldn't go on away games, they did mention in the movie about him calling the dugout on away games.
One thing that always bothered me from a historical accuracy standpoint about Field of Dreams was they had Joe Jackson hitting right handed when he was actually left handed.
