At number 25,
For the love of the Game, starring Kevin Costner, and Kelly Preston. Backstopped by superior wing man John C. Reilly. Tells the story of a near washed up pitcher, pitching his last few seasons for the Detroit Tigers, trying to re kindle his life, meeting a girl, who he ultimately falls for, and as Vin Scully so eloquently puts it " a Chapel turns Yankee Stadium into a cathedral". Well worth the meandering melodrama, just wait for the baseball game to end all baseball Games.
At number 24, The Bad News Bears, starring Walter Mattheau, and Tatum O'Neal. And a rebel who drives a mini motorbike, Jackie Earle Haley.
Coach Buttermark, a pool cleaner by trade gets conned into coaching a minor league baseball team, a rag tag assortment a snot drivelled miscreants.
They manage to get to their version of the world series and guess who they play...The Yankees, coached by Vic Morrow, who if memory serves was last seen on Combat, a WW 2 action series. Well he drill sergaents his way thru every scene, goaded on by team manager Joyce Van Patten.
Good doesn't triumph over evil, but good does take the day.
Coach Buutermaker makes youg men out of his team of fouls smelling rodents, they learn a few lessons along the way, and all's well that end's well.
At number 23, The Blind Side, starring Sandra Bullock, and boy does she ever star in this heart warming story of big, oh my god is he ever big negro young man, who no one seems to care about, except his legal guardian Sandra. She teaches him life lessons, and a football lessons thrown to boot, as he warms his way into their stuffy Southern family.
His lessons on playing football are the richest lessons, as he learns to protect his quarterback's blind side like protecting his surrugate family.
Coming in at number 22, and remember "There's no crying in baseball "
A League of their own,
I'll be the first to admit that a story about women playing baseball while the men are at war doesn't sound like the most exciting idea off the bat (so to speak), but you'll be hard pressed to find a guy around that won't admit this is a good movie.
Obviously
Tom Hanks owned this movie. His sarcastic and exasperated manager was
perfect, but Gena Davis made being a tomboy sexy, too. I do love a good,
sexy tomboy.
At number 21, a movie about Poker,
As long as ESPN keeps showing poker on TV I'm going to count it as a sport, and there's no better poker movie than Rounders.
Rounders is just so... cool. It's kind of a hipster movie, it was on to poker before the rest of the world was onto poker.
The terminology, the hands, the characters. It all flows together to make one hell of a movie. It stars Matt Damon, but the cards are the real stars.
At number 20, a UK classic,
Chariots Of Fire is proof of what inspirational music can do for a movie.
Without its soundtrack, Chariots Of Fire is just a movie about some dudes running in the Olympics. With the music, it's an inspirational film about friendship and overcoming personal struggles.
The story mirrors the Olympics but is a dual story of a Jewish Brit, and a patriotic Scotsman.
But as stated, Vangelis score steals the movie.
At number 19, Remember the Titans,
It's amazing what training camp and a little locker room sing along can do for a team. Not playing well? Now you're unstoppable. Racist before? Now you're best friends. Thanks Marvin Gaye!
In all seriousness though, Remember The Titans is a freaking fantastic movie. Denzel Washington is doing Denzel Washington things and everything else just falls into place.
Remember The Titans is just one of those universally loved movies. I bet you can't think of anyone who didn't like it. That's the mark of a great movie for sure.
Coming in at number 18, Rookie of the Year,
I bet parents hated this movie. Not because it was bad, but because for a whole summer, kids were secretly hoping to break their arm for the remote chance that it might make them a professional baseball player.
Even though the end with the "just float it" moment with his mom was super weak sauce, it was a fun movie to watch because it made you think about not just what it would be like to play in the major leagues, but to do it NOW!
"Ratzenberger, yells the Cubs coach, hopelessly mis-pronouncing his name" The kid acting makes this a worth while movie, despite the cheesy acting of Daniel Stern and Gary Busey.
Watch for Eddie Bracken as the owner, he steals every scene that he's in.
At number 17, a real favourite of mine,The Waterboy,starring Adam Sadler as the guy who could not shoot straight.
If there's one thing Adam Sandler likes more than fart jokes, it's making sports movies, which isn't really such a bad thing, because a couple actually turned out OK.
The Waterboy is one of those movies. The mild-mannered, half-mentally-retarded man child who is secretly a wrecking ball of a linebacker is an actually pretty funny concept.
Plus who doesn't love seeing people get just leveled. Terry Tate and Reebok built a whole ad campaign off that idea.
At number 16, comes Kingpin, which technically is not a sports movie, but bowling is the back drop for this piece.
An underrated Farrely Brothers movie, and not because of Woody Harrelson or Vanessa Angel. I'm talking about the man you see pictured.
Give it up to Bill Murray for being one of the most awesome sports villains of all time and totally committing to the part. So worth it just to watch him in this movie.
The out takes are hilarious, if not a bit raunchy, but still a worth while watch at number 16.
Coming in at number 15, is a hoot, Cool Runnings,
Thanks to Cool Runnings for providing me with the only scenario I can imagine where it would be OK for me to post a picture of four guys in a bathtub together.
I don't even care that John Candy could never have been a bobsledder; I loved him in this movie, and it's such a crazy story you can't help but be sucked in even when Doug E. Doug is telling people to kiss his lucky egg. The premise of this farce is that Jamaica enters a bob sled team in the winter Olympics.
Coming in at number 14, The Mighty Ducks, and my kids watched this epic about a 1,000 times, memorizing each and every line until their mother banned them from watching it.
Aw, look at those little troublemakers in the background. What a zany bunch.
Yeah, you can watch The Mighty Ducks again and point out all the stupid stuff in it, but that would just make you a tool. You don't want to be a tool, do you?
Instead, just remember the good times, like when Emilio taught the kids how to pass eggs or how to get called for offsides during the flying V.
Emelio Estevez stars, but it's the kids, each and every one of them that are the true stars of this movie.
Coming in at lucky 13, is a Nascar story, Days of Thunder,
Days of Thunder was the quintessential NASCAR movie before NASCAR was fashionable.
They even do a good job of not making NASCAR folks seem like complete hillbillies. And, honestly, when Robert Duvall is involved, it takes things up at least 20 notches.
The plot device of having Cruise's signature move be passing on the outside was totally unrealistic, but then again so is anything where Cruise is an athlete of any sort, so I just went with it.
I also love how Cole Trickle seemed like such a weird name, until an actual NASCAR driver named Dick Trickle came along. Now that is how you name a character.
At number 12, starring the Fresh Prince himself, Ali,
Ali was a very good sports movie, but it missed the chance it had to be great.
Why? Because even the most charismatic leading man in Hollywood at the time couldn't even touch the charisma and charm of Muhammad Ali.
That's a tall order and a reason why the movie starring Ali himself is much further up the list.
Coming in number 11, We Are Marshall,
On the outside it might just look like a movie where Matthew McConaughey does goofy stuff and makes goofy faces and Matthew Fox does intense stuff and makes a bunch of Jackfaces.
But you know what? I liked it. You throw an underdog story at me, especially an underdog story while overcoming something as crazy as your entire team dying in a plane crash, and it's going to take a lot to make me hate it.
Not enough scenes of McConaughey playing the bongos naked, but other than that it was a good movie.
At number 10, Radio, starring Cuba Gooding jr, and Ed Harris.
It took me a while to see this movie because it seemed like such an Oscar grab. Obviously Cuba Gooding Jr. didn't win because, as Robert Downey Jr. said in Tropic Thunder, he went "full retard."
But when I finally got around to watching it, I enjoyed it. It's a movie like The Blind Side where an unusually kind person takes somebody in, and through their kindness inspires others with that person.
Does that make sense? Who am I kidding, it's not like Radio is a movie with all these layers. You can pretty much figure out what it's all about just by this picture. Doesn't mean it's not good, though.
Coming at number 9, Bingo Long Travellong All Stars & Motor Kings,
Can you imagine how awesome it would be on the set of this movie? You've got Darth Vader, Lando Calrissian, and then Richard Prior thrown into the mix.
James Earl Jones would just command everyone's attention with that voice, Billy Dee Williams would be smooth talking some lady on the side, and Richard Prior would be trying to buy drugs from the key grip.
Oh yeah, and you've got a baseball movie in there too. How could this not be a good time?
Coming in at number 8, SeaBiscuit, a horse racing epic, starring Tobey Maguire ( before he played Spiderman ).
Horse movies are always a little tough for me. I'm not a big animal guy, so when the little horse that could succeeds, it doesn't mean as much to me as if it were a human.
Still, it's an uplifting story and even with the horse and the fact that when I saw the movie I still couldn't imagine Jeff Bridges as anyone other than The Dude, I enjoyed it and got goosebumps a couple of times.
That's what I ask from my sports movies.
Coming in at number 7, The Colour of Money,
Most people crown Kevin Coster as king of the sports movie genre, but a sneaky member of that group is Tom Cruise. Yes, all five foot nothing Tom Cruise.
Of course, aside from his role as a high school football player, Cruise gets to play more believable roles for a sports movie. It doesn't take a lot of height or athleticism to play pool, but it gets shown on ESPN so it must be a sport.
Hard to made pool seem dramatic, but this movie accomplishes it nicely. Even with the token wet blanket girlfriend, I'm invested the whole time.
At number 6, Eight Men Out
Everyone knows the story of the 1919 Black Sox. Eight took money from gamblers to throw the World Series.
The end result isn't what's interesting, but how it all went down. It's easy to look back and say that you never would have done what they did, but watching it unfold makes you think differently.
I would have taken the money. Hell, even the best players fail 2/3 of the time. I'd say say I threw it and then go out and play like I always did. Maybe Shoeless Joe had it right the whole time
Coming in at number 5, The Longest Yard, and yes it is a prison football movie.
Obviously we're talking about the original with Burt Reynolds, not the bastard child starring Adam Sandler and Burt Reynolds.
Reynolds' Paul Crewe was a badass. Reynolds was just inherently cool. He didn't have to try hard like Sandler. He just didn't give a shit, which is exactly the kind of attitude you needed for Crewe.
Coming in at number 4, Baseball, a 10 part documentary by Ken Burns.
Do you have 18 and a half hours to spare? Then you need to watch Ken Burns' documentary on all things baseball.
Sure it's a little tough to call this one movie, but it's so incredibly well done all the way through and touches on everything you could think of about the history of the game.
For any self professed baseball nut, this is a must-see. For everyone else, it's a you-probably-should-see.
Coming in at number 3, Rocky, starring Sly Stallone,
The ultimate underdog story.
The first Rocky was the ultimate everyman. He's just an unassuming, humble guy from Philly who ends up getting a shot at the champ through a series of events and making the most of it.
Eventually, Rocky turns into this super fighter in later movies, but in this one he's just your average guy with a bigger than average heart. Nothing special.
Stallone will never be considered a great actor, but he's terrific in the movie. He nails the "aw shucks" attitude.
And who could forget Mickey. That gruff voiced little troll is one of my favorite sports movie characters of all time.
Coming in number 2, Slap Shot . And make no mistake about it, this is a true hockey story, not the ones your dad tells about.
Slapshot is like a good dark beer. You're probably not going to like it as a kid and you might not like it right away when you do see it, but sooner or later you get to a point where you realize just how great it is.
I don't know, maybe I'm wrong and you loved it right away, but the point is that it's a great movie. It's funny in an existential way, but also in that slapstick, knock-the-shit-out-of-people way.
The Hansen Brothers are just perfect. I'm slightly jaded now by the fact that they've done about seven straight-to-video Slapshots because this role is the only thing those guys can do. But damn if it wasn't the best part of this movie.
And the number 1 movie , sports movie of all time is Field of Dreams, a calling out to all sons who wanted just one more game of catch with their fathers.
It's crazy how good a movie about dead baseball players coming out of a cornfield to play some pickup baseball can be, isn't it?
There's just a simplicity to Field of Dreams that everyone gets. Ultimately, the big payoff at the end of the movie is that Kevin Costner finally gets to have a catch with his dad.
In the grand scheme of things it doesn't seem like such a big deal, but it's so connected to all of our youths that we totally understand and there's usually not a dry eye in the place aftewards.
"Hey dad... wanna have a catch?"
And that's it, if I missed some , feel free to comment.
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