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.
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
Moneyball being dark during gameplay was one of my favorite choices in any baseball movie. You’re getting in the mind of the players being shown. Baseball players mention everything else being drowned out and being locked in. Looks as if they’re more on a stage. The baseball vernacular was great, and as someone who grew up in the bay they really nailed what the colosseum was like in those years.
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.
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.
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.
For real, references air bud multiple times, kept forgetting about it, immediately after bill durham I’m like what movie can top this? And then boom, air bud
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 🤘
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.
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.
@@cmoore185 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!
@@cmoore185 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).
The original “Bad News Bears” was always my favorite, most realistic and believable. The first 5 minutes immediately takes me back to the T-Ball, little league and Pony league years. Great flick.
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 TH-cam 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.
Besides Tunnels, if you were a jpop fan in the late 90s and 2000s, he was the co-host of the music variety show, Utaban, along with SMAP (a jpop boy band/talent group back in the day, who also their own variety show SMAPxSMAP and starred in a lot of popular j-dramas) member Masahiro Nakai. I actually never knew this despite watching Utaban and watching Major League 2 when I was a kid before that! When I go back to watch old Utaban episodes, I feel embarrassed for not noticing before cuz now that I know it's so obvious it's him. He also covered the latest World Baseball Classic on Japanese TV too (not sure which channel...)
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
@@Miggly 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.
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!
The stretch of time from 1988 (Bull Durham) through 1994 (remake of Angels in the Outfield) was truly a golden age in baseball and baseball-themed films.
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....
@@andyf7027 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.
@@TP_Gillz 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.
I f-ing LOVE that of all movies, the Naked Gun is a respectful in how they portrayed baseball. Theres a reason its one of the finest works of art in cinematic history. 😂
Mr. Baseball is one of my all-time favorite sports movies. To this day, whenever someone pulls an obscure statistic to make their point, I quote, "Last season, I led this club in ninth-inning doubles in the month of August!"
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.
Obviously this an old comment, but as a Twins fan from The Cities who still hasn't seen Little Big League, what kinds of details about the Twin Cities are in the movie?
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.
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.
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.
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!
Tthis is one of the few times I’ve actually been entertained for a full hour on TH-cam without switching videos. Great explaining and great work. I completely agree with Air Bud being in the top that movie is incredible
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.
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.")
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.
@@stevenshaker465 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.
Excellent job of staying on point about the baseball quality and I appreciate your work in looking at so many of the details (Chapel's ERA for instance).
So glad to see Little Big League high on the list. One of my all time favorite movies ever and you can really tell how much love for the sport went into the movie.
I agree!! I watched it for the first time when I was 6 playing T ball for the first time and after that I was hooked. 17 years later I’m still a lifelong twins fan!
@@drew7294oh you poor thing. Nothing but Suffering for you. I was born in MN so I’m born into the suffering. Hopefully you didn’t pick it from a movie lol
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.
In "The Rookie" ( I was at the game where Morris made his debut, and my buddies were at the one where the filming took place) Jim Morris warmed up in the Rangers Bullpen instead of the visitors. When filming at The Ballpark in Arlington, they actually asked the crowd to stick around after a regular season game was over to be in the movie.
They did something similar as well with everybody’s all American for LSU versus Alabama. They had shots of the crowd, but LSU was getting blown out, so they were mainly just Alabama fan so they had to come in and film them at a different time.
Indeed they did. Was at the game and about 30 rows behind the bullpen. they filmed his entrance during the seventh inning stretch. I did not stick around afterwards, but was a neat add on to a random game me and some buds went to.
Thank you for putting Little Big League at 3. My all time favorite baseball movie. When I first saw it as a kid. The fact that it felt so real was the reason I loved this movie so much.
I’m only into the 30s but this is fantastic. Each time a movie pops up, I think if the egregious baseball-breaking moments and, yep, you point it out. Great work-can’t wait til finish the rest tonight!
@@BaseballsNotDead Ok so when talking about Angels in the Infield you make a comment about not noticing something on your first watch through ( 12:25 ). So you actually watched that shitshow more than once? That is some major dedication to your craft right there. Thanx for putting yourself through that so that you could make this video to entertain us.
That relay from the warning track in "Little Big League" always impressed me. You really don't see those kind of shots in other movies. I've gone through that scene frame by frame to see what kind of movie magic was used to pull it off. But there's no secret. They actually pulled it off. It's such a great movie with great baseball and growing up with that movie, it holds a special place in my heart.
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.
I was an extra in Moneyball and I was on set between 10pm-5am and the majority of that night focused on the Hatteberg homerun. They only had a couple of banks of lights on. I’m not sure if it was for dramatic effect or maybe the city wouldn’t allow all lights on during those hours.
One thing I've really grown to like about Major League over the years, even in the crazy last inning setups, is how accurate everything in the background is. Players and umpires all moving to cover their positions. There are cutoff throws, tagging up like you mention, etc. I don't know how many of the players had playing experience, but they all look like they fit. The menacing first baseman was a Cy Young winner, the Duke was an MLB relief pitcher, and the 3rd base coach was a World Series MVP. Seems they put that collective knowledge to good use.
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 ;)
I wouldn't put it at #1 but I liked it a lot. The kids were great in it and the mom was hot. I'd definitely rank it above Rookie Of The Year, which came out earlier and was the more popular movie. Partly because it's AL and shows my White Sox instead of the damn Cubs! 😀
47:51 - Mr. Baseball is a guilty pleasure of mine....and if you think Tom Selleck's swing is just ok, google "Tom Selleck home run Camden Yards"....I vaugely remember watching this as a kid but dude CRUSHED a ball during some celebrity HR derby thing and I believe was the only celeb to actually hit a legit HR ball. On top of that he supposedly hit at least one ball out while training with the Tigers in prep work for Mr. Baseball. He even was put in as a pinch-hitter in an exhibition game by Sparky Anderson where he fouled off some balls (I got that last part from Wikipedia). Anyway, he wasn't just given the part and showed up, he actually trained for it!
I'm surprised you didn't mention in "Major League" that former Brewer great Pete Vuckovich played Yankee's power hitter "Hayward". Vuckovich also helped with the films production on authenticity of baseball in the movie. Also former MLB Steve Yeager played "The Duke" the guy once threw at his own son in a father son game. That anecdote was a true story about Steve Yeager they thought it was funny so they added to Bob Uecker's lines.
@@Wallyworld30 not his life story, just an instance. For an example, Yeager helped invent the throat guard that is still used by catchers and umpires. They don't say in the movie that The Duke did that.
Fun video! The Natural is a hero allegory modeled after King Arthur. (The team name is also the Knights). I think the reason the bat breaking is depicted so dramatically is largely because the bat represents Excalibur. It’s pure mythology.
The source novel is *very* different, set in the 1950s instead of the 1930s with a different ending. The movie is about heroes and mythology and has an upbeat ending, but the book is very downbeat with Roy Hobbs as a tragic figure. At the end, instead of people seeing him on the street and saying he was "the best there ever was", they say "he could've been a king".
I never liked the Natural. I don't know why it just seemed very dramatic. It was obvious the Whammer was Babe Ruth. I did like the baseball scenes and the music. Also the scene at the beginning with the Sun setting looked beautiful while he was pitching to the Whammer. Other then that I think that it's overrated and not as good as Bull Durham or Field of Dreams .
Of course Naked Gun has decent baseball behind the slapstick. That movie is downright incredible, and so many one-liners from that movie (and Airplane!) are used by my entire family at my family events.
Leslie Neilson is a Saint. Absolute legend. Such great movies. Airplane! Beyond classic. I believe Leslie and Betty white have coffee ery morning in heaven. Don't ruin this.
In Field of Dreams, the scene you mentioned about the comebacker to Costner pitching, was not in the script, but kept in. So it's legit. Costner says this in an interview he gave.
Awesome video! Thanks for doing the video! Was surprised (and glad) to see the following on your list, "The Naked Gun," "Mr. Baseball," "Sugar," and "Little Big League." It was obvious what would be #1. Cannot wait for the sequel, "I Watched Every Baseball Movie EVER MADE and Ranked Them by How Well the Actors Played Baseball" and see where "The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings" (1976), "Fear Strikes Out" (1957), "The Pride of the Yankees" (1942), "The Stratton Story" (1949), and "Bang the Drum Slowly" (1973) would show up on your list.
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.
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
1) I need to see Sugar 2) I agree that The Natural is just so so 3) I love the use of silence in For the Love of the Game 4) I need to re-watch Major League, because I remember thinking the baseball didn’t look great when I saw it on release 5) Bull Durham is the best 6) #1 … you got me
Some of the baseball scenes in Major League were very good. Some parts weren’t as good, but it’s still better than most movies. Chelcie Ross as Harris was not very believable with his pitching form, but Charlie Sheen is one of the most believable actors in a baseball movie as he was a pitcher in HS. Jake Taylor’s pickoff throws look great as Steve Yeager doubled for Tom Berenger during those scenes.
I'm glad you took everything into account for Angels In the Outfield. As you said, it was supposed to look silly when the angels interfered, and when they weren't interfering it looked just fine(not great but fine). I loved that movie when I was little.
You deserve more subscribers, cant imagine how long this took to make. As a die hard baseball fan, it feels good to know others like you know and pay this much attention to how baseball actually works. Keep up the good work!
Thank you for putting up little big league up there. As a massive dodger and baseball fan when I saw this movie I bought the DVD and to this day when someone asks me what my favorite baseball movie is everyone is always surprised when I say this movie and not Sandlot, Angels Im the outfield or Major League. If you’re a baseball fan you respect the time and effort they put into this movie and the amount of 90’s baseball stars in this movie makes it that much better. Also the race for a playoff spot is so thrilling. 10/10 movie and if you haven’t watched it you’re missing out
1. I actually really love the dark lighting in Moneyball. All the baseball scenes are so stylized, to me it looks like they did it on purpose. It looks like what baseball would look like in a dream. 2. I would like to see where you would rank some of the movies of kids playing baseball. The sandlot has gotta be up there decently high right? It’s been forever since I’ve seen bad new bears or Benchwarmers, so I have no clue how they are. 3. That double play in the monkey movie didn’t look half bad, I would have probably bumped it up 2 or 3 slots for that, but I’ve never seen it so who knows.
Of course Moneyball did that on purpose! How does anyone not immediately realize that! You can say you like it or you don't, but to think they were actually going for realistic lighting is bonkers.
When I saw the title the first thought that popped into my head was Costner's mental internal dialog at the plate in Bull Durham. Best depiction of what playing baseball is like ever made imo. I totally agree with you!
Okay, but the scene where Kamikaze throws his mitt in the air, does a Michael Jackson spin move, then catches the ball bare handed and screams, is objectively hilarious.
I used to watch a movie called pastime. It was incredibly tragic. It takes some of the sentiments from bull Durham and turns the tragedy of shattered dreams up to 11. I haven’t watched it in years, but I remember that it killed me watching it as a kid with dreams of being a pro in my head. It gave 12 year old me a heavy dose of reality.
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.
Little Big League was always so underrated. It came out around the same time as Rookie of the Year. That movie got all the love, but Little Big League was so much better in my opinion.
I couldn’t tell you how many thousands of times my teammates and I would quote lines from “Bill Durham”. It is hands down the best baseball movie ever made. “Nuke”, announcing his presence with authority might be the greatest scene in any movie ever.
Costner's role was definitely the best physical performance of a ballplayer. Charlie Sheen gets honorable mention for Major League. He really had good pitching mechanics.
@Crazy Ohioan Cars, Guns, and Gaming He must have been a pretty good hitter, too, because there's no mistaking he hit a home run in one scene. It was a static shot start to finish and he looked hitterish doing it.
Costner was something of a b-list Bo Jackson before becoming an actor. There's a reason he's in so many sports movies: he can do the thing and look like he's done it before.
Saw this suggested video and watched it just to see how high Little Big League was! It is my favorite baseball movie and I was soooo happy that the realism is recognized in this video! Such an underrated baseball movie as well! Thanks for making this!
I've never seen The Scout, but that analysis seems so spot on and the "alternate" ending you proposed just makes it. I'll probably watch it soon and just end the movie exactly as you suggested.
Sugar was very relatable to me as someone of Dominican descent who has known minor leaguers and has had relatives in the minor leagues. A lot of people I showed it to didn’t like it because of how it ended but I loved it for that reason. Most minor leaguers don’t pan out. A lot of sports films are geared towards success stories so it was refreshing to see a film that went in another direction. My only gripe is that they could’ve done a better job at driving the point home that he was done. It could be interpreted that he gave up instead of he hit a ceiling.
@@beesly01 I once helped prepare a box of food and other items for a relative who was playing in Iowa for a minor league team. I think the team was based in Clinton. We shipped all sorts of Dominican related goodies that were harder to find out there.
I know The Natural is not for everyone but that movie inspired me to fall in love with the game and for me is one of my all time favorites. The storyline is what really drives that film home not so much the baseball that's in it. But what an amazing cast.
Ditto man. I watched this movie with my uncle when I was like 6 years old and have been in love with baseball ever since. It’s over the top, but allowed me to see the romance of the game. Redford is my fav actor of all time partly due to this (Plus, The Sting is easily in my top 5 movies all time.)
I did not even notice how an entire hour had passed and I was left with interesting baseball trivia and a fair amount of movie recommendations. Thank you very much.
I completely forgot about Little Big League, and this jogged it back in my memory. One of the reasons why I loved this film is when they had a certain song playing when they were making their playoff push. Solid film, overall.
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.
Really glad to see u show some love to Little Big League, I think it's a criminally underrated film. I think everyone involved, especially the writer and director, just had a clear love and passion for the sport. It's definitely one of my favorite baseball films of all time.
I was hoping to see Major League be #1 but I think your explanations for why Little Big League and Bull Durham were higher are pretty solid and I enjoyed hearing your breakdowns of these. Here's why I fell in love with Major League. In the climactic game, you basically get a highlight play from each half inning followed by a cut to the scoreboard showing you where the game is now and taking you all the way from the top of the first to the bottom of the 9th with the tension escalating throughout. All the plays made feel not only believable but exciting, the close bang-bang plays are often very close. A lot of these look like they wouldn't be out of place on a sportscenter reel. There was so much care that went into making that final game feel like a very real game. And the other game action throughout the movie often shows us things that are quirky or rare but also believable enough that we've seen them happen in actual Major League games. I do understand your distaste with the called shot/bunt ending. That is a bit of a reach but I gave it a pass because of all the other things the movie got right. In retrospect, you showing how Little Big League was shot in comparison was a bit eye opening for me to realize how good that looks on film. I think I subconsciously docked it a few points for it all being in the Metrodome which just doesn't look as nice as a genuine grass field, and sometimes just looks too clean and synthetic, but that's where the Twins played and its absolutely as authentic as can be even if it's not as satisfying to look at in some ways. I slept on LBL also probably because the ending left a bad taste in my mouth and didn't watch it more than once. But I can't say it didn't earn its spot here. And as for Major League, you did still put it up there in the top 5 so I can live with that. Really solid list overall, even if your #1 was a gag. Well executed too btw.
Haven't even got into the video yet but I appreciate so much that you used Lucas as the example in the intro. That movie is so warm-hearted throughout, and has so many great, non-obvious choices in the way it constructs its characters and plot, yet it somehow fumbles its football scene so badly! It's irked me for like 30+ years lol
This is the first video of yours I’ve seen, and the amount of work you must of put into it and love you have for my favorite sport made me an instant subscriber to your channel. Great work!
Angels in the outfield is one of my favorite sports movies of all time. It’s silly on the surface but at it’s core there’s a real deep story going on. It’s an overall good movie and super underrated imo. I know you’re not rating it based on how good the movies are I just felt like sharing that lol
I am gonna rewatch to confirm this, but I am almost positive they explain the home vs road game thing in Angels in the Outfield. I think in the article written after JP spilled the beans they mentioned Roger called in to the dugout phone during away games. Also from a visual perspective the home crowd reaction is much better (yes this point wouldn't change anything based of your rules, I was just stating this.) Great video!
I didn't realize this was an hour long when I clicked on it. I was right there with you on all of the picks, and I found a couple 'new' ones to watch (Thanks!) I didn't realize an hour had passed when #1 was...uhhh...announced. Well done. Sub'd
For the movie 61*, they used Tiger Stadium and repainted it to look like 1960s Yankee Stadium, with CGI on top to add the 3rd deck and freize. On a scene when reporters questions Maris about his signed "X"ball, we can clearly see Michigan Central Station in the background.
Aweeesome video.... nothing else like this on TH-cam. Interesting subject, entertaining and nicely done! I hope you do a similar future ranking video on baseball films produced before 1984!
I'm really surprised you didn't mention how Field of Dreams inverted Shoeless Joe's batting and throwing hands. In the movie he bats right handed and throws left handed. In real life, he batted left handed and threw right handed.
That was my criticism as well, the flow of the gameplay is excellent, but they made Shoeless Joe bat and throw the opposite from where he was historically; I would like to see him bat in Shoeless Joe Jackson's stance, which some videos here on TH-cam show it with one video shown in comparison to Babe Ruth, who actually incorporated Jackson's stance into his. Ruth said Shoeless Joe was the best hitter he had ever seen.
They tried to get Ray Liotta to match Joe Jackson's handedness, but he wasn't able to make the change and they wanted to have the wide shots, so they decided to live with the inaccuracy because it wasn't meant to be any type of documentary piece.
Gotta say, I thought you forgot about Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch, but I'm glad I stuck through to see Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch placed aptly at first place. Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch is a great movie, and Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch displays baseball really well.
I was sad at first about Moneyball's placement, but the dark baseball scenes is a legit hit, based on your criteria. Makes sense. Also, amazing punchline at the end, well done.
I can’t remember where I heard it (DVD director commentary? Dunno), but I seem to remember hearing that in Major League, the scene where Willie Hayes jumped out of bed and raced past the guys in tryouts was filmed oddly, bc Wesley Snipes isn’t “really” that fast, but he’s really good at “looking like he’s running fast”. Since the extras he’s running past were actual players, they had to slow down and allow him to run past them.
I first saw the natural in photography class in high school. It was a great case study for framing, as you could see that the team for baseball and non baseball were totally different competency levels (unless they just hired baseball cameramen for the whole thing)
i have Asperger's and was a pitcher that actually got recruited (nowhere good). If only i had known i had 100 in my back pocket. Think my mistake was not filming a training montage of whipping apples at children. Prob would have made the Show.
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 was an extra for three years in Hollywood, and hypothermia was a routine hazard. That shit is no joke.
@@SamAronow Love your content man
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.
Bottom of the 9th is laughable. It’s as if no even playing little league.
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.
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
You just need Dean Cain as your coach.
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
As a father of a son with Asperger's, I can only wish he had any athletic skills at all.
as someone with Asperger's... Zach Grienke also has Asperger's and he's a hall of fame pitcher
@@DavidDiamond-ul6viyeah but there are a lot hof pitchers that don't have aspergers
I'm laughing at Ken Griffey Jr being the bad guy considering he might be one of the most beloved players of all time
He's more of a bad guy in the style of Billie Eilish.
@@BaseballsNotDead He's definitely the "might seduce your dad" type.
@@samtremblaybelzile Have you seen him in The Simpsons? Who wouldn't be swooned by that?
He's only the "bad guy" for the teams he played against.
@Owen Wange, Jr. [Laughlin HS] You should never put your hand in another man's glove. Shame on you.
Moneyball being dark during gameplay was one of my favorite choices in any baseball movie. You’re getting in the mind of the players being shown. Baseball players mention everything else being drowned out and being locked in. Looks as if they’re more on a stage. The baseball vernacular was great, and as someone who grew up in the bay they really nailed what the colosseum was like in those years.
Absolutely.
So 1/2 or 3/4 of a shyte hole?
yep, like during seksi-time, even sounds disappear
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.
Air Bud 3 truly speaks for itself.
@@HercuLync I actually never watched it, so why does it speak for itself?
@@aznpikachu215 You can't truly understand until you've watched it multiple times.
Honestly the best end to a TH-cam video I’ve ever experienced
Ain't no rule says you can't put Air Bud 3 at the top.
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.
It was actually really stupid those weren’t on here especially when one of the movies he included only had a 4 minute segment of baseball
Right? I mean, by now all of the child actors are adults with kids of their own! We want The Sandlot!
Yup. The purity of the sandlot, it is a baseball movie if there ever was one. It captures the essence of what makes the game great.
Don't forget "The Kid from Left Field" with Garry Coleman, Robert Guiomme and Ed McMahan..
Two of the most influential baseball on movies of all time
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.
That’s so cool that you know someone who was a groundskeeper. Funny how they did it because he was upset 😂
Genuinely interesting. He needs to write a book. I would buy that day 1
Thank you i legit was looking up turn of the century groundskeeping before deciding to check the comments: )
i was looking for a reply about this
Scanned comments for water, 1919 and wetting. Thank you for posting this bit of trivia.
Never in history has anybody put in this much work to set up a joke. Well played sir, well played.
For real, references air bud multiple times, kept forgetting about it, immediately after bill durham I’m like what movie can top this? And then boom, air bud
A one hour long joke. Jk this video was incredible
I don't get it... What's the joke? Seventh Inning Fetch is obviously the perfect baseball film.
Pulled a Dunkey. Super Mario 2!!
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 🤘
Thank you for the chapters:-) !!!!!
@@wlsmojo when I started to watch this video I wanted it by myself. Let's say that this is my payback for all others 😂
Moneyball one major league 5 Field of dreams two rookie of the year 6 about benchwarmers 7
Baseball movie list without The Sandlot is irrelevant
@@patrickdunn5082I thought I was the only one who felt that something was missing from this video. Maybe it was omitted because of their age?
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.
Glad you enjoyed it!
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.
Little Big League is one of my favorite movies ever
My favorite baseball movie, and it never gets the love it deserves.
I was an extra in that movie! It’s cool to know it was mostly shot in Minnesota.
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.
Like they said being the minor league home run record holder is sort of an embarassing record to have
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.
@@cmoore185 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!
@@cmoore185 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).
The original “Bad News Bears” was always my favorite, most realistic and believable. The first 5 minutes immediately takes me back to the T-Ball, little league and Pony league years. Great flick.
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 TH-cam 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.
Ty for sharing this that's really cool and as a baka gaijin, I had no idea.
Good stuff, mate
Do you know the name of his channel? Cause I couldn’t find anything under his real name
@@skalty9868 www.youtube.com/@user-ke1fy5cc4y
Besides Tunnels, if you were a jpop fan in the late 90s and 2000s, he was the co-host of the music variety show, Utaban, along with SMAP (a jpop boy band/talent group back in the day, who also their own variety show SMAPxSMAP and starred in a lot of popular j-dramas) member Masahiro Nakai. I actually never knew this despite watching Utaban and watching Major League 2 when I was a kid before that! When I go back to watch old Utaban episodes, I feel embarrassed for not noticing before cuz now that I know it's so obvious it's him. He also covered the latest World Baseball Classic on Japanese TV too (not sure which channel...)
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
@@jimnfl7134 He mentioned that he limited the movies to those that came out after he was born.
@@Miggly 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.
Air bud was a joke right? Bull Durham was number 1?
@@jimnfl7134 He didn't include anything below the college level.
no pride of the yankees ridiculous..
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.
I was expecting to be lower down on the list but was thrilled seeing it so high, one of my favorite movies as a kid
Honestly one of my favourite movies and skipped through this list just because I knew it’d be high up
AND The Kid and The Big Unit as the baddies in the finale. SOOOOOOO good ❤️
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!
The stretch of time from 1988 (Bull Durham) through 1994 (remake of Angels in the Outfield) was truly a golden age in baseball and baseball-themed films.
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
Liotta really did have a stride to his run in that movie. It's was slowed down, but really looked great. RIP Ray Liotta.
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....
Then he's lied in interviews given about it. Also it's not as if either were at MLB caliber so the chance of any serious injury would be next to nil
@@andyf7027 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.
@@TP_Gillz 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.
I f-ing LOVE that of all movies, the Naked Gun is a respectful in how they portrayed baseball. Theres a reason its one of the finest works of art in cinematic history. 😂
Seeing 42 on this list made me miss Chadwick Boseman. I actually didn't realize he played Jackie until about a year ago. I miss him more now
Yeah, and he’s died on Jack Robison Day, I remember that after they announced Boseman death i waiting Dodgers to made a tribute on twitter
Me too. Gone way too soon
1:08:42 "if you really look at the nuts and bolts" while zoomed in on Tim Robbins' cup was excellent, thank you sir.
Mr. Baseball is one of my all-time favorite sports movies. To this day, whenever someone pulls an obscure statistic to make their point, I quote, "Last season, I led this club in ninth-inning doubles in the month of August!"
my fav !
such a good quote
I do the same thing… It’s a great line
Great baseball movie. I Watched it again a few months ago. It stands the test of time.
Gotcha....CHIEF!
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.
Did you know John Gordon, Corey Provus, and Dan Gladden all have the same birthday?
@@larmoejr I knew Cory P. and Dazzle Dan did but I didn’t know Gordo did too, that’s amazing.
Obviously this an old comment, but as a Twins fan from The Cities who still hasn't seen Little Big League, what kinds of details about the Twin Cities are in the movie?
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.
By the top three, I was like, ok he's named all the ones I've been thinking about what is left? The number one? Perfect. That was phenomenal.
You're legitimately hilarious. I spent the entirety of the Bull Durham segment, racking my brain to guess what you had as No.1...
😂
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.
Dude I paused just to try and give myself extra time! Lmao he got me good
So, What's he got as #1...What? What??? Ohhhh. So funny. Thanks for putting this together.
@@TaeSamLee Same. Even started to look at the comments twice. But didn't want to ruin it. I accepted my defeat, only to realize the joke's on me (us).
exactly. I tip my cap to you sir for the amazing video, and the perfectly delivered punch line
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
My uncle made a cameo in that movie. He had like 10 seconds of screen time!
I was there too! I was the truck
I won the truck
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.
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!
Tthis is one of the few times I’ve actually been entertained for a full hour on TH-cam without switching videos. Great explaining and great work. I completely agree with Air Bud being in the top that movie is incredible
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.
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.")
The guy talks too much. I fell asleep before he finished setting up the premise
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.
Jeez you have awful taste
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.
What are the other movies on that list? I assume that "Lost in Translation" is one of those movies?
@@stevenshaker465 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.
Excellent job of staying on point about the baseball quality and I appreciate your work in looking at so many of the details (Chapel's ERA for instance).
So glad to see Little
Big League high on the list. One of my all time favorite movies ever and you can really tell how much love for the sport went into the movie.
I agree!! I watched it for the first time when I was 6 playing T ball for the first time and after that I was hooked. 17 years later I’m still a lifelong twins fan!
@@drew7294oh you poor thing.
Nothing but Suffering for you.
I was born in MN so I’m born into the suffering. Hopefully you didn’t pick it from a movie lol
That was the best troll ending ever. After giving up over an hour of my Sunday watching I actually LOL with your #1 pick. That was awesome
Thanks!
@@BaseballsNotDead And that scene you showed was hilarious! I'm still laughing.
I died laughing. I too spent an entire hour trying to figure out what would be number one.
Agreed! He earned a new subscriber for that one.
Making dinner, looking forward to this #1, and I get air bud. Fucking love it
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.
We need the MAJOR review stat
Tim Robbins was miming Fernardo Valenzuela's pitching motion, where he also looked to the sky for a moment before delivering his pitch.
In "The Rookie" ( I was at the game where Morris made his debut, and my buddies were at the one where the filming took place) Jim Morris warmed up in the Rangers Bullpen instead of the visitors. When filming at The Ballpark in Arlington, they actually asked the crowd to stick around after a regular season game was over to be in the movie.
They did something similar as well with everybody’s all American for LSU versus Alabama. They had shots of the crowd, but LSU was getting blown out, so they were mainly just Alabama fan so they had to come in and film them at a different time.
Indeed they did. Was at the game and about 30 rows behind the bullpen. they filmed his entrance during the seventh inning stretch. I did not stick around afterwards, but was a neat add on to a random game me and some buds went to.
Thank you for putting Little Big League at 3. My all time favorite baseball movie. When I first saw it as a kid. The fact that it felt so real was the reason I loved this movie so much.
I’m only into the 30s but this is fantastic. Each time a movie pops up, I think if the egregious baseball-breaking moments and, yep, you point it out. Great work-can’t wait til finish the rest tonight!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Wait til u see what #1 is...
@@BaseballsNotDead Ok so when talking about Angels in the Infield you make a comment about not noticing something on your first watch through ( 12:25 ). So you actually watched that shitshow more than once? That is some major dedication to your craft right there. Thanx for putting yourself through that so that you could make this video to entertain us.
1:03:44 You mean when ESPN was a watchable Sports Network, that actually covered Sports well?
I was an extra in Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch, and that dog was actually surprisingly good at baseball during filming.
That relay from the warning track in "Little Big League" always impressed me. You really don't see those kind of shots in other movies. I've gone through that scene frame by frame to see what kind of movie magic was used to pull it off. But there's no secret. They actually pulled it off. It's such a great movie with great baseball and growing up with that movie, it holds a special place in my heart.
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.
You did a good job, Nicholas.
This is up there with the time I met Steve Sailer in the YT comment section on a video about the Miracle on Manchester.
I was an extra in Moneyball and I was on set between 10pm-5am and the majority of that night focused on the Hatteberg homerun. They only had a couple of banks of lights on. I’m not sure if it was for dramatic effect or maybe the city wouldn’t allow all lights on during those hours.
One thing I've really grown to like about Major League over the years, even in the crazy last inning setups, is how accurate everything in the background is. Players and umpires all moving to cover their positions. There are cutoff throws, tagging up like you mention, etc. I don't know how many of the players had playing experience, but they all look like they fit. The menacing first baseman was a Cy Young winner, the Duke was an MLB relief pitcher, and the 3rd base coach was a World Series MVP. Seems they put that collective knowledge to good use.
Little Big League's "Runaround Sue" montage has some of the best baseball I have ever seen. Criminally underrated movie.
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 ;)
Personally, that would be my #1, the baseball is amazing, and the movie itself is totally underrated.
I wouldn't put it at #1 but I liked it a lot. The kids were great in it and the mom was hot. I'd definitely rank it above Rookie Of The Year, which came out earlier and was the more popular movie. Partly because it's AL and shows my White Sox instead of the damn Cubs! 😀
47:51 - Mr. Baseball is a guilty pleasure of mine....and if you think Tom Selleck's swing is just ok, google "Tom Selleck home run Camden Yards"....I vaugely remember watching this as a kid but dude CRUSHED a ball during some celebrity HR derby thing and I believe was the only celeb to actually hit a legit HR ball. On top of that he supposedly hit at least one ball out while training with the Tigers in prep work for Mr. Baseball. He even was put in as a pinch-hitter in an exhibition game by Sparky Anderson where he fouled off some balls (I got that last part from Wikipedia). Anyway, he wasn't just given the part and showed up, he actually trained for it!
OP, your research is breathtaking. Like, the love and care that went into making this video really shines. Well done!
I'm surprised you didn't mention in "Major League" that former Brewer great Pete Vuckovich played Yankee's power hitter "Hayward". Vuckovich also helped with the films production on authenticity of baseball in the movie. Also former MLB Steve Yeager played "The Duke" the guy once threw at his own son in a father son game. That anecdote was a true story about Steve Yeager they thought it was funny so they added to Bob Uecker's lines.
Willie Mueller was actually The Duke, Yeager doubled for Berenger besides appearing as the Indians 3rd base coach.
@@kevinmoore2929 So they just took Yeager's real life story and gave it to Mueller?
@@Wallyworld30 not his life story, just an instance. For an example, Yeager helped invent the throat guard that is still used by catchers and umpires. They don't say in the movie that The Duke did that.
@@kevinmoore2929 I didn't mean his life's story. I meant a story from his real life.
Fun video! The Natural is a hero allegory modeled after King Arthur. (The team name is also the Knights). I think the reason the bat breaking is depicted so dramatically is largely because the bat represents Excalibur. It’s pure mythology.
The source novel is *very* different, set in the 1950s instead of the 1930s with a different ending. The movie is about heroes and mythology and has an upbeat ending, but the book is very downbeat with Roy Hobbs as a tragic figure. At the end, instead of people seeing him on the street and saying he was "the best there ever was", they say "he could've been a king".
I never liked the Natural. I don't know why it just seemed very dramatic. It was obvious the Whammer was Babe Ruth. I did like the baseball scenes and the music. Also the scene at the beginning with the Sun setting looked beautiful while he was pitching to the Whammer. Other then that I think that it's overrated and not as good as Bull Durham or Field of Dreams .
I'd like to see you rank the old baseball movies from Pride of the Yankees through Bang the Drum Slowly.
Of course Naked Gun has decent baseball behind the slapstick. That movie is downright incredible, and so many one-liners from that movie (and Airplane!) are used by my entire family at my family events.
Leslie Neilson is a Saint. Absolute legend. Such great movies. Airplane! Beyond classic. I believe Leslie and Betty white have coffee ery morning in heaven.
Don't ruin this.
If you haven't seen it, watch "Top Secret" with Val Kikmer. It was made by the same people who did "Airplane".
Leslie Neilsen is king
He missed a gag on that scene where we see four guys rounding second after a grand slam
Leslie Nielsen played an umpire better than any umpire in history
In Field of Dreams, the scene you mentioned about the comebacker to Costner pitching, was not in the script, but kept in. So it's legit. Costner says this in an interview he gave.
Yeah the field of dreams scene is legit. It was his first pitch to Ray Liotta and he knocked out right back at him.
“Costner says”
Awesome video! Thanks for doing the video! Was surprised (and glad) to see the following on your list, "The Naked Gun," "Mr. Baseball," "Sugar," and "Little Big League." It was obvious what would be #1.
Cannot wait for the sequel, "I Watched Every Baseball Movie EVER MADE and Ranked Them by How Well the Actors Played Baseball" and see where "The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings" (1976), "Fear Strikes Out" (1957), "The Pride of the Yankees" (1942), "The Stratton Story" (1949), and "Bang the Drum Slowly" (1973) would show up on your list.
I really enjoyed the break down but was looking forward to a "Sandlot" review lol great stuff man
Kind of criminal that he never put it in here
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.
Love this.
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
Durham, not Durum.
1) I need to see Sugar
2) I agree that The Natural is just so so
3) I love the use of silence in For the Love of the Game
4) I need to re-watch Major League, because I remember thinking the baseball didn’t look great when I saw it on release
5) Bull Durham is the best
6) #1 … you got me
Some of the baseball scenes in Major League were very good. Some parts weren’t as good, but it’s still better than most movies.
Chelcie Ross as Harris was not very believable with his pitching form, but Charlie Sheen is one of the most believable actors in a baseball movie as he was a pitcher in HS.
Jake Taylor’s pickoff throws look great as Steve Yeager doubled for Tom Berenger during those scenes.
I'm glad you took everything into account for Angels In the Outfield. As you said, it was supposed to look silly when the angels interfered, and when they weren't interfering it looked just fine(not great but fine). I loved that movie when I was little.
You deserve more subscribers, cant imagine how long this took to make. As a die hard baseball fan, it feels good to know others like you know and pay this much attention to how baseball actually works. Keep up the good work!
well... if he thinks an Air Bud movie is the best about baseball -- he deserves WAY less subscribers.
Thank you for putting up little big league up there. As a massive dodger and baseball fan when I saw this movie I bought the DVD and to this day when someone asks me what my favorite baseball movie is everyone is always surprised when I say this movie and not Sandlot, Angels Im the outfield or Major League.
If you’re a baseball fan you respect the time and effort they put into this movie and the amount of 90’s baseball stars in this movie makes it that much better. Also the race for a playoff spot is so thrilling. 10/10 movie and if you haven’t watched it you’re missing out
1. I actually really love the dark lighting in Moneyball. All the baseball scenes are so stylized, to me it looks like they did it on purpose. It looks like what baseball would look like in a dream.
2. I would like to see where you would rank some of the movies of kids playing baseball. The sandlot has gotta be up there decently high right? It’s been forever since I’ve seen bad new bears or Benchwarmers, so I have no clue how they are.
3. That double play in the monkey movie didn’t look half bad, I would have probably bumped it up 2 or 3 slots for that, but I’ve never seen it so who knows.
Of course Moneyball did that on purpose! How does anyone not immediately realize that! You can say you like it or you don't, but to think they were actually going for realistic lighting is bonkers.
When I saw the title the first thought that popped into my head was Costner's mental internal dialog at the plate in Bull Durham. Best depiction of what playing baseball is like ever made imo. I totally agree with you!
Okay, but the scene where Kamikaze throws his mitt in the air, does a Michael Jackson spin move, then catches the ball bare handed and screams, is objectively hilarious.
I used to watch a movie called pastime. It was incredibly tragic. It takes some of the sentiments from bull Durham and turns the tragedy of shattered dreams up to 11. I haven’t watched it in years, but I remember that it killed me watching it as a kid with dreams of being a pro in my head. It gave 12 year old me a heavy dose of reality.
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.
Now that's love of the game!
I thought I heard that it was closer to 10,000 altogether, as you can't film all the scenes in the same day.
This was a great video. I’m totally with you with the top 15 or so. Really great idea for a vid and great job putting it together
Thanks so much!
Little Big League was always so underrated. It came out around the same time as Rookie of the Year. That movie got all the love, but Little Big League was so much better in my opinion.
I couldn’t tell you how many thousands of times my teammates and I would quote lines from “Bill Durham”. It is hands down the best baseball movie ever made. “Nuke”, announcing his presence with authority might be the greatest scene in any movie ever.
"he used a word that he probably shouldn't have used"
"Must have called him a cocksucker" lol such a great film
Costner's role was definitely the best physical performance of a ballplayer.
Charlie Sheen gets honorable mention for Major League. He really had good pitching mechanics.
@Crazy Ohioan Cars, Guns, and Gaming He must have been a pretty good hitter, too, because there's no mistaking he hit a home run in one scene. It was a static shot start to finish and he looked hitterish doing it.
@@mikilynne4558 he was actually going to play college ball for Kansas before his criminal antics caused the school to revoke their scholarship.
Costner was something of a b-list Bo Jackson before becoming an actor. There's a reason he's in so many sports movies: he can do the thing and look like he's done it before.
.
Sheen claims he was using steroids during filming.
Saw this suggested video and watched it just to see how high Little Big League was! It is my favorite baseball movie and I was soooo happy that the realism is recognized in this video! Such an underrated baseball movie as well! Thanks for making this!
I've never seen The Scout, but that analysis seems so spot on and the "alternate" ending you proposed just makes it. I'll probably watch it soon and just end the movie exactly as you suggested.
Sugar was very relatable to me as someone of Dominican descent who has known minor leaguers and has had relatives in the minor leagues. A lot of people I showed it to didn’t like it because of how it ended but I loved it for that reason. Most minor leaguers don’t pan out. A lot of sports films are geared towards success stories so it was refreshing to see a film that went in another direction. My only gripe is that they could’ve done a better job at driving the point home that he was done. It could be interpreted that he gave up instead of he hit a ceiling.
Sugar had scenes shot in my hometown of Burlington, Iowa.
@@beesly01 I once helped prepare a box of food and other items for a relative who was playing in Iowa for a minor league team. I think the team was based in Clinton. We shipped all sorts of Dominican related goodies that were harder to find out there.
@@toneriggz Yeah, Clinton is one of those clubs like mine that got disbanded because of COVID, we ended up becoming a summer college league.
I know The Natural is not for everyone but that movie inspired me to fall in love with the game and for me is one of my all time favorites. The storyline is what really drives that film home not so much the baseball that's in it. But what an amazing cast.
Ditto man. I watched this movie with my uncle when I was like 6 years old and have been in love with baseball ever since. It’s over the top, but allowed me to see the romance of the game. Redford is my fav actor of all time partly due to this (Plus, The Sting is easily in my top 5 movies all time.)
I did not even notice how an entire hour had passed and I was left with interesting baseball trivia and a fair amount of movie recommendations. Thank you very much.
I completely forgot about Little Big League, and this jogged it back in my memory. One of the reasons why I loved this film is when they had a certain song playing when they were making their playoff push. Solid film, overall.
The montages in Little Big League are amazing.
Number one definitely spoke for itself! A real accurate depiction of pro ball and nothing comes close
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.
Moneyball is one of my favorite movies. I think the dark background on the field gives you a "in the moment" kind of feel.
Really glad to see u show some love to Little Big League, I think it's a criminally underrated film. I think everyone involved, especially the writer and director, just had a clear love and passion for the sport. It's definitely one of my favorite baseball films of all time.
I was hoping to see Major League be #1 but I think your explanations for why Little Big League and Bull Durham were higher are pretty solid and I enjoyed hearing your breakdowns of these. Here's why I fell in love with Major League. In the climactic game, you basically get a highlight play from each half inning followed by a cut to the scoreboard showing you where the game is now and taking you all the way from the top of the first to the bottom of the 9th with the tension escalating throughout. All the plays made feel not only believable but exciting, the close bang-bang plays are often very close. A lot of these look like they wouldn't be out of place on a sportscenter reel. There was so much care that went into making that final game feel like a very real game. And the other game action throughout the movie often shows us things that are quirky or rare but also believable enough that we've seen them happen in actual Major League games. I do understand your distaste with the called shot/bunt ending. That is a bit of a reach but I gave it a pass because of all the other things the movie got right. In retrospect, you showing how Little Big League was shot in comparison was a bit eye opening for me to realize how good that looks on film. I think I subconsciously docked it a few points for it all being in the Metrodome which just doesn't look as nice as a genuine grass field, and sometimes just looks too clean and synthetic, but that's where the Twins played and its absolutely as authentic as can be even if it's not as satisfying to look at in some ways. I slept on LBL also probably because the ending left a bad taste in my mouth and didn't watch it more than once. But I can't say it didn't earn its spot here. And as for Major League, you did still put it up there in the top 5 so I can live with that. Really solid list overall, even if your #1 was a gag. Well executed too btw.
Air bud at the end had me wheezing bro LMFAO great vid keep it up
Haven't even got into the video yet but I appreciate so much that you used Lucas as the example in the intro. That movie is so warm-hearted throughout, and has so many great, non-obvious choices in the way it constructs its characters and plot, yet it somehow fumbles its football scene so badly! It's irked me for like 30+ years lol
This is the first video of yours I’ve seen, and the amount of work you must of put into it and love you have for my favorite sport made me an instant subscriber to your channel. Great work!
Wow, thank you!
Word for word what I came here to write :)
Angels in the outfield is one of my favorite sports movies of all time. It’s silly on the surface but at it’s core there’s a real deep story going on. It’s an overall good movie and super underrated imo. I know you’re not rating it based on how good the movies are I just felt like sharing that lol
Truly a masterpiece of art, the ball work, the lack of cgi, the extras and the real players. Airbud is the pinnacle of baseball
I was 24 when I saw Air Bud. It made me realize how far behind I was in skill and talent and was the main reason why I quit the minors.
long Gone was my favorite baseball movie funny , but pretty accurate at the same time.
Hell yeah!!! Cecil (Stud) Cantrell The Tampico Stogies. The best baseball movie ever, and very few people even know about it.
I am gonna rewatch to confirm this, but I am almost positive they explain the home vs road game thing in Angels in the Outfield. I think in the article written after JP spilled the beans they mentioned Roger called in to the dugout phone during away games. Also from a visual perspective the home crowd reaction is much better (yes this point wouldn't change anything based of your rules, I was just stating this.) Great video!
I didn't realize this was an hour long when I clicked on it.
I was right there with you on all of the picks, and I found a couple 'new' ones to watch (Thanks!)
I didn't realize an hour had passed when #1 was...uhhh...announced.
Well done.
Sub'd
They said Costner got up into the 80s in for love of a game. Also I agree what you said about Mr. Baseball very underrated Baseball movie.
For the movie 61*, they used Tiger Stadium and repainted it to look like 1960s Yankee Stadium, with CGI on top to add the 3rd deck and freize. On a scene when reporters questions Maris about his signed "X"ball, we can clearly see Michigan Central Station in the background.
Aweeesome video.... nothing else like this on TH-cam. Interesting subject, entertaining and nicely done! I hope you do a similar future ranking video on baseball films produced before 1984!
Would take a reeeeeealy long time. They made a ton of baseball movies in the 40s and 50s.
I'm really surprised you didn't mention how Field of Dreams inverted Shoeless Joe's batting and throwing hands. In the movie he bats right handed and throws left handed. In real life, he batted left handed and threw right handed.
u are right lol
That was my criticism as well, the flow of the gameplay is excellent, but they made Shoeless Joe bat and throw the opposite from where he was historically; I would like to see him bat in Shoeless Joe Jackson's stance, which some videos here on TH-cam show it with one video shown in comparison to Babe Ruth, who actually incorporated Jackson's stance into his. Ruth said Shoeless Joe was the best hitter he had ever seen.
They tried to get Ray Liotta to match Joe Jackson's handedness, but he wasn't able to make the change and they wanted to have the wide shots, so they decided to live with the inaccuracy because it wasn't meant to be any type of documentary piece.
Gotta say, I thought you forgot about Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch, but I'm glad I stuck through to see Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch placed aptly at first place. Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch is a great movie, and Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch displays baseball really well.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂Give this comment more likes😂😂😂😂😂😂
hey, there's no rule that says a dog can't play baseball!
@@MightySchoop that’s the kind of line that just makes me roll my eyes, haha!
Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch THE WORST MOVIE EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was sad at first about Moneyball's placement, but the dark baseball scenes is a legit hit, based on your criteria. Makes sense.
Also, amazing punchline at the end, well done.
I can’t remember where I heard it (DVD director commentary? Dunno), but I seem to remember hearing that in Major League, the scene where Willie Hayes jumped out of bed and raced past the guys in tryouts was filmed oddly, bc Wesley Snipes isn’t “really” that fast, but he’s really good at “looking like he’s running fast”. Since the extras he’s running past were actual players, they had to slow down and allow him to run past them.
I first saw the natural in photography class in high school. It was a great case study for framing, as you could see that the team for baseball and non baseball were totally different competency levels (unless they just hired baseball cameramen for the whole thing)
For love of the game is not only a great Baseball movie, but Vin Scully is AMAZINGLY good at making me feel happy in this movie.
Other than John C. Reilly having a really pathetic swing, the rest was good. 😃
@Scotty St Cloud Yeah, Vin was great throughout the movie. My favorite line from him, "The cathedral that is Yankee Stadium belongs to a Chapel."
@@vorlon1 Beautiful line.
i have Asperger's and was a pitcher that actually got recruited (nowhere good). If only i had known i had 100 in my back pocket. Think my mistake was not filming a training montage of whipping apples at children. Prob would have made the Show.