Post by mikef6 on Mar 30, 2018 4:27:33 GMT
Today, Thursday, March 29, 2018 is the first day of the major league baseball season. For the first time since 1968, the season opens with every major league team in a game. As I write this at 10 p.m. MDT, the Colorado at Arizona and Cleveland at Seattle games are still underway.
Also, I finally saw a Bad Movie that I have wanted to see for years, even though, normally, I try hard not to see bad movies. The Bad Movie is The Babe Ruth Story (1948) starring William Bendix as the Babe, directed by usually reliable journeyman Roy Del Ruth, and written by Bob Considine, a well-known sports writer who had ghosted Babe’s autobiography. So many people who should have known batter. Really, I’ve seen worse and – as I said about Laurel and Hardy’s last film – it is not as bad as you have heard it is (and that is a compliment). The real Babe Ruth was nearing the end of his life when this movie was in production. He and his wife attended the premiere in July 1948, They both walked out of the theater long before the movie was over. Ruth died the next month before the film had gone into general release. I would hate to think that this travesty of his life had hastened his demise.
WORST BASEBALL MOVIE
The Babe Ruth Story (1948)
MY FAVORITE
The Winning Team / Lewis Seiler (1952). I really love Ronald Reagan as Grover Cleveland Alexander (“Alex the Great”) who experienced what might be one of the greatest sports comebacks in sports history. Doris Day in an early lead role, is the second half of the title “winning team” as Alexander’s loyal wife. Reagan worked hard at learning an authentic early-1900s pitching style and shows it off in the early going. It is good to see Reagan standing on the pitcher’s mound with the camera looking over his shoulder at the batter. In a single take, he turns his face toward the audience so we can see that it is really him, then he goes into his double-pump windup and delivers a fast ball strike to the plate. Even more credit goes to Reagan for lobbying for the movie to use the E-word: epilepsy. But even at mid-point in the century, there was just too much superstition and prejudice concerning the disease and too much cowardness in the studio heads to want to take a chance, so it was not to be.
There are just so many great baseball movies. I deeply regret that baseball has lost its position as America’s #1 sport. Here are a few great movies to see and consider and discuss. I have highlighted a few of my very favorites.
Death On The Diamond (1934)
Pride of the Yankees (1942)
Take Me Out To The Ball Game (1949)
The Stratton Story (1949)
It Happens Every Spring (1949)
Kill The Umpire (1950)
Rhubarb (1951)
Angels In The Outfield (1951)
Fear Strikes Out (1957)
Damn Yankees (1958)
The Bad News Bears (1976)
The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976)
The Natural (1984)
Bull Durham (1988)
Eight Men Out (1988)
Major League (1989)
Field of Dreams (1989)
A League of Their Own (1992)
The Babe (1992)
Mr. Baseball (1992)
Rookie of the Year (1993)
Cobb (1994)
Angels In The Outfield (1994)
Little Big League (1994)
For Love of the Game (1999)
*61 (2001) (TV)
The Rookie (2002)
Mr 3000 (2004)
Fever Pitch (2005)
The Final Season (2007)
Also, I finally saw a Bad Movie that I have wanted to see for years, even though, normally, I try hard not to see bad movies. The Bad Movie is The Babe Ruth Story (1948) starring William Bendix as the Babe, directed by usually reliable journeyman Roy Del Ruth, and written by Bob Considine, a well-known sports writer who had ghosted Babe’s autobiography. So many people who should have known batter. Really, I’ve seen worse and – as I said about Laurel and Hardy’s last film – it is not as bad as you have heard it is (and that is a compliment). The real Babe Ruth was nearing the end of his life when this movie was in production. He and his wife attended the premiere in July 1948, They both walked out of the theater long before the movie was over. Ruth died the next month before the film had gone into general release. I would hate to think that this travesty of his life had hastened his demise.
WORST BASEBALL MOVIE
The Babe Ruth Story (1948)
MY FAVORITE
The Winning Team / Lewis Seiler (1952). I really love Ronald Reagan as Grover Cleveland Alexander (“Alex the Great”) who experienced what might be one of the greatest sports comebacks in sports history. Doris Day in an early lead role, is the second half of the title “winning team” as Alexander’s loyal wife. Reagan worked hard at learning an authentic early-1900s pitching style and shows it off in the early going. It is good to see Reagan standing on the pitcher’s mound with the camera looking over his shoulder at the batter. In a single take, he turns his face toward the audience so we can see that it is really him, then he goes into his double-pump windup and delivers a fast ball strike to the plate. Even more credit goes to Reagan for lobbying for the movie to use the E-word: epilepsy. But even at mid-point in the century, there was just too much superstition and prejudice concerning the disease and too much cowardness in the studio heads to want to take a chance, so it was not to be.
There are just so many great baseball movies. I deeply regret that baseball has lost its position as America’s #1 sport. Here are a few great movies to see and consider and discuss. I have highlighted a few of my very favorites.
Death On The Diamond (1934)
Pride of the Yankees (1942)
Take Me Out To The Ball Game (1949)
The Stratton Story (1949)
It Happens Every Spring (1949)
Kill The Umpire (1950)
Rhubarb (1951)
Angels In The Outfield (1951)
Fear Strikes Out (1957)
Damn Yankees (1958)
The Bad News Bears (1976)
The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976)
The Natural (1984)
Bull Durham (1988)
Eight Men Out (1988)
Major League (1989)
Field of Dreams (1989)
A League of Their Own (1992)
The Babe (1992)
Mr. Baseball (1992)
Rookie of the Year (1993)
Cobb (1994)
Angels In The Outfield (1994)
Little Big League (1994)
For Love of the Game (1999)
*61 (2001) (TV)
The Rookie (2002)
Mr 3000 (2004)
Fever Pitch (2005)
The Final Season (2007)