re: Bull Durham - Best baseball movie ever made

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Last commentary. It's too long to copy and paste

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I'm finding I disagree with Summons on more and more. For one thing, he takes a shot at the dialogue when the writing is some of the best in any movie that decade.

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Field of Dreams

And

Life

are the best EVER

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I love Field of Dreams...but it can't be the best baseball movie ever made.

Why?

Ray Liotta cast as Shoeless Joe. I mean...what in the holy frick? They cast a guy who sounds like he's from New Jersey (because he is) as an illiterate from South Carolina. Didn't look like him sound like him, or move remotely like a guy consider to be such a fluid and athletic player.

You just can't say it's the best of all time when they don't even bother to make sure the titular character remotely resembles the actual baseball player.

OP's right...the answer is Bull Durham. For tons of reasons, but mostly two scenes.

The first is when Crash left Annie's the first night after punching Nuke, and he picks up a paper tube out of a trash bin while walking home in the street lights and swings to see his reflection in a store window. That's such a beautiful and typical move by anyone that's ever played.

The second is Crash in the batter's box the first at bat when he's thinking about Annie. Again, the conversation he has with himself in his head is perfect. Moving from what he ought to be focused on, and what he really is. Stepping out to gain his focus again, etc.

That being said, to this day I'll shed a tear when Ray Kinsella's Dad as a young man asks him to have a catch at the end of Field of Dreams.

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you cant bitch about casting a baseball player and then praise a movie that had tim fricking robbins as a stud pitcher.

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This is true. I think Obama had better form that Tim Robbins.

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you cant bitch about the casting of a baseball player and then praise a movie that had tim fricking robbins as a stud pitcher.

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Yeah...I know. But the casting issue with Bull Durham had less to do with Tim Robbins not being obviously athletic than it did with him being about 30. haha They are in Single A ball...the team should have been mostly kids, especially Nuke.

But...I've always been able to look past that because Nuke, despite being a stud, is looked at as a goof in the movie. At first, he couldn't hit water if he fell out of a fricking boat, right? That's easy to pull off with Tim Robbins...less so with a guy that can really throw.

Because Field of Dreams is a drama, and they build up just how awesome Joe Jackson was, it's kind of important to cast him well. They really did not, regardless of how well they cast everyone else. Liotta being in that movie hurts it a ton for me, despite it being one of my favorites.

Sme thing goes for Eight Men Out. Great movie, but they cast John Cusack as a major league ball player?!? It was excruciating watching him play. On the other hand, THEY got Joe Jackson right when they cast D.B. Sweeney in the role. Not only did they actually decide to portray him closer to the way he was, but Sweeney actually played ball in college a bit but hurt his knee.

I've enjoyed Bull Durham and Major League, but my 2 favorite baseball movies are:

1) The Natural
2) Pride of the Yankees

And one of the most-underrated baseball films that most people under 65 have not seen is "Fear Strikes Out" with an impressive performance by a young Anthony Perkins.

No 61* fans in here?
That's my vote.

In Field of Dreams, doesn't Shoeless Joe bat right handed?

My favorite scenes are when crash tells the batter what the pitcher is going to throw.