Sports Movies

One of my Christmas gifts this past year was a book called "The Ultimate Book of Sports Movies" by a couple of Philly area sportswriters, Ray Didinger and Glen Macnow. If you like sports, and if you like movies, the book is a lot of fun and I highly recommend it.

(Aside to Bill Montrose (and others): this is the kind of book that would not lend itself to a Kindle. It is a big book, lots of pictures; it is the kind of book that you can just pick up and open to any spot and read and enjoy.)

The authors rate the "100 greatest sports films of all time." By nature, their list is very subjective, and subject to argument and disagreement, which is what makes it such a fun book.

They include a lot of interesting sidebar articles like "Worst Sports Sequels and Remakes" (Caddyshack II, The Longest Yard, and several of the Rocky sequels); "Actors as Athletes" (Good - Kevin Costner, Burt Reynolds. Bad - Tony Perkins, William Bendix); "Athletes Who Could Act" (Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Brown, Woody Strode); "Athletes Who Could Not Act" (Dennis Rodman, Joe Namath, O.J. Simpson). Lots of good stuff like this.

You probably want to know what rates with the authors. Herewith, their Top Ten:

1. Rocky
2. Hoosiers
3. Raging Bull
4. The Natural
5. Bull Durham
6. Slap Shot
7. The Longest Yard (1974 version)
8. The Hustler
9. Caddyshack
10. North Dallas Forty

Myself, I might put Hoosiers ahead of Rocky, but I can't argue the case against Rocky as #1 too strongly. I would put Bull Durham, Field of Dreams (#11), Pride of the Yankees (#13), and Eight Men Out (#41) ahead of The Natural in terms of baseball movies only. I'm delighted to see Caddyshack in the Top Ten. I am also prompted to rent Slap Shot, and North Dallas Forty, which I have never seen, to see if they deserve their ranking.

Concerning Pride of the Yankees, it's old, it's black & white, and the producers made the movie emphasizing the love story rather than the baseball story, but if you can watch that without a tear in the eye or a lump in the throat, I'm not sure I want to know you.

Do you agree with the authors? Do you agree with The Grandstander? Whether you do or you don't, that's what makes this such a fun topic and fun book. I expect that their will be several comments on this topic.