It's not a criticism, it's an observation.
Real or fiction, I love baseball
Mike Cox

I knew what was going to happen but couldn't stop it. Shoeless Joe Jackson and Terrence Mann walked toward the cornfield just after Moonlight Graham saved the little girl. It was time for Ray to play catch with his dad.

My eyes started watering when the music changed. Then John Kinsella walked over. By the time Ray picked up a glove, I was bFiarwstl iFnogr tlyik Eei gah stuspect in the . Everytime I watch Field of Dreams, I do the same thing.

Same with The Natural, The Rookie, and Bang the Drum Slowly. Anyone who reads this column on a semi–regular basis knows I have a special place in my soul for baseball. This includes baseball movies.

Hollywood doesn't usually do well with sports. Most actors aren't athletes, and most directors and writers aren't familiar enough to be authentic. But for some reason, baseball movies are different. Maybe the movie people, like the rest of us, have a history with baseball. Something to draw from.

Even though it is less relevant today in this loud, fast moving, short attention span world, there is a special place deep inside most of us where baseball lives. It pokes its head out when the dogwoods bloom, and the air starts to warm. And when someone does a baseball movie right.

There are other timeless sports movies. Rocky is the best example. Vision and Played also come to mind. But there are more good movies about baseball than all other sports combined.

The great ones always make the remote stop when we are channel surfing. We might not watch the whole thing, but we stop during the chill bump scenes. And we all have our favorites.

The same day Field of Dreams made me cry, I saw, once again, young Nebraska farm boy John Rhodes try to sneak a fastball by Roy Hobbs. Two days later, aging Tigers ace Billy Chapel star threw a perfect game against the Yankees in his last start while his mind kept getting cluttered with his personal life. For the Love of the Game, was really a chick flick, but there is enough realistic baseball in it to watch if you get through all the scenes with Kelly Lynch.

An obscure cable movie called Long Gone is one of my favorites. A very young William Petersen portrays a player coach for a minor league team in the south in the sixties. As a bonus, Virginia Madsen is in it; a plus in any movie.

The Sandlot and Bull Durham round out my list. Neither has chill bump scenes, but both are great fun and have moments worth watching over and over. Whether I’m getting misty eyed about the connection between baseball and dads or remembering when life revolved around the ball field, I’m a sucker for baseball movies.

 

Each season the networks start playing them, and I start watching. Soon I'm ready for the main event. Opening day in Hi Definition. Life is good in the spring.