The Natural
There’s been more baseball movies made in the last 30 years then I’d like to admit but one rose to the top a long time ago and has stayed there ever since; The Natural.
It’s got everything you could ask for in a sports movie: epic highs, devastating lows and, most importantly, redemption.
From the moment Roy Hobbs, played masterfully by Robert Redford, strikes out Babe Ruth…err…The Whammer to the exploding lights at the end of the movie; you’re enveloped in a rollercoaster of emotions.
Hobbs is the quintessential protagonist who comes from out of nowhere to realize his potential as the greatest baseball player ever to live and faces almost insurmountable obstacles along the way.
Judging by a synopsis of the movie, you’d think there’d be too much going on. But the filmmakers crammed attempted murder, game throwing and oh yeah, baseball into a little more than two hours.
There are many baseball movies that have captured the essence of the game such as Field of Dreams, the Sandlot and Hardball. But none of those have gone beyond just baseball like The Natural has.
Devote two hours of your life to this movie and prepare to be blown away by a Roy Hobbs’ fastball and the magical Wonderboy.
-Bill Hopkins
The Sandlot
ort throughout my childhood, and the one movie that can portray my passion onto the big screen is The Sandlot.
This is a movie that everyone can relate to, and I’m just happy that it centralizes around baseball. How can you not feel pride when Scotty Smalls can finally throw the ball farther than five feet, or when Michael “Squints” Palledorous gets to kiss Wendy Peffercorn?
The Sandlot captures the essence of neighborhood sports and the bonding process between all of the boys. Even though their biggest rival was “The Beast” behind Mr. Mertle’s yard, no other sports movie has been able to capture the true team feeling that is felt in The Sandlot.
While watching the movie, you are glad the neighborhood kids crushed the city team in a pick-up game after some of the best trash-talk lines in movie history. You are glad the entire neighborhood helps Smalls when he loses his stepdad’s Babe Ruth signed baseball. I was jumping out of my seat the first time I saw The Beast jump over the fence and chase Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez and his PF Flyers throughout the city.
The Sandlot was more than just the game of baseball, and that’s what makes it my favorite baseball movie of all time.
-Bobby Nightengale
