Do baseball movies trump the real deal?
- col-dave-mast
- April 12, 2024
- 298
As Major League Baseball rolls into its early-season schedule, baseball fans everywhere are eager to root on their local favorites, follow their individual heroes, and hold out hope this season is the year their team puts it all together and hoists a World Series championship trophy come October.
But with NFL football being the nation’s top sport and NBA basketball claiming millions of fans, does baseball hold the same joyful place in people’s hearts that once made it America’s game?
Some people think today’s baseball is too slow and boring. In a recent game with the Cleveland Guardians, the Oakland Athletics boasted an anemic attendance of around 3,800 fans in the stands. In addition, some think the regular-season slate of 162 games drags on for far too long.
All of this leads me to ponder this one simple question: Do people today find more enjoyment in the game of baseball itself or in the movies made about baseball?
The list of exciting, mesmerizing and inspirational baseball movies is almost as endless as the number of games in the regular season.
There are factually based flicks like “42,” “Bang the Drum Slowly” or “Pride of the Yankees.”
There are historically inspired movies that create a more intriguing story, like “Eight Men Out” or “The Rookie.”
There are touching tributes like “Field of Dreams” and “The Natural.”
There are movies mixed with a blend of humor and history, like “A League of Their Own.”
There’s a bunch of kids’ movies like “Rookie of the Year” and “Little Big League.”
Then there are heartwarming stories that take fans back to their days of Little League Baseball, like the unforgettable favorite, “The Sandlot.”
There are even films that take viewers inside the minds of the players as the game plays itself out, such as “For Love of the Game.”
That’s only a handful of the movies built around the game of baseball that have captured the hearts of baseball fans and those just interested in a good story.
So with a baseball movie list that plays out like an Aaron Judge blast to deep center, the questions begs, “Would people rather watch a baseball movie or go to a baseball game?”
Frankly, I love the game of baseball.
It has been in my blood since I can remember.
My first real baseball mitt was a rich, all-blue Rawlings my mom and dad bought me for Christmas.
I loved that glove. I loved buying a new glove and taking the painstaking time to mold it to fit perfectly on my right hand.
I love the smell of the leather of both baseball and glove. I love the sound of a ball coming crisply off a perfectly timed wooden bat. I love the sounds of a stadium filled with fans. I enjoy sitting and watching a game play out, trying to think along with the guy on the mound as he rolls through his mental index of how to pitch each individual hitter. I am mesmerized by the idea of planning out a strategy to eke out a run late with the game on the line.
Baseball is a thinking man’s sport, and seeing it in person is a winning experience each and every time, regardless of the score.
However, oddly enough, when I was growing up, we used to have these things called transistor radios (OK, I just lost the majority of young people reading this). I can recall so often laying in my upstairs bedroom at night as a youngster, trying to dial in games on my transistor radio from Pittsburgh, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, New York and, of course, Cleveland.
I recall the excitement of listening to Brooks Robinson make yet another spectacular play at third for the Orioles or Pete Rose hustling out of the batter’s box to turn a routine single into a double with that patented headfirst slide.
To this day I get a kick out of listening to games on the radio because I can visualize everything that is taking place in my mind, and it is there that the game takes on an even greater spectacle.
Without a doubt the real game trumps the best of baseball movies in my mind, despite my love affair with many of the above-mentioned flicks that take up space in my mind where other more important things should reside.
However, I think in today’s world, I am living on the wrong side of town when it comes to deciding if the game itself or the movie versions are more exciting.
Because Hollywood can craft its own brand of intensity, feel-good moments, laughter and tear-jerking scenes and create something special in 98 minutes, I think the movies trump the real game today for most people.
Perhaps I’m wrong.
But with ticket costs rising, fighting traffic and parking, having some foul-mouthed, drunken slob screaming in your ear, and probably a four-hour investment today to see a real game, you’d have to work pretty hard to prove it otherwise.