DAILY MAIL SPORTSWRITER
Football has the game-winning drive capped by the last-secondpass.
Basketball relies on the buzzer-beater.
At least baseball offers the viewer more choices for a clicheclimax.
A man might hit a home run that travels with the force of a B-52in his final at-bat, or he might lay down a drag bunt on a squeezeplay.
Teams might call on an ace flamethrower, a crafy left-hander or agirl in a training bra.
The on-mound conference is just as likely to revolve aroundappropriate wedding gifts as what pitch to throw in a particularsituation.
Befitting this country's oldest professional team sport,baseball's war chest of movie themes, twists and turns is thedeepest.
To get in the swing of the season, here are the consensus choicesof the Daily Mail sports staff as the genre's 10 greatest of all-time.
1. Field of Dreams
Directed by Phil Alden Robinson. Written by Robinson and W.P.Kinsella. Starring Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, Burt Lancaster,Ray Liotta (1989).
'If you build it, he will come.'
Just a simple film about a farmer who hears voices, mows down mostof his crop, constructs a baseball stadium, travels the country,abducts a famous reclusive author and a supernatural doctor in orderto ease Shoeless Joe Jackson's mind, and then plays catch with hislate father.
While the plot outline sounds shady, the finished product toppedour list as the best baseball film of all time, rising above the packalmost purely on nostalgia.
Ray Kinsella (Costner) is approaching middle age and losing hiszest for life when he starts to hear voices in his cornfield. Whilethe town mocks him for destroying his livelihood to build a vacantball field, he begins to see visions of Jackson (Liotta) and more ofthe disgraced 1919 Chicago White Sox, along with other old-timeplayers.
Unable to decode future messages, he sets off for Boston to kidnapTerence Mann (Jones), based on J.D. Salinger. Then, after ascoreboard vision at Fenway Park, they head to Minnesota to findMoonlight Graham (Lancaster) and deliver him to the field just intime for the emotional climactic game of catch between father andson.
The studio built the baseball diamond on an actual farm inDyersville, Iowa. After the filming was completed, the family owningthe farm kept the field where visitors are free to come and playbaseball at their leisure. It's become a predictable touristattraction in an area without very many.
Robinson has directed very rarely in the 13 years since hismasterpiece, but he's in theaters again this summer with Tom Clancy's'The Sum of All Fears,' starring Ben Affleck as Jack Ryan.
2. Bull Durham
Written and directed by Ron Shelton. Starring Kevin Costner, SusanSarandon, Tim Robbins, Robert Wuhl (1988).
The quintessential movie about the minor leagues, it stars Costner(again), this time as aging catcher Crash Davis, who continues hisquest to become the minors home run king at Class A Durham whiletrying to rehabilitate pitching phenom 'Nuke' LaLoosh (Robbins).
Problems arise when team groupie Annie Savoy (Sarandon) seducesboth players and creates team turmoil.
But the jewels of 'Bull Durham' come not in the major plot pointsbut in the relatively insignificant instances in between: Costner'simpassioned speech to Sarandon about all of the things he 'believes';Wuhl as the pitching coach recommending 'candlesticks' during a tenseon-mound meeting; players breaking into the field to create a rain-out off day; Robbins convinced by Sarandon to wear a garter beltbeneath his uniform when he pitched.
Shelton, formerly a minor leaguer in the Carolina League, spokefrom experience with perhaps one of the best film narratives of anykind ever.
3. The Natural
Directed by Barry Levinson. Written by Bernard Malamud, RogerTowne and Phil Dusenberry. Starring Robert Redford, Glenn Close,Robert Duvall, Kim Basinger, Wilfred Brimley (1984).
Mythology meets the diamond when former prodigy Roy Hobbs(Redford) finds stellar success late in life after crafting his bat,Wonder Boy, out of a lightning-felled tree. He had nearly given uphis dream after being inexplicably shot by a woman as a youngpitcher.
Hobbs destroys all pitchers, outfield lights and scoreboardsduring his rampage in leading the 1930s Knights from obscurity toplayoff contention. The climax comes when Hobbs decides to bat onelast time despite doctors warnings that he could be killed by theexertion - and, of course, he homers in his final at-bat.
The plot line combines the King Arthur myth of Sir Percival withthe true, bizarre shooting of former Philadelphia Phillies firstbaseman Eddie Waitkus by Ruth Ann Steinhagen in Chicago's EdgewaterBeach Hotel on June 14, 1949.
4. Bad News Bears
Directed by Michael Ritchie. Written by Bill Lancaster. StarringWalter Matthau, Tatum O'Neal, Jackie Earle Haley (1976).
This California Little League team has become the overusedmetaphor for every bumbling-but-lovable group since.
Starring Matthau as drunken, child-hating manager MorrisButtermaker and O'Neal (fresh off an Oscar for 'Paper Moon') aspitcher Amanda Whurlitzer, it's also the film that made Chico's BailBonds famous.
It also spawned a decent sequel ('Bad News Bears BreakingTraining' when they take the then-new-and-wondrous Astrodome) andseveral bad ones (we need not mention them going to Japan or thebrief TV series).
Originally thought as a vehicle for O'Neal, it turned into amemorable ensemble performance with characters like rebellious KellyLeak (Haley), loud-mouthed Tanner Boyle, overweight catcherEngelberg, funkdafied Ahmad Abdul Rahim (played by the guy who is nowCharlotte Hornet Baron Davis' personal DJ), and, of course, TimmyLupus.
5. Major League
Written and directed by David S. Ward. Starring Charlie Sheen, TomBerenger, Wesley Snipes, Corbin Bernsen (1989).
Remember when the Cleveland Indians were the laughingstock ofprofessional sports and the punch line to every other Jay Leno joke?
'Major League' is the embodiment of the woeful Indians, whosevillainous owner wants to strip the team bare in order to facilitatea move to Florida. A crew of has-beens and retreads is assembled forwhat's believed to be one final season, including Willie Mays Hayes(Snipes), Jake Taylor (Berenger), 'Wild Thing' Ricky Vaughn of theCalifornia Penal League (Sheen) and stuffy Roger Dorn (Bernsen).
Bob Uecker as announcer Harry Doyle gets most of the best one-liners ('Just a bit outside'), but the dialogue is among the most-quoted anywhere in the past decade. Hey, bartender, Joboo needs arefill.
Ward, a writing Oscar winner for 1973's 'The Sting,' never againapproached such heights. He followed this film with such clunkers as'King Ralph,' both 'Major League' sequels and the heinous KelseyGrammer Navy movie 'Down Periscope.' His current project is thescript for the non-anticipated 'Jumanji 2' later this year.
6. Eight Men Out
Directed by John Sayles. Written by Sayles and Eliot Asinof.Starring John Cusack, D.B. Sweeney, Charlie Sheen, John Mahoney(1988).
The dramatic re-telling of the 1919 Chicago White Sox gamblingscandal that continues to bar Shoeless Joe Jackson (Sweeney) from theHall of Fame to this day. Gamblers took advantage of players, angrywith owner Charlie Comiskey, to throw the series, although mostdidn't participate and few were paid the promised amounts.
Jackson and Buck Weaver (Cusack) renege at the last minute to tryto win, and the Sox nearly come back from a 3-1 deficit. Two yearslater, the Sox are found innocent by a jury, but commissioner KenesawMountain Landis suspends eight players for life, and Weaver spendsthe rest of his life trying to clear his name.
Sayles, who plays sportswriter Ring Lardner in the film, alsowrote and directed 'Matewan.'
He was contractually obligated to bring 'Eight Men Out' in undertwo hours, and showed the cast old films of James Cagney to try tocopy his fast-talking style. It comes out 16 seconds under the two-hour limit.
7. A League of Their Own
Directed by Penny Marshall. Written by Kim Wilson and KellyCandaele. Starring Tom Hanks, Madonna, Geena Davis (1992).
With most of the Major League stars fighting in World War II,bitter, bloated manager Jimmy Dugan (Hanks, based on Jimmie Foxx)must steer a roster of women for the Rockford, Ill., team toentertain the country.
That includes a star catcher (Davis), a loud-mouthed outfielder(Madonna) and a cast of others to which Hanks implores memorably,'There's no crying in baseball.'
Janet Jones, wife of Wayne Gretzky, plays one of the opposingplayers.
8. Pride of the Yankees
Directed by Sam Wood. Written by Paul Gallico. Starring GaryCooper, Teresa Wright, Babe Ruth as himself, Walter Brennan (1942).
Cooper plays the immortal Lou Gehrig as he rises to stardom,dominates baseball and then grapples with a terminal disease thatwould later bear his name. Gehrig is followed from his childhood inNew York until his famous 'Luckiest Man' speech at his farewell dayin 1939.
Since Cooper was right-handed and Gehrig was left-handed, andsince Cooper's athletic skills were barely passable right-handed letalone left-handed, the close-up baseball scenes were shot withuniforms in reverse type. Cooper would hit the ball and run to third,and the prints would be reversed.
9. 61
Directed by Billy Crysal. Written by Hank Steinberg. StarringThomas Jane, Barry Pepper, Anthony Michael Hall (2001, TV).
In one of the most athletically convincing films of all-time,Crystal captures the summer of 1961 and the home run duel betweenMickey Mantle (Jane) and Roger Maris (Pepper) before Maris eventuallysurpasses Babe Ruth as the single-season home run king.
The intense, plain-spoken Maris is the bad guy: sports writersbait him and minimize his talent while fans cheer Mantle, theleague's golden boy, and baseball's commissioner announces thatRuth's record stands unless it's broken within 154 games.
Any record set after 154 games of the new 162-game schedule willhave an asterisk. The film follows their friendship, the stresses onMaris, his frustration with the negative attention, and his desire toplay well, win, and go home.
10. The Sandlot
Written and directed by David M. Evans. Starring Tom Guiry, KarenAllen, James Earl Jones, Denis Leary (1993).
Scotty Smalls (Guiry) moves to a new neighborhood with his mom(Allen) and stepdad (Leary), and wants to learn to play baseball. Theneighborhood baseball guru takes Smalls under his wing, and soon he'spart of the local baseball buddies.
They fall into adventures involving baseball, treehouse sleep-ins, the desirous lifeguard at the local pool, the snooty rival ballteam and the travelling fair. Beyond the fence at the back of thesandlot menaces a legendary ball-eating dog called The Beast, who thekids must ultimately face.
During a pool scene in which they ogle the lifeguard, thedialogue, 'She don't know what she's doing,' and the answer, 'Yes shedoes, she knows exactly what she's doing,' is the same as in a verysimilar scene in 'Cool Hand Luke.'
Writer Jason Martin can be reached at 348-4883 or by e-mail atjmartin@dailymail.com.
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