TOP 10 BASEBALL MOVIES OF ALL TIME!!!

After the long, cruel winter, baseball season is finally here. Not even the robin is a better sign of spring. When I was younger, I knew every player on the Los Angeles Dodgers, and most of the players on other teams, and lived and died with them on a daily basis. Now they're just a bunch of interchangeable mercenaries with no more customer or team loyalty than your average lady of the evening. Fortunately, these movies help us to re-live the true spirit of baseball:

	10.	Damn Yankees (1958): The best baseball musical ever made. Okay, the only baseball musical ever made. Gwen Verdon and Ray Walston are wonderful as Lola and the Devil, and Tab Hunter as "Shoeless Joe from Hannibal Mo" is not as bad as you would expect
	9.	Eight Men Out (1988): A grand John Sayles movie about the infamous "Black Sox" scandal. Great young cast headed by John Cusack and Charlie Sheen.
	8.	Fear Strikes Out (1957): The Jimmy Piersal story, with Anthony Perkins at his creepy best portraying Piersal's descent into insanity. A fine film, little seen and underappreciated.
	7.	Bang the Drum Slowly (1973): Robert DeNiro and Michael Moriarity star as an ailing catcher and the pitcher who insists on dragging him around with him. A wonderfully manipulative movie. Prepare to have your tears jerked.
	6.	Bull Durham (1988): Considered by many -- just not me -- to be the best baseball movie ever made. Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins star in the story of a career minor league catcher (Costner) trying to prepare a fire-balling lefthander (Robbins) for the Bigs.
	5.	The Sandlot (1993): The best movie about kids and baseball. A bunch of boys just playing ball all summer in a sandlot behind the home of the dog from Hell. To the extent there is a star, it's James Earl Jones, but it's really just about the kids.
	4.	Major League(1989): Absolutely the funniest baseball movie ever made, and one of the funniest movies ever made. Charlie Sheen, Wesley Snipes and a perfectly cast Bob Uecker star in the story of the Cleveland Indians first championship season since Clinton was born-- obviously fiction.
	3.	The Natural (1984): One of the nice-fable baseball movies. Robert Redford and Glenn Close star in the story of a boy and his bat, "Wonderboy", but it's the performances of Wilford Brimley and Robert Farnsworth as the manager and coach of the New York Knights that make it worth watching.
	2.	The Pride of the Yankees (1942): Gary Cooper stars as Lou Gherig in his second-greatest role. There is never a dry eye in the house at his closing speech. Also features Babe Ruth, which makes it even better.
	1.	Field of Dreams (1989): I will watch this movie any time, any where, and have on more than one occassion. This story about men, baseball, fathers, sons and forgiveness is truly timeless. Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan and James Earl Jones star, with a wonderful lengthy cameo by Burt Lancaster as Archie Graham. Simply wonderfu

Juuuuuuust a bit outside (in alphabetical order):