MLB Movie Bracket Semifinals: Get your vote in now
THE FINAL FOUR.
If you thought the previous round was difficult with "The Sandlot" just edging out "Major League" (probably due in large part to Ham Porter) and "The Natural" just topping "A League of Their Own," then these matchups may seem impossible. They'll cut deep down into your soul -- challenging who you really are as a person and how friends and family look upon you in the future.
Maybe.
Anyway, vote below. You have until Thursday at 11:59 p.m. E.T
Stars: Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones
Box office gross: $84.4 million
Rotten Tomatoes score: 86 %
One-line summary: An Iowa farmer plows over his crops when a strange voice tells him to build a baseball field for the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson.
Why it's the best baseball movie ever: This is the only baseball film to be played in marathon fashion on cable television on Fathers Day, and that's because baseball is the foundation of the relationship between fathers and sons. Field of Dreams romanticizes America's pastime and literary history while offering its own addition to the cultural lexicon with, "If you build it, he will come." Plus, it's got the two best things that any original American tale can have: Baseball and time travel.
What the former players say:
Stars: Tom Guiry, Mike Vitar
Box office gross: $33.8 million
Rotten Tomatoes score: 57%
One-line plot summary: A kid uses his step-dad's Babe Ruth-signed ball to play pickup baseball and gets his friends into a big pickle.
Why it's the best baseball movie ever: If you grew up in the '90s and were to openly admit that you've never seen The Sandlot, you'd be met with the same dropped jaws and blank stares that Smalls saw when he first confessed he hadn't heard of Babe Ruth. It's impossible to watch this movie and not feel the sudden urge to blow off all of your obligations, round up the gang and go play some pickup ball in the ol' neighborhood. Heroes get remembered, but legends never die … and this film will echo through eternity.
Stars: Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, Glenn Close, Kim Basinger
Box office gross: $48M
Rotten Tomatoes score: 81%
One-line plot summary: After appearing to have his career cut short, Roy Hobbs, a mythic, baseball-playing superhero who's better at life than all of us, perseveres to do incredible things on the field.
Why it's the best baseball movie ever: Wonderboy. A chiseled, mid-career Robert Redford. One of the greatest scenes in film history. The Natural mixes the magic, folklore and drama of baseball life both on and off the field into an Oscar-nominated epic. Now excuse me while I go listen to the soundtrack and swing my softball bat around in my living room.
What the former players say:
Stars: Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins
Box office gross: $50.9 million
Rotten Tomatoes score: 97%
One-line plot summary: Minor League veteran catcher Crash Davis gets sent down to the Class A Durham Bulls to mentor heralded pitcher Ebby "Nuke" Laloosh.
Why it's the best baseball movie ever: Even if you've never seen it, you've probably got at least a few one-liners rattling around in your brain: "He hit the bull!"; "Rose goes in the front, big guy"; "When you speak of me, speak well." But what truly separates Bull Durham is the glimpse it offers of the daily grind of professional baseball, from a meeting on the mound to just how to handle an interview.
It's a movie with something for everyone -- comedy, romance, even a little bit of poetry -- and it does all of it well. Besides, I think we can all agree that "Throw groundballs, they're more democratic," is advice for everyone to live by.
What the former players say: