My Favorite Sports Movies - Explained.....

So I'm laying in bed this morning, half awake and very cozy under the blankets. But then I ask myself what I should write about today.  So that does it. I'm out of bed. I decide not to write about anything deep. (Not that anyone has ever accused this blog of being too deep.)

Near the top of this page is a list of my favorite sports movies. You may not have even noticed it. It's in pretty small print. But it occurred to me that I've never explained or talked about them. Some of them are classics, some are obscure.

These movies for the most part have a common theme. They are about believing in your dreams. Overcoming the odds. Not listening to all the people that say you can't do something. So let's take a closer look at them. I'll try to put some links to them at the end of this blog.

• 5. Sugar: If there's a movie on this list you've never heard of - this is it. This movie came out in 2008 and is about the struggles of a young boy from the Dominican Republic as he pursues his dream of becoming a Major League Baseball player. This is a fictional movie based on true life experiences. Imagine growing up poor in the Dominican and being pretty good at a game that offers a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, literally. You have to leave your family, and go to a place where nothing is familiar, and you don't even speak the language. And all the players are as good, or better than you. Sugar does not have a happy ending in a baseball sense. But it does offer hope that the young man will have a successful life nonetheless.

  

  Roy Hobbs - The Natural

• 4. The Natural: This 1984 movie was based off of Bernard Malamud's best selling novel. It is a pure fable. But it's a good story rooted in Americana. And I love Americana. It takes place in the 1930's. Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford), is a very promising young pitcher. Just as he is about to get his shot, he gets shot, literally, in the abdomen. He gets involved with an evil women that pulls the trigger. Years go by. Now in his mid 30's, he makes a comeback as a hitter. He faces scorn and prejudice because of his age. But he wins them over with his legendary ability as a slugger. A very dramatic climax is to be remembered.

  

  USA Hockey - just kids.

• 3. Miracle: This is a 2004 movie based on the remarkable story of the 1980 gold medal USA Olympic hockey team. The USA team was nothing more than a bunch of college kids. The Soviet Union team was made up of older, experienced, and much more talented men. It was felt at the time that the Soviet team was the best in the world, having beaten NHL teams. But Coach Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell) trained the team hard, and got them to believe. His locker room speech is a classic. Those players never amounted to much professionally after the games. But it speaks to the power of teamwork and having the will to go all out.
• 2. Hoosiers: This 1986 film is based on the true story of the 1954 Indiana state basketball championship. Tiny rural Milan High School, (how tiny? Seven players), overcomes the odds to win it all against much larger big city schools. It's also a story about redemption as coach Norman Dale (Gene Hackman), and assistant coach and alcoholic Wilbur Flatch (Dennis Hopper) overcome a sketchy past. This film was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry because it is culturally significant.
• 1. Field of Dreams: This 1989 movie is one of my favorite movies period. What's it about? It's about believing those voices in your head. It's about acting on your dreams. It's about family.
  
  It's about Baseball. It's about legends. It's about not listening to those people that say there's an easier way. It's about the complicated relationships between fathers and sons. It's about ghosts. It's about time travel. It also has a speech by James Earl Jones that is like the Gettysburg Address of Baseball. No matter how many times I've seen it, the scene at the end never fails to give me watery eyes. "Dad - wanna have a catch?" Kevin Costner asks. "I'd like that", his ghost Dad replies.

Most of us have dreams when we are young. They usually fall by the wayside when life gets in the way. When people tell you often enough that the odds are against you, or that there's an easier way, you start to listen. Then you become a "settler" and settle for what's convenient.

Maybe if more people had the courage to follow their dreams the world would be a better place. Certainly with more baseball fields.

Sugar - trailer
The Natural - the final homerun
Miracle - Coach Brooks locker room speech
Hoosiers - trailer
Field of Dreams - People will come speech
Field of Dreams - Catch with Dad