I Spent Friday and Saturday night home and alone in front of the idiot box,which come to think of it really isn't that unusual,but that's a story for another day.I did get a chance to see a couple of movies I hadn't seen in quite some time, Bull Durham and Field of Dreams. While the former didn't seem to age as gracefully, Field of Dreams remains an all time classic of mine. The scene where "Shoeless" Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta) says to Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) "I'd have played this game for food money,"gets to me every time. As a matter of fact I think I watched the whole movie with chills up my spine and a tear in my eye.
This got me reminiscing about other baseball movies I've enjoyed over the years, Major League, with Charlie Sheen as the wild ass rookie and Tom Berenger as the cagey veteran, Eight Men Out,the story of the underpaid 1919 Chicago Black Sox accepting bribes to throw the world series, and my all time favorite, The Natural with outstanding performances by Robert Redford, Glenn Close and Kim Basinger. All I ever need to do is think of the scene when the aging Roy Hobbs (Redford) homers into the lights at the end to have my cockles warmed(I said pardon?)
Although there have been many exceptional films made about the other major sports, none seem to hold my imagination quite like baseball. It may be the history of it or the fact that we can all participate at some level, you don't need to be a freak to play it. Maybe it's because there's not a clock involved, it's origions as a pastime or it could be just peanuts, popcorn, hot dogs, Cracker Jack and beer. Whatever it is I have developed a deep emotional attachment to these films,I never seem to tire of them and it's been a long time since a good one was made.
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