Look. I like other sports. I love football Sunday's on the couch, and the Super Bowl may be the biggest individual game of the year. (Even if it is very often a boring blowout highlighted by beer commercials.)
And college basketball and football provide some great moments as well, and in some parts of the country are huge. I love March Madness, and the Rose Bowl, and... Well that's actually about it for those two.
The NBA, as much as I enjoy it, is a second-tier sport in this country. Stop laughing Hockey, you don't even get a tier anymore. NASCAR? Not a sport. Golf? Again, I love the Master's, but golf is simply not embraced by mainstream America. Tiger Woods might be, but I would wager that half the people who claim to be Tiger Woods fans have never actually watched golf. Soccer? Might be the national pasttime of 8 year old children of yuppies in America, but that's about it.
Baseball is still the National Pasttime.
It's the only sport that inspires poetry. (For example, the incoming Poet Laureate of the United State? His most famous poem is about baseball.) More books about baseball have been written than any other sport. Movies? Name one good movie about football. OK, other than The Replacement's. Baseball? Let's start at Bull Durham, The Field of Dreams, Eight Men Out, Bang the Drum Slowly, The Natural... I could go on. The best movie about football might be Rudy, and that's barely watchable.
Father's and son's playing catch. Ted Williams hitting a ball into the lights. Wiffle ball with the family. The Shot Heard Round The World. Throwing a ball at a tire swing. Dave Roberts' Steal. Little League. Jackie Robinson Stealing Home, Willie Mays Losing His Hat. Iconic moments combined
Name me another sport that has these kind of moments?
Mighty Casey Struck Out, he didn't miss a foul shot or shank a field goal.
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The Program is good, except that doesn't exactly paint a good picture of college football. Necessary Roughness is funny, but good? Maybe in a bad sort of way. The Longest Yard (the original) is decent. Varsity Blues is good. Friday Night Lights is downright terrible.
I had a similar argument before. I said baseball movies are better than football movies. Period. Two notables not on your list, Major League & The Sandlot.
Well... I don't know that Friday Night Lights was terrible. Actually that and End Zone by Don DeLillo are both great football books. The movie.. Not great but not awful.
As far as The Sandlot? I'm going to pretend like I didn't read that. And Unnecessary Roughness? Seriously?
Did you hit your head recently?
bad news bears??
bad news bears, good point.
We're talking baseball/football movies here.
No movie that has Scott Bakula as their headliner can be a good movie. It's definitely enjoyable though.
The Sandlot is fantastic. One of my favorites.
And seriously, what other movie about sports can throw in a reference to Susan Sonntag and make you believe that both characters had read her? Or for that matter, could read at all?
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