Juuuust a bit outside…

Image courtesy of Mike Rastiello

It periodically happens to me: binging baseball movies. It always starts with seeing one film. In this instance, it was Bang the Drum Slowly (which happened to overlap with a Robert DeNiro phase of movie binging). From there it was a slippery slope, falling into the abyss of baseball movie watching. There are so many titles from which to choose. There are over 200 baseball films listed in the online Baseball Almanac!

Back in 2013, a library colleague blogged about baseball movies. Like her, I don’t consider myself a baseball fan. I am just a sucker for the coming-of-age, the rooting for the underdog, or the tear jerking camaraderie of a band of misfits coming together while it takes place on a baseball field. When returning my most recent baseball movie to the library, however, it generated an impromptu, informal game among staff of “Who Can Out Baseball Movie Quote Whom,” which made me start to think about all the wonderful, memorable lines baseball movies have provided.

There is the ever popular line, “If you build it, he will come,” from Field of Dreams or the hilarious scene from A League of Their Own when team manager, Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks) becomes so upset with his sobbing right fielder he proceeds to angrily inform her that “There’s no crying in baseball!” Major League, alone, provides enough quotable material to have viewers in stitches for the entire movie’s duration. From the game announcer’s “Juuuust a bit outside!” to Eddie Harris’ “Yo, bartender, Jobu needs a refill” to Willie May Hayes’ “We should've got the live chicken” the lines are forever ingrained in my memory.

From those 200+ films the online Baseball Almanac lists, there are many memorable, inspirational, witty, and poignant quotes. I’ve pulled ten quotes from ten baseball movies. See if you can match the line with its respective movie:

Quote	Movie
1.“Don't think; it can only hurt the ball club.”	A. The Natural (1984)
2. “Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”	B. Eight Men Out (1988)
3. "The only thing I know about the dark is you can't see in it.”	C. Bull Durham (1988)
4. "When your enemy's making mistakes, don't interrupt him.”	D. Moneyball (2011)
5. “Say it ain't so, Joe. Say it ain't so.”	E. The Rookie (2002)
6. “Crud, No! I want to play ball!”	F. The Sandlot (1993)
7. “You know what we get to do today, Brooks? We get to play baseball.”	G. Bad News Bears (1976)
8. “You're killin' me, Smalls!”	H. 42 (2013)
9. "I'd sell my soul for one long ball hitter.”	I. Damn Yankees (1958)
10. “We had a victory of fascism in Germany. It's time we had a victory over racism at home.”	J. The Pride of the Yankees (1942)

Answers:

1. (C) Bull Durham (1988) Summary: The baseball season gets off to a rocky start when the Durham Bulls' new catcher "Crash" Davis punches out the cocky young pitcher - "Nuke" LaLoosh - he's just been hired to train. Matters get even more complicated when sexy Annie Savoy informs both men that each season she chooses one player to share her bed-- and Nuke and Crash are this year's "draft picks!"

2. (J) The Pride of the Yankees (1942). Summary: The moving, true story of New York Yankee immortal Lou Gehrig, the southpaw slugger who rose to the very top of the sport, only to be cut down at the peak of his career by an incurable illness.

3. (A) The Natural (1984). Summary: Nothing was going to stop Roy Hobbs from fulfilling his boyhood dream of baseball stardom. As a 14-year old he fashions a baseball bat from an oak tree. He soon impresses major league scouts with his ability. His talent also catches the eye of a sportswriter who eventually becomes instrumental in Hobbs' career. The appearance of a mysterious woman, however, shatters his dream. Years later Hobbs reappears as a rookie for the New York Knights and has an opportunity to share in their race for the pennant.

4. (D) Moneyball (2011). Summary: The story of Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane's successful attempt to put together a baseball club on a budget by employing computer-generated analysis to draft his players.

5. (B) Eight Men Out (1988). Summary: A film about the infamous 1919 Chicago White Sox scandal. The young, idealistic White Sox players who, despite being pennant winners, are treated with disdain by their penny-pinching owner/manager. Ripe for a money-making scheme, the demoralized team agrees to throw the World Series. But when they're defeated, a couple of sports writers smell a fix and a national scandal explodes.

6. (G) Bad News Bears (1976). Summary: An aging, down-on-his-luck ex-minor leaguer coaches a team of misfits in an ultra-competitive California little league.

7. (E) The Rookie (2002). Summary: When a shoulder injury ended his minor league pitching career twelve years ago, Jim Morris resorted to the next best thing: coaching. But Jim's team, knowing their coach is a great ball player, makes a deal with him: if they win the district championship, they want Jim to try out for a major-league organization. Going from worst to first, the team makes it to state, and Jim is forced to live up to his end of the deal. While there prove to be a lot of pitches to be thrown before he makes it off the mound, big-league dreams are revived, and there's no telling where he could go.

8. (F) The Sandlot (1993). Summary: Fifth-grader Scotty Smalls has just moved into town with his parents. The local kids call him a Dork because he can't even throw a baseball. That changes when the leader of the neighborhood gang recruits him to play on the nearby sandlot field. It's the beginning of a magical summer of baseball, wild adventures, first kisses, and fearsome confrontations with the dreaded Beast and its owner who live behind the left field fence. Soon nine boys have become best friends, Scotty is part of a team, and their leader has become a local legend.

9. (I) Damn Yankees (1958). Summary: Starring the original Broadway cast, this is the musical adaptation of the novel The Year The Yankees Won The Pennant. A Washington Senators fan sells his soul to the devil to become a great baseball player and help his favorite team win the pennant.

10. (H) 42 (2013). Summary: History was made in 1947, when Jackie Robinson broke the professional baseball race barrier to become the first African American MLB player of the modern era. 42 tells the life story of Robinson and his history-making signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers under the guidance of team executive Branch Rickey.

- Anna, Hopewell Branch