Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 20, 1992 TAG: 9203200102
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Chris Gladden
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Baseball tryouts are taking place, and there's a humming anticipation of the upcoming season.
The National Pastime also is a national obsession that annually grips number-crunching fans, political pundits - and, yes, movie-makers and moviegoers.
Baseball lacks the bone-crunching contact of football and the thudding action of basketball, yet it has proved an enduring subject for film.
Moviemakers have come at it from just about every angle imaginable.
Personal valor drove "The Stratton Story" and "The Pride of the Yankees," both biographies of big-league legends.
The minors are well represented by "Bang the Drums Slowly" and "Bull Durham."
The former is a poignant drama about the friendship between a dying ballplayer and his teammate. The latter is a sexy comedy about romance and baseball in the minor leagues. It has its own undercurrent of melancholy and, as a bonus, an appearance by the Salem Bucs.
Shoeless Joe Jackson, the tragic figure of the Black Sox scandal, appeared twice on screen in a year's time. John Sayles brought him to life in the 1988 movie "Eight Men Out," a historical look at the events that led to the fixing of a World Series. In 1989, he returned in "Field of Dreams," a flight of magic realism about second chances and the love of baseball.
Baseball entered the realm of myth with the beautifully photographed and lyrical "The Natural," about a washed-up ball player who makes an amazing comeback. Big-league director Barry Levinson gave it a golden-hued period flavor.
"The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings" is a comedy set against the black leagues of the 1930s and starred Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones and Richard Pryor.
And Little Leaguers took the field in "The Bad News Bears," a comedy about a ragtag team and its gruff, down-at-the-heels coach. The sequels to this hit weren't nearly as much fun as the original.
A couple of new baseball movies are coming up to the plate this year. John Goodman plays the most prodigious baseball legend ever in "The Babe," the story of Babe Ruth.
And Madonna, Geena Davis and Tom Hanks star in "A League of Their Own," a movie based on the women's teams that took to the diamond for a brief time during World War II when many male ballplayers went off to war.
So far, Tee-ball is the only area of baseball untouched by Hollywood. And I'm betting it can't be far off.
by CNB