Hits, Heroes, & Homeruns of Baseball Cinema

Nothing says spring like the smell of freshly cut grass on a baseball diamond, and in my opinion, nothing says America quite like the baseball movie. Sure the sport gets credit as the national past time, but Hollywood is uniquely American. This week film critic Noah Gittell discusses the history of baseball movies, which starts with players being mythic, god like heroes. Unfortunately is ends with them being considered as variables to be inserted into mathematical equations thanks to the era of analytics. But there is so much good stuff in between! We talk about weird baseball rules, his love of “Little Big League”, and whether “The Naked Gun” qualifies as a movie about baseball.

*Bonus* How “The Bad News Bears” Changed Film History

You may not think so, but the formula created by The Bad News Bears is still in use today!  A rag tag group of kids, lead by an incompetent and troubled adult somehow manage to overcome their differences and beat the better funded team at whatever sport they are competing in.  It is a tale as old as time, and this movie started the trend.