Today marks the beginning of Baseball Season (well, technically yesterday was the first game, but the Giants weren't playing, so it doesn't count). I'd feel remiss if I didn't commemorate the occasion with a quote from the greatest baseball movie of all time:
"Ray, people will come Ray... And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America is ruled by it like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again. Oh, people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come."
And with that, I'm off to BYU's Miller Park to watch a couple innings, eat a $1 game dog, and get some reading done. Man, I love baseball.
11 comments:
I threw a very large fit today when I discovered that my mom's tv does not have TBS or ESPN. Now, not only do I not have any friends, no job, and nothing to do, I don't even have baseball to keep me company. My life sucks.
So, everyone probably knows that I'm not a baseball fan, but I am a fan of baseball movies. I think that baseball lends itself to movies based on two facts: (1) It's only a team sport in the sense that there are teams, since there's not (at least offensively) any teamwork or team plays. This is good for a movie, because a movie typically centers around a few (or even just one) key character(s), so the movie can just show the sport when it's the key character's turn to play, instead of worrying about the whole team. Also, (2) baseball is boring. Don't deny it, it just is. It's slow-paced. This is good for movies, too, though, because it gives the movie maker time to focus on the inner thoughts of the key character and not have to keep up with the pace of the game.
I'm also a fan of $1 game dogs and of lounging around with friends watching something that doesn't require a lot of attention, so I think baseball's ok for that, and for movies.
Brother, you know I love you...but that's not even close to the greatest baseball movie of all time! It might, however, make the top 10. Try "The Natural" "Major League" "Bull Durham" "The Sandlot" "Eight Men Out" "A League of Their Own" "Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns" "61" and one that is near and dear to my heart, "Cobb".
I stand by my choice, and although your list is good, you neglected "The Rookie" and "Pride of the Yankees," which has possibly the most touching sports movie quote ever. Find it at: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechprideoftheyankees.html
"So, I heard baseball players make a lot of money..."
"Well, I guess that depends on how good you are"
"Well, how good are you?"
"I make the league minimum."
Braves Win!! Braves Win!!
Baseball isn't boring. It's sophisticated.
I think I love baseball even more because it is during a warm time of year. I love eating BBQ sunflower seeds and getting a sunburn.
Go Cubbies. This is the year. The curse WILL be broken.
Umm...Stef...umm...this is ackward to tell you, but...uhh...it's the Brave's year this year. Sorry.
I think I agree with Bryant for the most part. But I don't really like baseball movies much either. Or most movies actually. Baseball is a nice activity for chillin with friends but I have a hard time seeing myself saying I just feel like watching baseball and running down to a game on my own. Maybe if I had to do some sketching, but that's it.
Russ knows that he likes it more for the chillin' than for the baseball. Otherwise he wouldn't head down when he needed to read.
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