As promised last week, I decided to take a dive and brush up on my sports cinema history.
But first, let’s take a gander at what would have been happening this week in the Pine Belt. Not as exciting as last week, based on how last week could have gone, it could have made for another interesting week.
Southern Miss baseball would be looking to pick up an easy sweep of UTSA at home while Golden Eagle softball would be traveling to Marshall.
For high school baseball, Petal and Oak Grove would have played the third district game that would have decided the winner of their series. Forrest County AHS and Lumberton would have squared off for an interesting non-district matchup between the area teams. PCS baseball would also be having its annual pivotal contest against Jackson Prep. On the weekend, Oak Grove would also be taking on a stacked Columbia for a highly talented weekend matchup.
My highlight for the week, would have been between Sumrall and Purvis at it is always guaranteed to be a great game.
Now that we are done wallowing in this week’s misery of no sports let’s talk about sports films. Before I start to venture out, I figured the smartest thing to do was to decide what are my favorite sports movies, which was no easy task.
5. Breaking Away (1979)
I first saw this movie in either my junior or senior year in high school. It really makes someone at that age think of their future, even now, which is why I love it. The film stars a young Dennis Quaid, Dennis Christopher, Daniel Stern and Jackie Earle Haley. Christopher’s character becomes highly invested in the Italian culture and cycling, which drives his parents crazy. Watching him train and eventually beat local college students with the help of his buddies in the Little 500 makes for a great ending. Catch this on Disney+.
4. Vision Quest (1985)
Louden Swain (Matthew Modine) is a natural at wrestling. However, instead of pursuing the logical scholarship by being dominant in his weight class, he decides to drop over 20 pounds and wrestle the untouchable middleweight called Shoot. You can’t watch this moving and not want to go workout after. Fun fact, this movie also features a young Madonna, just before her fame, as a bar singer in the movie. You can find this for free on VUDU.
3. Undrafted (2016)
This is a story of a college summer league baseball game. It’s tongue and cheek but gets progressively better. Essentially, the beloved and talented ‘Maz’ isn’t selected for the MLB Draft. At the same time, his team is playing in a semifinal game as the story revolves around the love for baseball and the mischief of the opposing team that features elite ringers. Oddly enough, just before I saw this film, I covered a summer league baseball game in Waynesboro, Virginia. As I later described the environment to my Dad, he shockingly told me about the movie he had watched earlier that week, which was Undrafted. Strangely enough, this movie was almost exactly like the game I had just covered. I don’t want to spoil the ending, but it makes the movie 10 times better. Rent it on Amazon Prime.
2. Saint Ralph (2004)
Many may have figured that I was a former athlete in high school, but what some may not realize was that I was a cross country and distance runner in track. Saint Ralph takes place in the 1950s and tells the story of Ralph, who is a troublemaker that gets put on the cross country team. Ralph also happens to be dealing with a sick mother. Ralph starts looking for a miracle to save his mom. One day in passing, his coach jokingly mentions that it be a miracle if any of his teammates even won the Boston Marathon. Ralph decides that’s his miracle, his questionable training methods and antics create a really good and highly underrated movie. Rent it on Amazon Prime.
1. The Bad News Bears (1976)
This and the Sandlot have to be the perfect reminders of playing baseball as a kid. However, for me, the Bad News Bears takes the cake. Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau) absolutely cracks me up every time. Each kid is as funny as the next and despite being filmed in the 1970s it still captures what it’s like to be a kid. If you are a sports fan, I’d assume you have watched this and if you haven’t shame on you.
Follow Andrew on Twitter via @PineBeltSPORTS or email him: andrew@PineBeltSPORTS.com
