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Friday open thread: Your favorite sports movies

Walter Matthau In ‘The Badlanders’ Photo by Paramount/Getty Images

Last week, we talked about your favorite books about sports. Today, let’s stick with that theme, but move from eyeballs-only to eyeballs and earholes. What are some of your favorite sports movies? Before I list mine, I will say this. Field of Dreams? Not a good movie. Not a sports movie. Not going to be on my list. Okay! Now that that’s out of the way, here, in no particular order, are some of my favorite sports movies:

  1. Bull Durham. Any movie that ballplayers say captures what it’s like to be a major league ballplayer is OK in my book. It’s funny, it’s touching, it’s sarcastic, it’s got pretty much everything you’d want in a sports movie except the team winning the championship at the end. Which leads me to...
  2. The Bad News Bears. The original, probably-couldn’t-be-made-today one, not the stupid remake. It’s got kids in it, but it’s not really a movie for or about kids. It’s...of its time, but I really like it.
  3. Major League. The world’s most predictable plot, you can see every single bit of it coming from 1000 feet away, but it’s also funny as hell, and there’s some great performances in it.
  4. Hoosiers. Same as Major League; it hits all the right notes and does it really, really well.
  5. A League Of Their Own. So well done, and a fascinating story as well.
  6. Dodgeball. If you can dodge a wrench...
  7. Eight Men Out. A dramatic retelling of a really big story.
  8. When We Were Kings. Not strictly a sports movie in the sense of the other films on this list, but a really fascinating documentary about the Rumble In The Jungle.
  9. Miracle. You know how the story ends, but damn if they don’t tell it well all the way through.
  10. Spellbound. Is a spelling bee a sport? This documentary about the National Spelling Bee, and what it takes to get there, sure plays out like it is.

And that all just scratches the surface. There’s a bunch of really good 30 for 30’s I could list, there’s a ton of other documentaries, but now it’s your turn. What are some of your favorite sports movies? Either fiction or documentary?