Things to Consider... (when writing a top 10 baseball movies list)

As I wrote this list, I saw the formulatic pattern the studios were using to churn out great baseball movies (the resemblance most obvious with Major League and Bull Durham.)  It is not a coincidence that between 1988 and 1989, four of the movies on this list were made (beside the fact I was in little league at this time and just ate baseball up.)  Hollywood started coming up with a baseball formula way back with "The Babe Ruth Story" in 1948, and added to it as movies found success.  Here is a list of questions studios look at when considering green lighting a baseball movie:

1. Is it based on a New York team(everyone lives in New York right)?
2. Is Kevin Costner in it?
3. Can we get Charlie Sheen?
4. Is James Earl Jones available, too?
5. Everyone loves an underdog, can the team suck?
6. Is there a pitcher/catcher relationship to exploit for plot purposes?
7. There's a superstitious latino player on the team, right?
8.  And an unscrupulous reporter hanging around the club house?
9.  Is Shoeless Joe Jackson a character in the movie?  People love silly nicknames.
10.  Management is a stressful career, can we make the coach an alcoholic?

Using the formula above, we get the following facts:
Bang the Drum Slowly gets 2 points.
Bad News Bears gets 3 points.
A League of Their Own gets 3 points.
Eight Men Out gets 3 points.
61* gets just 2 points.
The Sandlot gets just 2 points.
Major League has a hefty 4 points.
The Natural gets 3 points.
Field of Dreams gets 3 points (unless you count Ray and his Father as Pitcher/Catcher, in which case it gets 4 points.)
Bull Durham also has 4 points.

Perhaps I should re-look at this ranking.  But before I can do that, I have a script to write where Shoeless Joe Jackson, played by Charlie Sheen catches for the New York Bombers, along with his best friend, a Hatian witchdoctor/pitcher played by James Earl Jones, coached by a drop-down-drunk Kevin Costner.  Along the way, the team has to overcome the hostile New York media to win their first pennant in a hundred years. Throw in a trip to the hospital to see a dying kid and... Hello Hollywood!