Top 10 Baseball Movies of All-Time pt 1

10. Bang the Drum Slowly (1973)

"Skip the facts, just give me the details."

Released in 1973, and based on the 1956 Mark Harris novel, this film starred Michael Moriarty as Henry "Author" Wiggen, a veteran pitcher for the fictional New York Mammoths, and his friendship with his dim-witted catcher Bruce Pearson (an unkown actor named Robert De Niro) who has been diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease.  The movie works a little sad, but really seems to capture the life of ball players back in the days before free agency, agents, and out-of-the-world salaries.  For instance, because of their low pay, the ball players have come up with a card game called tegwar (The Exciting Game Without Any Rules) that they play in hotel lobbies to scam other patrons out of money, and Henry is often seen trying to sell insurance to his teammates (his offseason job).  A touching tear-jerker-for-the-fellas, I  consider this the "Brian's Song" of baseball movies.

9. The Bad News Bears (1976)

"All we got on this team are a buncha' jews, spics, niggers, pansies and a booger-eatin' moron"

The original Bad News Bears starred Walter Matthau as Morris Buttermaker, a former minor league player and current alcoholic, who has been hired to coach a little league team that has been added due to lawsuits charging that underskilled children are not being allowed to join teams in the league.  Morris inherits a team of misfits and outcasts that lose their first game 26-0 without getting an out.  He recruits an ex-girlfriend's daughter, Amanda Hurlitzer (Tatum O'Neal) as his star pitcher.  He then finds the best athlete in the area,  12 year old Kelly Leach (Jackie Earle Haley, or Rorschach) who rides a Harley, smokes cigarettes, and hangs out around the ballpark because "there's a lot of nice ass at the field".  It was written by Burt Lancaster's son Bill Lancaster and spawned 2 more movies, Bad News Bears in Breaking Training (1977), Bad News Bears Go to Japan (1978), a CBS television series from '79 to '80, and a decent 2005 remake starring Billy Bob Thorton.