All-Star Sports Movies

For those of you who pay attention, the baseball All-Star break is upon us. It's been a great season so far, and this year, the game itself is in my current city of Phoenix. With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to compile a list of my five favorite sports films, and here they are.

Before I officially start, I'd like to add a few honorable mentions in here because the sports film genre has so many gems, it's tough to leave some out. "Remember the Titans", "Cinderella Man", "Caddyshack", "Slap Shot" and "Seabiscuit" are all classics, and it was tough to leave them off this list.

5. Happy Gilmore This was the first time I had seen Adam Sandler on screen (I think I was about nine at the time) and wow, this movie blew my mind. Golf has always been a fantastic sport to me, but the way Gilmore turns the proper world of the sport on its head is just too funny. It would be like if "Caddyshack" had  just been about Rodney Dangerfield's havoc-reeking goofball for 90 minutes. It also invented a new, albeit inefficient, swing for a classic game. 

4. Cool Runnings With the exception of hockey, Winter Olympics-sports movies are rarely heard of, that is until "Cool Runnings" came along. While this movie is incredibly funny (Doug E. Doug's name is "Sanka Coffie"), it also maintains an attitude of sportsmanship, redemption and the will to be the best. It's also one of the few sports movies I can think of where it doesn't all work out in the end, which to me, makes it that much more special.

3. The Mighty Ducks Okay, now onto the premier Winter Olympics sport movie, "The Mighty Ducks". Everyone who's anyone has seen this movie and loved it, and for very good reason. It's a bunch of poor Minnesota kids who love hockey building themselves up to take down the rich kid team in their youth hockey league. At the same time, their washed-up, has been of a coach is trying to redeem himself in the hockey world. Besides, what other situation could it be possibly be deemed appropriate to chant, "Quack! Quack! Quack!"?

2. Hoosiers This is a movie that would hopefully be on everyone's list. "Hoosiers" has so much going on, it's hard to mention it all, so I won't. What I will say is it's beautifully acted and directed and more than any other sports movie I've ever witnessed, you feel yourself truly hoping it works out for this team. Within an hour, the team from Indiana is your team, and you've never wanted a championship more. It possesses a strange magic, often tried, but rarely pulled off in an underdog movie, at least at this magnitude. If you haven't seen "Hoosiers" before, remedy that post haste.

1. Major League It's probably just because it's baseball season and the Indians are doing pretty well, but damn if this isn't the best sports movie. With everything that has gone wrong with Cleveland sports, "Major League" eases the pain. The movie pulls together a pretty great cast with Charlie Sheen (pre-crazy-person syndrome), Tom Berenger, Rene Russo and Wesley Snipes to make a fantastic story about a team literally fighting for their livelihood so their evil owner can't move the team (eerie foreshadowing for another Cleveland franchise). As in many sports movies, the athletes are quite the characters. There's the washed-up but still respected veteran, the "ace" pitcher who can't hit the broad side of a barn, and the voodoo-worshiping slugger. But what ultimately makes this my favorite is hearing the announcer shout "The Indians win it! The Indians win it! Oh my God, the Indians win it!" at the end. Brings a tear every time.