BASEBALL MOVIES: THEY DON'T MAKE THEM LIKE THEY USED TO

The current 7 game losing streak for my Redbirds depresses me. I said yesterday that La Russa needs to find a way to stop the bleeding. News flash Tony: You need a bigger band-aid. There aren't enough good things to say about last night's performance, or any of the dismal displays from the past week for that matter. Therefore, I'm not going to dwell on it.

My boyfriend and I recently discovered the wonders of Netflix. It's like Blockbuster for lazy people, and we are hooked. Thanks to Netflix, I have rediscovered my youth in the form of baseball movies. Growing up, I was just as big a baseball fan as I am now. My dad used to tell me that I knew the Cardinals roster by heart at the age of 4: I'm sure that doesn't surprise most of you.

One of my favorites from when I was younger was "Rookie of the Year". An 11 year old kid slips on a baseball and breaks his arm, the tendons heal too tight, and he in turn becomes a pitcher for the Chicago Cubs. Of course he was horrible at Little League before this happened. We all know that this is totally unrealistic. The Cubs do need all the help they can get though... :) Most kids grow up with a dream to become a professional baseball player, so "Rookie of the Year" allowed all of us to live out that fantasy as a pre-teen through somewhat nerdy Henry Rowengardner.

Next on my list is "Little Big League". It probably wasn't as popular as Rookie of the Year, but I liked it better. A 12 year old's Grandpa dies and leaves him the Minnesota Twins in his will. Billy then decides to fire the manager, and manage the team himself. In order to motivate the team he says to the players, "You guys are on baseball cards. What could be cooler than that?"

Possibly the most dorky of them all was Christopher Llyod's "Angels in the Outfield". The California Angels are having a horrible season. Roger is a big fan of them, and also a ward of the state. He asks his dad when they can be a family again, and his dad replies, "When the Angels win the pennant." Roger prays to God for help, and winged Angels come to the rescue. At least the other 2 featured actual baseball players. "Angels in the Outfield" had Matthew McConaughey and Tony Danza...cause that's believable.

Those are the baseball movies that I loved watching when I was little. As I grew up, my dad introduced me (probably a little to early) to the Major League movies. This was back when "Wild Thing" Charlie Sheen was still a nutjob, but a loveable one; the days before his "Winning" and "goddesses" and "violent torpedoes of truth". There was "Major League", "Major League 2", and "Major League - Back to the Minors". In April of 2011, Charlie announced that he was in the process of making another one. Who knows what he was smoking when he said that though, so don't hold your breath.

I recently watched a movie called "For Love of the Game". It featured Kevin Costner as an older pitcher for the Detroit Tigers whose girlfriend was leaving him. He was pitching against the Yankees, and throughout the game we saw flashbacks of his life leading up to that point. Of course, he was in the process of throwing a perfect game through all of this. Minus the sappy stuff, it was a pretty good movie.

Another more recent one is Dennis Quaid's "The Rookie". It's based on a true story, and I have to admit that it was also pretty decent. Quaid's character, Jimmy Morris, lived in a Texas town where all anyone cared about was football. He had his shot at baseball and got hurt in the Minors. He stayed in his small town and became a teacher and a coach, but at his age he still threw 98 mph. His players convince him that if they win districts, he has to try out for the Majors. Of course he does, and goes through the Minors, and ends up making it to the Show playing for the Devil Rays. If you haven't seen it yet, sorry for ruining it, and you should watch it asap.

I'm not saying that the movies discussed above are the best ever. There's "Field of Dreams", "The Natural", "Bad News Bears" (The original, not the lame Billy Bob Thornton remake), "Bull Durham", "Summer Catch", "Mr Baseball", "The Sandlot", "Fever Pitch", and "A League of Their Own". I don't really want to write about all of them, and I'm sure you don't want to read about all of them.

My point here is that the Cardinals 7-game losing skid is depressing me. I'm sure a lot of Cards fans are in the same boat as me. I wanted to talk about something that might bring a smile to your face. Even though the kid movies are pretty lame to watch at 25 years old, I sure loved them when I was younger. I wish kids today still watched them, instead of Pokemon and that other crap I can't pronounce. Hopefully my kids will love these classics too (I wonder if VHS will still exist then?).

I'm entertained with most any sports movies, true or fiction. Netflix has even dedicated an entire category to my screen called "Sports movies with an underdog" to the suggestions and movies I may like. They just don't make baseball movies like they used to anymore....