Best Line about Baseball in a movie.

[riverhawk]

I know that there are numerous threads on favorite movies, but I don't think this has been done before ...

What's your favorite line about baseball in any movie (note: this thread is not limited to just baseball movies, though I suspect most of the lines will come from them for obvious reasons.)

For me its one of the following three --

"The game doesn't stink, Mr. Wheeler. It's a great game." - Billy Chapel in "For Love of the Game"

"The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come." -Terrance Mann in "Field of Dreams"

"It's fun, that's what it is, it's fun. Baseball is more fun than anything else. You can watch it and just love it and enjoy it. I don't think that there's anything tremendously philosophical about it. I don't think there's anything metaphysical I just think its so much fun to watch." - Robert Creamer in Ken Burns "Baseball" Inning One.

[VIBaseball]

I have several favorites from non-baseball movies:

1. The language is too graphic for this forum, but it's James Remar's threat to the member of The Baseball Furies in The Warriors. "Ajax" will turn the painted thug into a popsicle!

2. "You know what I like? Baseball!" Robert De Niro as Al Capone in The Untouchables.

3. And just to show that I'm not obsessed with violence, we have Jack Warden in Twelve Angry Men: "Hey, let's wrap this up...I got tickets to the Yankees tonight!"

[Imapotato]

funny how the Terrance Mann quote is obsolete so soon after it was said

Baseball no longer marks the times
No one cares about the past anymore...the past is last year at best
We are no longer an optimist society, but bitter and self serving with a fast food mentality

[Captain Cold Nose]

I have several favorites from non-baseball movies:

1. The language is too graphic for this forum, but it's James Remar's threat to the member of The Baseball Furies in The Warriors. "Ajax" will turn the painted thug into a popsicle!

2. "You know what I like? Baseball!" Robert De Niro as Al Capone in The Untouchables.

3. And just to show that I'm not obsessed with violence, we have Jack Warden in Twelve Angry Men: "Hey, let's wrap this up...I got tickets to the Yankees tonight!"

"When we get home, I'm going to show you Ebbets Field," Buzz in the "Amazon Women on the Moon" segment in the movie of the same name. The "movie" came out some time in the fifties (the announcer said a different date each time they came back from commercial) with the action taking place in 1980.

[DTF955]

funny how the Terrance Mann quote is obsolete so soon after it was said

Baseball no longer marks the times
No one cares about the past anymore...the past is last year at best
We are no longer an optimist society, but bitter and self serving with a fast food mentality

Which is why I love the history of it so much. I have had high school friends say I was behind the times for preferring the era when I grew up, the 1970s,w hen we still were an optimistic society that kept rebuilding and so on. But, there is such a difference between the way people think now and what it used to be; and, it's hard to imagine why such friends would decide they wanted it the way it is now and not the way it was. It really is sad.

I'm trying to think of good lines. I love to write, and have written some great lines; 1/3 of the way through a baseball book that will be Print On Demand when it comes out in maybe a year if I'm lucky. But, i guess plots matter more to me than individual lines in movies, though I do remember some jokes quite well.

My favorite line fromt he book I'm writing so far is:
“A good fastball stings a little even with padding. Then there’s the foul balls. They don’t call them the ’tools of ignorance’ for nothing. Although, when your choice is chancing getting beaned by a foul ball or getting stoned on something, that’s when you realize catcher’s gear can be the tools of a very wise man.”

[Imapotato]

and we are called nostalgic fools, who have no vision and surprise...cynic, hence my tagline

I feel I am missing something...I like very few people, when 15 years ago, I was happy and optimistic, lots of friends, didn't know about politics and the hypocrisy of the world...yet now I think most people are mildly retarded or worse, and they feel the same about me

Problem is I am in the minority...so I do wonder if something is wrong with me sometimes

Nah....

[Erik Bedard]

"It's not my fault you wouldn't play catch with your father!"

STILL a Terence Mann quote from Field of Dreams.

[Sultan_1895-1948]

One of my favorite scenes from Bull Durham.

NUKE

(singing softly)
Oh she may get wooly, women do get
wooly, because of all the stress...

CRASH

I hate people who get the words wrong.
It ain't "woolly" it's "weary" and
it nobody's got stress, they're
wearing a dress.

NUKE

How come you don't like me?

CRASH

'Cause you don't respect yourself,
which is your problem, but you don't
respect the game -- and that's my
problem.
(beat)
You got a gift.

NUKE

What do I got?

CRASH

A gift. When you were a baby the
gods reached down and turned your
left arm into a thunderbolt. - (funny how the original script said lefty, but they cast Nuke as a righty)

Nuke looks at his left arm rubs his shoulder curiously.

CRASH

You got a Hall of Fame arm but you're
pissing it away.

NUKE

I ain't pissing nothing away -- I
got a Porsche already. A 944 with
A.C. and a quadraphonic Blaupunkt.

CRASH

You don't need a quadraphonic
Blaupunkt -- you need a curve ball.

http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Bull-Durham.html

[christian gentleman]

"Who is he, anyhow, an actor?"

"No."

"A dentist?"

"Meyer Wofsheim? No, he's a gambler." Gatsby hesitated, then added coolly: "He's the man who fixed the World Series back in 1919."


The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald

[Tigerfan1974]

If you have ever stood on your own favorite field of dreams, for me it was Tiger Stadium, I like this line from 'Field of Dreams' when John and Ray are standing on their favorite field-

(John Kinsella): Is this heaven?
(Ray): It's Iowa.
(John): Iowa? I could have sworn this was heaven.

[runningshoes]

Dr. Archibald "Moonlight" Graham:

Well, you know I... I never got to bat in the major leagues. I would have liked to have had that chance. Just once. To stare down a big league pitcher. To stare him down, and just as he goes into his windup, wink. Make him think you know something he doesn't. That's what I wish for. Chance to squint at a sky so blue that it hurts your eyes just to look at it. To feel the tingling in your arm as you connect with the ball. To run the bases - stretch a double into a triple, and flop face-first into third, wrap your arms around the bag. That's my wish, Ray Kinsella. That's my wish. And is there enough magic out there in the moonlight to make this dream come true?

[wamby]

"The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come." -Terrance Mann in "Field of Dreams"

"It's fun, that's what it is, it's fun. Baseball is more fun than anything else. You can watch it and just love it and enjoy it. I don't think that there's anything tremendously philosophical about it. I don't think there's anything metaphysical I just think its so much fun to watch." - Robert Creamer in Ken Burns "Baseball" Inning One.

That's a pretty odd combination. Field of Dreams makes me gag a little bit. I do agree with the Creamer quote.

[riverhawk]

That's a pretty odd combination. Field of Dreams makes me gag a little bit. I do agree with the Creamer quote.

On the face I guess they are, but in truth I think they go hand in hand. Creamer's quote is timless, baseball was fun in 1910, just like it was in 1950, just like it is today. As in the "Field of Dreams" points out there aren't too many things in our society today that we can look at with the same eyes as our grandfathers did.

[wamby]

On the face I guess they are, but in truth I think they go hand in hand. Creamer's quote is timless, baseball was fun in 1910, just like it was in 1950, just like it is today. As in the "Field of Dreams" points out there aren't too many things in our society today that we can look at with the same eyes as our grandfathers did.

I see what you are saying but I can't agree with it. I think the Field of Dreams quote is way too sentimental. I doubt if I have ever looked at baseball the same way my grandfathers did. The game on the field is very similar, but seems a lot different off the field.

[Tigerfan1974]

On the face I guess they are, but in truth I think they go hand in hand. Creamer's quote is timless, baseball was fun in 1910, just like it was in 1950, just like it is today. As in the "Field of Dreams" points out there aren't too many things in our society today that we can look at with the same eyes as our grandfathers did.

But baseball is one of them. It is the same fundamental game today as it was then. That's why it is so much fun and timeless.
MLB changes, but the game itself doesn't.
I enjoy watching sandlot and little league as mush as college or MLB.
It is the enjoyment of the sport.

[riverhawk]

I see what you are saying but I can't agree with it.

Fair enough. I see your side too, guess I'm still too much of an optimist, though I'm becoming less of one with each passing day.

[wamby]

Fair enough. I see your side too, guess I'm still too much of an optimist, though I'm becoming less of one with each passing day.

I know the feeling. Living in the south has not been good for my optimism.

[Tigerfan1974]

I see what you are saying but I can't agree with it. I think the Field of Dreams quote is way too sentimental. I doubt if I have ever looked at baseball the same way my grandfathers did. The game on the field is very similar, but seems a lot different off the field.

Off the field?? There is no game off the field!
And how is Rose and 'roids today any different from Blacksox and Ruth then.

What I mean by Ruth is that he did all the carousing and drinking and tempers and womanizing, but it was overlooked.
Off the field is no different, except for science ('roids).

Personally, I don't care about off the field.
It is baseball that I love.

If we put players on pedestals, we should not be surprised when they fall. They are only human. They did not ask for 'deification', we did that.

Off the field is irrelevant.
The game is what we, me anyway, love.

Just IMO.

[wamby]

Off the field?? There is no game off the field!
And how is Rose and 'roids today any different from Blacksox and Ruth then.

What I mean by Ruth is that he did all the carousing and drinking and tempers and womanizing, but it was overlooked.
Off the field is no different, except for science ('roids).

Personally, I don't care about off the field.
It is baseball that I love.

If we put players on pedestals, we should not be surprised when they fall. They are only human. They did not ask for 'deification', we did that.

Off the field is irrelevant.
The game is what we, me anyway, love.

Just IMO.

I think off the field is far from irrelevant. In my grandfathers' day there was no million dollar ballplayers, no work stoppages, no expansion etc. I'm guessing that way they looked at the game in 1930 or 1950 was a lot different then I looked at it in 1975 or 1981 or now.

[Tigerfan1974]

I think off the field is far from irrelevant. In my grandfathers' day there was no million dollar ballplayers, no work stoppages, no expansion etc. I'm guessing that way they looked at the game in 1930 or 1950 was a lot different then I looked at it in 1975 or 1981 or now.

I guess we are talking apples and oranges.
I am talking about baseball the game; and you are talking about MLB, the sport/business. Just a different point of view.
It's all good.

[wamby]

I guess we are talking apples and oranges.
I am talking about baseball the game; and you are talking about MLB, the sport/business. Just a different point of view.
It's all good.

I agree. I don't see the product on the field in a vacuum.

[Captain Cold Nose]

I agree. I don't see the product on the field in a vacuum.

Have you read the book Field of Dreams came from, Shoeless Joe?
If you think the sentiment was dripping in the movie, you'd drown in it if you read the book.

[wamby]

Have you read the book Field of Dreams came from, Shoeless Joe?
If you think the sentiment was dripping in the movie, you'd drown in it if you read the book.

I found a copy of it on our ship and read it. I think you're exactly right. I didn't like it very much.

[Mike D.]

Have you read the book Field of Dreams came from, Shoeless Joe?
If you think the sentiment was dripping in the movie, you'd drown in it if you read the book.

I read it back as a teenager, probably close to 15 years ago now...along with his other book "The Iowa Baseball Confederacy". Haven't read either in years...will have to check them both out again.

[christian gentleman]

What's maybe nice is to find a quote or use of a baseball term in a movie not about baseball. That might lead us somewhere else.

We have all those great terms, but can we find them in more everyday usage.

We say, "run out that ground ball" or "swing for the fences." What movies or books or situations do we use baseball as a metaphor or inspiration or ideal.

Then we can move away from Field of Dreams which is a sentimental love affair with the game.

I loved the book by the way. It hit me "close to home." Is that a baseball expression?

-cg