Sports Movies

What happens when you take a staunch liberal who writes a movie review starring a staunch conservative?

You not only get a critical (and predictable) piece that not only declares the career of a Hollywood icon is now dead, but a pious lecture on what Americans really want and what they reject.

A former Las Vegas showgirl inherited the Cleveland Indians from her deceased husband and wanted to move the team to the warm climate of Miami, sound familiar LeBron James?

Moneyball is a baseball film starring Brad Pitt and Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman, and it's set to open sometime in 2011.

Hoffman will perform as former big league manager Art Howe, and Pitt -- one of the most famous people in the universe -- will be playing Billy Beane, the "mastermind" general manager of the Oakland A's.

If you're a real baseball fan, you've seen Major League. If you're a real Indians fan, you own the DVD, quote it excessively, and own a pair of Rick Vaughn-esque glasses.

It's an absolute classic full of whacky characters, great one-liners, and some of the best baseball action sequences Hollywood has ever staged. But one of the coolest things about it (and one of the reasons why it holds up so well more than 20 years later) is that life truly has imitated art.

Sony Studios has decided to shelve the production of a movie by Steven Soderbergh, starring Brad Pitt and about the baseball book Moneyball only days before the production was set to begin.  Sony has given Soderbergh permission to find another studio.

Let the speculation ensue.

Soderbergh, who directed Traffic and Che, had reportedly turned in a script that was substantially different from the one written by Steven Zaillian. 

Spring has always been my favorite time of year.

This is the case not only because of the weather becoming nicer, but also because it's baseball season, still America's National Pastime - despite the popularity of the NFL.

When you combine that with the fact that I'm a movie buff, with over 300 films in my collection, it can safely be said that baseball movies hold a special place with me.

I've seen many diamond flicks through the years, but these 10 are the ones I particularly recommend, starting with (in chronological order)...