The Big Picture - The Baseball Movie Draft

Episode Date: September 30, 2026

Batter up! Sean and Amanda are joined by Chris Ryan and Mallory Rubin to draft some of their favorite movies focused on one of their biggest shared interests: baseball. They break down what makes baseball movies so special, explain the new (and somewhat controversial) categories, and, most importantly, draft. (0:00) Intro (1:19) Why baseball movies are the best sports movies (17:27) The categories and draft order (25:11) The Baseball Movie Draft (1:29:47) Honorable mentions and draft recap Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Guests: Chris Ryan and Mallory Rubin Producer: Jack Sanders Production Support: Lucas Cavanagh Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can choose to bundle and save with the Personal Price Plan®. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there®. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm Sean Fennessey. I'm Amanda Dobbins. And this is the Big Picture Great Conversation show about baseball. CR is here and so is Mallory Rubin, which must mean we are drafting today. The major league baseball playoffs have just begun and there is no more grueling sports watching experience when your team is grinding through the agony of the baseball postseason. Most of us won't have to worry about that this year. Nevertheless, to celebrate we are drafting our favorite baseball movies and talking about

our favorite sport on the silver screen, at least for me, right after this. This episode is presented by State Farm. You know the feeling. Long day. Good meal. You finally sit down. And now you're just staring at your screen. Slasher, rom-com, period drama, psychological thriller. But some decisions don't have to be that hard. State Farm is here to help. Like when you choose to bundle and save with the personal price plan. Bundling, just another way to save with the personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

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convenience, retail, specialty foods, or flower delivery orders only. Terms and conditions apply. See, our favorite sport? To watch or to watch movies about? Or to play. Well, to play, it's baseball. Okay.

To watch? All metro catcher. Soccer. To watch movies about. Baseball. Yeah. Same three questions for you, Amanda. Favorite sport to play?

I'd like to say tennis, parentheses, ask inspirational. To watch, yeah, probably baseball and movies for sure baseball. Hmm, interesting, Mel. Baseball across the board. Adam and I have been playing catch. Your husband, Adam. My husband, right, sorry.

This is not a housebar where he's a character on that podcast. My husband Adam and I have, you know, we got new gloves when I was training for the camping yards this summer and just have kept just tossing the ball around. Got some soft, indoor-friendly balls so we don't have to leave our home. It's been lovely. It's been great. You got to catch in your home.

We play inside while we watch sports. It's honestly really wonderful. You guys are like two 13-year-old boy roommates growing up, you know? Just tossing the ball around. Kind of, yeah. We're companions, definitely. And, yeah, I'd like to get back out on the diamond, maybe hit the batting cage at some point.

So baseball's fun to play. I like to play football, too. I like to swim. Certainly baseball is my favorite sport to watch, though I enjoy football as well. And baseball movies, it's nothing's even close. Yeah, nothing's close.

What about you? Baseball is my favorite sport, though, I think watching baseball versus watching football is pretty neck and neck. I still love watching professional football as much as anything. Favorite sport to play is still probably basketball, you know, about... I like playing basketball, too. Ten years ago, Chris and I and your husband and our friend John went on a trip to Texas, and we spent an afternoon at the batting cages.

That was ex-Bast. You spent a lot of that playing guitar hero. Not, this is, I'm not trying to take away your moment here, but I still have a photo of you spreading on Guitar Hero as five, seven-year-olds are like, oh my God. So this was in public? It was an arcade. It was an arcade. There was a batting cage at the arcade and we went to the batting cage.

And I think all four of us played baseball growing up. But we got in the cage and, you know, whatever, we hit the ball. We didn't hit the ball. The issue was really more like how we felt afterwards because of all the muscles that were required to be used while swinging a bat, which if you've been. you don't keep up with it, and I haven't played baseball since I was 19, is brutally painful. So playing is still probably basketball. Movies, I guess it's probably baseball, although I will say, I thought this was an amazing idea when I came up with it.

And now I'm like, there's fewer than 75 baseball movies. I mean, there's really not a lot of baseball movies, especially not a lot of truly great ones. You've got this upper rung of seven to ten films that are all-time classics. and then after that it's a lot of personal favorites. I wonder why that is. Any theories? I was curious because, like, you know, obviously the 90s is this high watermark for the subgenre of baseball movie. And it ties in, I guess, nicely-ish with Sosa and McGuire and the revival of the game.

And the Atlanta Braves. Yeah. Atlanta Braves. That's sort of a low point to me. Listen. Listen, I've renounced them. Uh-huh. But they moved to Cobb County.

I don't fuck with Cobb County but I was there in the 90s so I was there literally at Fulton County Stadium in the 90s If I could have any team deleted from the historical record it would be those teams They went to the World Series like nine times

Only one once I know in 1999 Incredibly uncool and boring bunch of dorky white guy pitchers They suck, fuck them Okay That's how I feel I feel that way to this day

And they absolutely dominated My team this year But I wonder whether or not we hold baseball movies in a certain regard because we came of age during the sort of late 80s and early 90s in particular. Yeah, that was, I mean, the 90s were the second golden age, right? Yeah. I mean, I think that one of the joys, if you're a baseball fan, but even if you aren't,

is the baseball movies give you something to love. If you're a baseball fan, if there's something about baseball, the anguish, the baseball is like uniquely equipped to deliver into your life because if you've invested in a team, 162 games a year, spray trading, maybe the playoffs and they let you down. It is a unique type of pain, very reminiscent of an actual relationship in your real life. But if they bring you joy, there's just nothing like it. There's just nothing like it. And the excuse that a baseball team gives you every day, not only to engage with that team in the community, but the other people in your life who love it?

Like texting my dad, I live in L.A. He lives in Baltimore. We both are watching the O's. We text about it every day. It's the best. Yeah. So the fact that baseball movies can capture those doldrums, those loaves. I mean, yeah. I'm just always waiting to hear from Jack. Father and son chatting about Carson Bench. I got some Pete Alonzo correspondence from Jack this season. Not as much as I would have liked to at the end of the season

when he became the first player ever to lead both the American League and the National League and RBI. Any comments? RBI, that archaic stat for METHs? Also led the American League in home runs this year. Just throwing that out there. How many wins did you guys have in the season? 79. It's fine.

I want to go back to how a fruitless 162 game season mirrors the relationships in your life. It's just, peaks of valleys, highs and lows. You know? Sure. You go through all of it. You go through all of it.

There feels like something authentically lived about baseball fandom that's just, I think, distinct. And like the movies can be so deeply religious and poetic and literary and lyrical. And they can also be hysterical. And so many of the characters in a baseball movie are going through some, like, reaching some extraordinary peak of achievement. And so many of them are just like, I got to like put my jockstrap on for the fucking six month in a row. It's me doing the watch. Yeah. Captain Craig.

podcast on this network. Your team is going to the playoffs this year. We're releasing this on Wednesday, so there will be no peacocking for me about this. Who knows what could happen Tuesday? Any thought? I mean, obviously you had a tricky end of the season, but you did get in.

Yeah. I mean, almost a near historic collapse. Yeah. In September instead of October this year. Yes. And a nucleus of guys who have perhaps been together too long. I haven't been sitting living through it. You have a collection of 34-year-old men.

Yeah. who were, this is kind of one last hurrah. I don't even know. They all have 10-year contracts. I mean, so, like, yeah, I expect to, this is just my theory, and of course I'm not a Phillies fan, but I expected a dramatic falloff for the two remaining. To Schwerber and Harper. Yeah.

Trey Turner's already there. They're going to go join them. I think, I think. I would imagine if we're doing baseball, like I would imagine Don Mattingly is, is going to be leaving the club at the end of the season and that Alex Cora will come in. and hopefully maybe we'll trade one of our big bads to get some depth, some change the team up a little bit. The Philly season, though, I think you could reasonably say, if they go all the way, would be, it has kind of the makings of a storybook, baseball, Hollywood movie. You know, like a bunch of guys you've spent a lot of time with over the years.

You've kind of given up on them. And yet, there might still be a little magic in there because the baseball playoffs are just about getting hot. If you get hot for six weeks, you can change a franchise's entire relationship to the team and history. And the movies are, I think the best movies are really good at that. And a lot of the movies are about kind of signing up for a season with the team, which I really enjoy. Baseball movies are about 100 years old. Speedy, the silent comedy from 1928, features a hardcore Yankees fan as the protagonist. And we don't have very many of them now.

and yet next year, we have not one but two studio comedies about baseball. That's time. Basewell's back. Do you think so? Strike, yeah. Well, there you go. Give us some form of baseball if we can't watch the actual games. I mean, it feels like there's a little bit of a return, right, that there are a lot of good

young players and people have been hikes the last couple years. A couple years ago, obviously improved things, right? Games are shorter, more people are watching. I mean, maybe not borne out by statistics, but they can spin it, you know, to say that's true. I don't know. You watch a lot of baseball. Is baseball back? I don't know. I mean, never went away for me. It never went away for you. I did grow up in a home where the baseball game would be on every night. That was sort of, we weren't a huge TV household, but that was allowed and it was sort of like the background noise, of course.

And so I am used to baseball as kind of like a companion type entertainment and the way that I think a lot of people use like cable news now. And we haven't had it on that much. Different effect for sure. She looked right happy. You go to Caitlin Collins. You are the MSNBC mom in my life. Those are my gals. The MS and Alice Supremes?

I love them. Yeah. I don't really watch her a lot. I watch, God, I did somebody's show for LeBron. Who did I do? And I was like, this is big for me. Great, and now you can't remember. It was like Casey Hunt.

Was it Katie Turr? No, it was You would remember The girl I did it with She's like, I think she went to high school or Zach with it. Okay. Yeah.

Listen. A Quaker in the mix. We haven't had it on that much this year. I don't know. And you know what's interesting is that finally DirecTV and sports spectrum

all of the local news oligarchs in Southern California straighten things out so I could just pay directly for a Dodgers subscription. rather than paying three times to not be able to watch the daughters. And then we didn't even watch that. It's one of my favorite moments in Big Pick history.

I'm going off the dome here, but I want to say it was the Monkey Man pod. Does that sound right? We're in the middle of that podcast. And I happened to have a very, very, like, significant memory of this because I was stuck in a one hour, seven-minute attempt to leave Angel Stadium parking lot. So I was at a baseball game. You just started talking about the Mets and then you started railing against the limits. Like we had MLB League pass, plus we paid for YouTube TV. It doesn't matter.

And it does not matter. There was nothing that I could do. And they did fix that. And then we didn't turn it on. The good news is the finances of the Dodgers are great. Sure. Everything's going to be perfectly fine since they figured out that issue. I think that that colors a little bit of the baseball season.

If not, I'll be curious to see if that infects any of the relationship to the two movies that are coming out next year. But like the Dodgers thing, I think, has put a little bit of a pall over the sport over the last few years, and this feels like we've reached maximum Dodgers frustration where it's very evident that there's some criminal enterprise underneath the experience. I'm not officially indicting the man. I have their legal power. It's just one man's opinion, yeah. Yeah.

You know, it seems fairly obvious. Do you think that Moneyball killed baseball movies? You mean Moneyball? Oh, killed baseball a baseball. The movie or the philosophy. The movie, well, first of all, like it tries its hardest in that film to create a romance out of statistical analysis in advance. Sure.

I cannot be romantic about baseball. But like, for lack of a better phrase, it's almost like too good. And then like after that there's like this kind of like retrenchment of like, all right. So like what would a baseball movie in a world where people know what warp and war are? What do you think? It's really interesting. I hadn't thought about that. I think there's probably something to that.

I think there's also just something to the state of the world and the cynical. headspace that we all share. We're like, I don't know, a lot of baseball movies, and I say this with, like, love and from a position of gratitude for this, but they're incredibly corny and incredibly saccharine, and they require you to give yourself over to that feeling, right? They're often about some sort of connection to yourself, to your community, to your family, to somebody across time, right, to your sense of capacity and achievement.

And, like, I don't know. there have been good baseball movies since Moneyball. Like, everybody wants them was delightful, but that's not necessarily the most widely seen baseball movie. Nor was it intended to be, right? But the way that people would point to the movies from the late 80s and early 90s in particular and say those were some of the defining films,

to your point from earlier, Chris, like of our childhood or of that moment in time, that doesn't feel true. Yeah, there are two post-Moneyball baseball movies that I hold very dearly. neither are about the fable fairy tale Cleveland team that goes to the World Series

or they're not even really about the majors and if I'm not about the majors and if I'm guessing the two correctly one is about one is like a game but it's really about everything that happens and around the world of the game that's Ephus and then everybody wants them is about

dudes rocking you know adjacent to a baseball team did the world way that we, I was going to say we like I watch a lot of sports, but the way that watching sports change, change the way that we relate to any of these movies. I mean, it does feel like there's so much extracurricular sports watching. I'm thinking about fantasy leagues and all of the other content that so much of being a fan is outside of the game. And most of the movies before Moneyball are like about there is a climactic game in a professional in the sports league.

I think it's an insightful question. I'm not sure that it infects the enjoyment of baseball movies so much as just the market forces of them not being appealing to audiences. The reason why it felt like the 90s was this boom time for me specifically

is because there's a period between 1992 and 1996 where they're making a ton of baseball movies for kids. Yeah. And those movies I saw every single one of them in movie theaters. And they're all quite unusual. They're all fucking great. At the time, at least, they were very charming.

Yeah. And that was, you know, that generation of baseball fans really fell in love with the stars of the sport and thus fell in love with the sport and thus fell in love with all the surrounding material around it. Moneyball the book and what it did to the sport itself may also have infected downstream our ability to enjoy and even just narrativeize the sport on screen. Plus, it obviously has fallen pretty clearly into third or maybe even fourth place in terms of big American sports. Yeah, and there's like a kind of counterintuitive aspect to that.

We're on the one hand, the fact that maybe baseball is a little bit less central in the public consciousness into the shared experience makes it for the studios or filmmakers less like, oh, this is a sure thing. This is going to be a winner to make a movie about baseball just because of the question of like despite my prior baseball's back statement, do people care about baseball? Are they going to get excited? But I think the flip side of that too is like, I know you said earlier there haven't been that many baseball movies, but 70 some is that's. That's not nothing. Whereas, like, now, obviously, F1 is just top gun and cars. But that's tapping into a new boom of American fandom, like a fledgling group of people who are saying, I'm interested in this for the first time. I watch Drive to Survive. I want to, oh, I've been thinking about is F1 for me. Maybe I'll check out this movie. You know, wrestling movies,

boxing movies. Like, they're just like a, we're not just making baseball, basketball, football movies all the time. There's a huge component to this, too, which is that it's really hard to look like you're credibly playing baseball at a high level. Like, just to look like you're a pro player. Unless you're Kevin Costner. Yeah. And there have been a few stars who have gone back to the well a few times because they are so credible. We, you know, I know you sell prime time. I don't know if you sell prime time. This is a, not even a spoiler, but there is a scene in which Robert Pattinson has a catch and throws baseball. Obviously did? Pretty credibly, I thought. Yeah, sure. Okay. But like. This is revisionist history on your part. Well, relatively speaking,

given his British heritage. Do we think Skylar Garzando in that scene is faking being bad at throwing? I asked that question on the pot. I don't know. Presumably yes. My answer was yes. But it was pointed out to me, of course, and this may come up in terms of what you think qualifies as a baseball movie, but Robert Pattinson plays baseball in Twilight. Yeah, of course. Okay. The Twilight Baseball scene is. Okay. So point of order. You've opened up Pandora's box. Yeah. Well, you, there's, we should talk about the categories for this draft, which are the usual drama comedy at Sean Added Kids movie and Wild Card. Yeah. And we also have, uh, based on a true story. and high concept. For either high concept or wildcard.

Yeah. If you're taking high concept to mean this is a high concept picked by me. Oh. Or. Interesting. No, wildcard should be... Or wildcard should be baseball scene and not baseball movie. This was going to be my pitch.

Okay, so baseball parentheses, basically. Wildcard could be anything. I'll make wild card can be anything in the world of baseball related to movies. Right. So it could just be another baseball movie or it could be a documentary, but you could also do. Exactly. I was thinking of a very broad definition for wildcard. Okay.

I'm down with your high... I was thinking of it high concept, meaning high concept on the page, the premise of the movie. Yes, but if you can make the argument that this pick is... You prefer just all go on wildcard for the sake of not chaos, right?

I don't really care. As long as wildcard can be whatever baseball movie I want it to be or whatever baseball scene I want it to be. Yeah, then that's fine. Then you, you know... We'll see. I'll give you a high...

Now here. Because there's a limited quantity of films, the balance between high concept and kids' movie makes it very competitive. Those two categories, there will be a dearth. Whereas drama and comedy, there are a lot of picks. You may not love all the picks that you get, but there are a lot of options. Those other categories, a smaller number makes it more intense as we go through it. That's going to be really interesting in the first and second round because, you know, draft strategy versus like this is clearly the best movie. Like, are we going to take...

Well, there are some really good ones of high concept and based on a true story, actually. couple real doosies at the top. But like there are a couple movies that would definitely be picked as drama or comedy. It's like those categories are so deep. Does it make sense to do that in the first round? But if you can get your favorite baseball movie, are you not going to do it? Yeah. The fun of the game.

Do you want to have the movie you love or do you want to have the best overall board? Yeah. Any other thoughts before we pick our draft order? I'm curious if you guys think that there's like a clear number one or even a clear top four. No, I think there's a lot of personal variance. And then there's a free-for-all. I generally agree with that. I think there's a Mal Rushmore.

I had one more question. Do you guys have a story that's been, that's happened in the world of baseball or even like you can even think of that's happened since Moneyball that you kind of wish there was a movie about? Oh my God. What a great question, Chris. Mals is Freddie Freeman's road trip with his cat.

That's right with the, yeah. What about Freddie Freeman's... When you talk, I listen. I listen. I'm also seen a known by you right now. What about Freddie Freeman's trip to Istanbul to get his teeth fix? I was going to say the veneers can really come into play. The cat has a little like a manicure, pedicure on the car. You're not from veneers.

Now, why are people mad about it? Well, it's just that they're... The chaper one said it best. Let people have bad veneers. No, yeah. People can do what they want with their teeth or anything else. She did. I think there was just a few L.A. athletes who have some very prominent vineyards.

There are many other things going on. Are you? I'm never going to do it. I can't do it. Venues? Yeah. And now... Amanda Dull.

Now Sye and I have matching chip teeth. So it's fine. You should do it. You should do it. I'll make a deal with you. I'll make a deal with you. You said that? No, no.

If you do it, I'll never acknowledge it. I know. You said that. And that's not true. I'm not going to do it. I can't do it. But it's just like of all of the problems, Freddie Freeman getting his teeth fixed.

I don't really care. Look, the Dodgers have it all. Yeah. And to that point, Otani would be a Hollywood story. He's a great, he's a great movie. It would also be an interesting heart of darkness underbelly story.

Of course. Yeah. No, you need to do the trailer. Lance Altenheim's Otani. That is the story. Can you imagine if Sidney Lament was still with us and he made a movie called The Translator and it was about it. That would be awesome. I mean, there's a lot of like classic stories.

Like we have not had a dramatized McGuire Sosa movie. And that's a really rich story. Their friendship, the chase and then all the aftermath and the kind of really the fall of that era of baseball in a lot of ways. It could be a really good film. Yeah. A starwriter, I think, would be really good. I mean, God, there's some gambling stuff to do. do certainly. You could do something

in a few years when Trout finally wins the World Series with the Phillies after returning home. Oh yeah, really big. A career, the best player of his generation who just couldn't win with the Angels finally goes home. You could do that. My pitch obviously will be, you'll still be fiddling with your fucking formula. Pete Alonzo.

I think we're going to need some success in Baltimore before making a movie about that. You would make a movie about a guy having like an okay season for an OECDs? Pete Lons are at 43 home runs. How dare you? I would do, did you guys ever see the video of the kid from LSU who was a pitcher and, like, lied to his coach that he used to be a, used to hit back in high school. So his coach let him pinch it and he hit a home run. And like his postgame conference was like, I just lied, coach.

I'm sorry. I just wanted to hit nukes. I didn't see that. But it's like one of those things where it's like that would be a good movie. But in the age of like reels, it's kind of hard to like squeeze any more juice out of that. Yeah, I mean, but that is, you find a lot of baseball movies have those kinds of premises, too, where they're not about the biggest stars. But this is like a wow, true life story, which is why based on a true story is one of our categories here today. Okay, this will be interesting.

Let's do a draft order. Jack, what do we got? Just want to say, Mal, you're talking a lot of shit for a team that treated their franchise cornerstone to their division rival and missed the playoffs. Here we go, draft order. Franzi Adley Rochman, franchise cornerstone? Was that, was he not the prince who was promised? Are you serious? No.

You're being delusional. This is revision. history. Come on. Maybe holiday. God damn it. Selecting first is Mallory Rubin.

I don't know if it's a great draft to select first. I got to be honest. I mean, I'm happy. I disagree. I disagree. But it's a long wait for the second. Selecting second is Amanda Dobbins.

Okay. I'll take it. And third is Sean Fennacy, fourth Chris Ryan. Okay. I'll turn. I'll have to wait for the turn to come back. I dreamt on the turn last night, actually.

You dreamt. I did. Did you literally dream about it? No. I don't dream about this show. at all, ever. You don't dream. I do dream, but I don't remember my dreams. Then how do you know that you dream? Because I've had dreams sometimes. Okay. Like I've had, I've remembered, you know, somewhere between 10 and 100 dreams in my life. Okay. That's it. I don't, yeah. Are they,

are they, are they, are they, are they, are they, are they? I have a couple. Okay. I haven't had an anxiety dream in a while. Wow. Congratulations. Yeah, that must be nice. My life is amazing. I had the, that kind of vulnerability either really. Man. Everyone at this table knows that I'm a desiccating husk of fallen emotion. So that's, it's easy for me to say. But yeah, I don't dream. You dream all the time? I used to remember my dreams more often, but I do dream.

The thing is, I wake up a lot throughout the night, so I have more opportunities to remember a dream. You ever lucid dream? Yeah. That's a powerful experience. That's the nap dream. You start to really go out of your mind. That can be very good. Usually have a 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. dream.

Yeah. That's pretty vivid. That's when I remember my dreams the most as well. How wet are your dreams? Sodden. Okay. Okay. Number one overall Mallory.

They shouldn't be allowed to sit next to each other. Mel, thanks for being here. Guys, thanks for having me. I love this podcast. I love all of you. I love baseball and I love film. I also love Kevin Costner. Can you rank those orders?

Those in order with Costner, which we all know what your thing is going to be. Yeah, I mean, this is no surprise to anyone. I'm taking Bull Durham. It's a question of the category. Bull Durham is not only my favorite baseball movie and my favorite sports movie. It's one of my three favorite movies, like, ever.

I just love Bulldorm. It's a formative movie in my life. When I saw it for the first time, junior year of high school, I watched it five days in a row. And I just love it. It is everything I want in a baseball movie. It's obviously a great romance. Yeah.

I mean, Annie and All-Timeur, absolute all-timer. Nukal-Lush, what a character. And Crash Davis, historic, and, you know, Crash ironing at his boxers. Foundational text. It really is. It's just Boho Crash. do make speeches. It's just a wonderful movie. It has some of the most quotable lines,

lollygagging, candle sticks. Ron Shelton, former member of the Baltimore Orioles farm system. I mean, come on. What do you want for me? But I think this is a movie where, you know, Annie's opening monologue about the stitches on a baseball and the beads on a rosary, you know right away that you're going to get a really special experience that is an examination of the struggle and the euphoria that baseball uniquely provides. and it's just absolutely magic. It's incredibly funny. You know, you couldn't hit water

if you fell out of a fucking boat. Like, I've watched this movie 500 times that I cackle like a lunatic every time Crash says that to nuke. The garters. What is this wrong lyrics for the song? Is she maybe wooly? Yeah.

Women get wooly. Women don't get bullied. They don't get wooly. It's just so great. You know, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains, the baseball cliche machine, all of it. But like when Crash, I mean, obviously, like, I believe in the cock, the pussy,

that whole speech is iconic. But when Crash says to Annie... I was just going to say that's the peak of Kevin Cosman. Like that scene, that's it. In his boxers. Yeah. From there on... That's a different one.

But, yeah. From there on, he's, you know, kind of holds altitude for, like, a few years and then it's over. It's just, it really is an incredible crash performance. It's amazing. The, I think. One of my favorites always, though, until obviously, you know, 60-minute man and fucking in the bathtub and in the bathrobes and knocking the milk over on the kitchen counter, the cereal. Like all of it's just incredible. If you think you're winning because you're getting laid or because you're not getting laid, then you are and you should know that.

Like has always felt to me. Yeah, I do. As a fan. Superstitions. Yeah. Like, I think there is something that this movie understands about what it is like to try to play baseball, crash, a career minor leaguer who has to train this high. who doesn't appreciate the thing that he has, but also to sit there in the stands every day.

To give yourself over to this team and this experience, it's just really unmatched and unrivaled. I love it. I guess I'm going to take it in comedy, even though comedy is such a loaded category. I hate to draft comedy in the first time. I could take it in drama. I think there's a case for it in almost every category here,

except for high concept. Kids movie? No, no, it's not a kid's movie. It's based on a true story of Ron Shelton's experiences. There's a lot of real minor league baseball, and it's a real minor league baseball time. I was going to ask if based on a true story felt like too much of a stretch or if it felt eligible. I think it's a stretch and the board would need to consult on it, but it speaks to, I think, the kind of like the flexibility of the movie. Yeah, certainly that is undeniable in terms of what informs it.

We're dealing with a lot. Curse gloves, et cetera. Can I take it in that category? Based on a true story? I don't know if it's based on a true story. I don't know if it's based on a true story. I think it's based on a story. I think it's based on his personal experiences, but it's not based on the same thing.

I'm going to take it in... I'll take it in comedy. That feels like the truest place for it to be, even though it's a loaded category. Okay. What a great movie. You guys like Bull Durham? Big Finn. Yeah, I deleted it from the top of my comedy category.

Would everyone have taken it with the first pick? No. I'm about to take my first pick. I assume I know what yours is. Yeah, in drama, which is, of course, Moneyball. Okay. One of my favorite movies of this century, as we did. What number was it for 25 for 25?

Yeah, that's kind of low, but that's okay. It was accurate. You know, it is a movie about the, like, intellectualization and the, you know, numberization and the corporatization of sports that then turns it back into, as Mal has already, quoted like the most romantic movie about baseball and sports made in our lifetimes. Incredible bad Brad Pitt performance. Incredible score that the last time the Phillies did something good in the playoffs. You remember the Bryce Harper home run that then immediately got set to the Hatton, Chad,

Hatton, what's Chris Pratt's character's name? Hattabberg. The music when it cuts out. Yeah. Yeah. Great, great meme. I quote this all of the time. And, you know, it's very moving and also a girl dad movie for the girl dads among us. Ben and Miller come back to feature films. I would, you know, Fox Catcher didn't go as we all had hoped, but nevertheless, I would like to see him make another movie. So you're putting this in drama. I am. Out of respect for Mark Mulder and Tim Hudson, who would probably say this was not based on a true story. Miguel Tahada and Eric Chavez.

None of the true stars of the Oakland Athletics really featured in the film. One of the great moments for me of 2025 was when we screen this movie in Chicago. And it was a secret surprise screening. And I'd never really been able to lead one of those before. And so when the movie started and people realized in the room what it was and the excitement and the enthusiasm, that was really, really exciting and fun to watch. Yeah, this is an all-time great. And really the only truly modern all-time classic. You know, like it's...

Yeah. There are some more that have come out after it that I like a lot, but one that I think kind of transcends. Okay. It's my pick at number three? Yeah. Gosh. Where to go? A lot of good choices.

I mean, there are some obvious ones. Yeah, there's some big ones. Why don't you leave those on the board? Take something else. I'm just going to pick my favorite. My favorite. Go ahead. My favorite that is left right now is a league of their own.

Is that what you were thinking? Yeah. Wow. I, I, I mean, I still, I had to take money ball. I had to do it, but I didn't, I thought it might still be there for me. But you know what? You guys are feminists. That movie was never.

That movie wasn't making it out of the first round. No. No. There's no way. I mean, it's the one. I mean, it's just straight up one of the most entertaining movies of all times. So, you know, I'm taking it and based on a true story. Yeah.

Yeah, even though it is also a comedy and a drama and features amazing performances. Gina Davis, Lori Petty, Tom Hanks, of course, great Madonna in this movie. Very funny Rosie O'Donnell in this movie that is based on the true life story of the All-Girls Baseball Association that launched during World War II to sort of backfill for the absence of Major League Baseball during that time. And yeah, I saw this movie, me and my brother and my sister in movie theaters with my mom, which I get was in 92 this. So I was 10 years old And I thought it was hysterical I thought Hanks was unbelievable as Jimmy Dugan And

Where are we at with girls in baseball? Like I think there's a girls baseball team At my daughter's school As opposed to softball Yeah like encouraging young girls To play the sport Yeah I should probably start getting my head around that

I guess I should have asked whether How do you know no question mark was eligible Of course For this for this song Because it's softball I think it's a few good men. Okay. Yeah.

Does Owen Wilson play a baseball player? I thought he's just a sports writer. I can't. Yeah. I saw it once. I don't remember. Baseball? I don't think that's going to be Alice's sport, but if she was like, I want to play baseball, that would be exciting.

Yeah. It was always a bummer to me when I was a kid. I had one year of co-ed t-ball, but then it was like, go play softball. Yeah. And no shade it's softball, but I really wanted to play baseball. Yeah. growing up in Reisterstown, Maryland in the 90s. I really wanted to play baseball.

Calstown. You fucking know it, man. Yeah, yeah. It's, um... BJ Surhoffstown, Brady Anderson's town. One thing about this movie, the baseball is really good. Yeah. The staging and choreography of the baseball sequences, you know, the conclusion of the movie with the slide and the ball falling out of the catchers made.

Incredible moment. If people listening to this... It's not a true story. Have not listened to the rewatchables on a league of their own featuring Mao's strategic breakdown of that last scene and what people should. should and shouldn't do. I recommend it. That's why we podcast, ladies and gentlemen. And yeah, there's like, I don't know, there's just not many better baseball movies in this movie.

Yeah. I want to pitch you guys on something right now. And if you'd like to take the trip to San Francisco since we're, it's going to be October, it's going to be Halloween season. Let's all dress as the racing peaches for a league of their own. I've never gotten to do it. You know how that was always like the hot girl group costume at Halloween and college? You find me and Sean to dress it. Yes, and I'll do it too.

Yeah. Yeah, you can be Jimmy. No, no, no, no, you were all. You have to take a 51 second. Yes. I was going to go as. No, not the problem. Michael Myers.

We're going to go to? Michael Myers. I think that you would look cute in the skirt, you know? I agree. Mike Myers one night. Isn't it Rockford Peaches? Rockford Peaches and the racing. I forget what their team is called.

Anyway, you know, you know the costumes. You know the socks. My sons do like I gotta think about it's gonna be my costume for San Francisco trick And it's always what I think of They drink beverages all day long They do, they just always have the water bottle

That I'm responsible for You go as Michael Myers All goes, art the clown. Deal? I just, I had an idea For a group concert Two night of it. Okay, well I'm just saying

I'm only there for one night. Oh, really? Yeah. Damn. Wow, now I really am not gonna have anyone to have dinner with. Did you hear that he programmed this out so I can't go to dinner?

I did hear about this, but I am going to just wear my Rockford Peaches outfit the entire flight from New York to San Francisco. You more of a kit or a doddy? Kind of one of the... Yeah, for sure. But I will say it feels like one of those things where your answer changes as you age a little bit, just based on like what perspective you're bringing in the moment. But yeah, yeah, it's sort of like an Aiden and Mr. Big situation. And it goes back and forth over time. Way back on Mr. Big.

You're way back. You know a kid or dottie? Oh, me? I don't know. She's... Kind of doddy, I think. Okay. More dottie.

And you? Yeah. Madonna. I mean, definitely. Yeah. Yeah, what was Madonna's? Oh. May more to be dope.

Sure. Yeah. Madda is so odd. What was Rosie O'Donnell's character name? Rosie was Doris Murphy. Yeah. That's a great character name. Wow.

Special film. Directed by Penny Marshall. Fold are on Moneyball. League of their on. Yeah. No surprise at that. That's the top three. CR number three, number four and number five.

On the turn, two movies from the same friggin year. Let's take Field of Dreams in Drama, 1989, Valda Robinson's, Elite. Adaptation of W.P. Kinsella's novel about Chulis Joe Jackson, coming back to life and healing generational divides and families. And this movie, everybody's got one that's like, This movie is my emotional kryptonite. Yeah.

This movie destroys me. This is almost not a rewatchable for me because it's too affecting. And yet we did it as a rewatchable. We did it as a rewatchable. Yeah. But like some of like the hardest, ugliest cries ever could come in the last 15 minutes. Oh my God. That's really very beautiful.

And it's really quite great. Like I watched it probably within the last five years the whole way through. And for as corny and maybe as. like cheesy as some of the stuff is like boomer you know hippiedom kind of like recovery stuff god damn james earl jones is good in this and costner is great in this am 80 amy madigan is great in this and busfield is good in this and like leota looks beautiful in this movie as joe jackson it's just an awesome awesome film dude i rewatch this like when you said we were doing the draft i knew i would only have time to watch a few of them but i think the way i live my life is i'll just never miss

an opportunity to rewatch Bullderman Field of Dreams. And actually I did Moneyball too. No matter how many times I see it. There are a lot of the big cries, as you said, Chris, but when Moonlight Graham takes that step. I mean, it just destroys you no matter how many times. Like that idea of living your life for a thing that you never got to taste and then you get it for a second and it's gone again. Yeah.

What the fuck? The thing about this movie, I rewatched it in 2024. And I similarly have a very emotional relationship to it. I think most young people when you see this movie, and especially boys and their dads, there's huge stuff going on there. But it's an extremely strange movie about obsession. And at times it feels like a little bit more like a horror movie

than it does like a fantasy drama. Yeah, there's a voice in the porn film telling him what to do. And he's like risking his family's well-being on it. Yeah. For sure. Just ask his wife a number of times if she thinks he's insane. Exactly. Yeah. So it is not, I think it's not maybe what younger generations might think it is based on the poster of Costner standing in front of the moonlight and the cornfield. I would say the last 20 minutes are different than the rest of the movie. You know, like that, the rest of the movie is like, at times surreal, at times comic.

It feels like a midlife crisis movie. Yeah, and a midlife crisis movie. And then the last 20 minutes are like, holy shit, the waterworks are on. Yeah. Same year, I'm going to take Major League in comedy. This is kind of like the two sides of my 12-year-old being. One was like getting in touch with like a world of adult emotion and like ideas about like, you're not always going to be young and like time is a thing. But then this major league is a movie that I just watched 403 times. And it was just like Rick Vaughn is an important person to me.

as was Renee Rousseau in this film. Yeah. Sure. This is David S. Ward's movie about what would happen if the now Cleveland Guardians, but back then, Cleveland Indians, had somehow made a crazy run into the playoffs against all odds with the evil owner Rachel Phelps, who's trying to sabotage the team. Was that the actress? So that she can move the team to Florida and live like a better life outside of Cleveland.

Little did we know the then Florida Marlins were right around the corner. The team would change their name to the Guardians. And this is an ensemble of like Dennis Hayesbert, Corbin-Burdson, Charlie Sheen, Tom Berringer, Wesley Snipes as Willie Mays Hayes, a ton of character actors, and it's just a season of baseball comedy. And it is perfect still. It's so fucking good when Wild Thing comes in. Oh, my God. When they play the song in the whole stadium sings, it's fucking electric. It really is.

I don't know how this one ages or how it goes for like, I don't know, like how it would play for like a 13 year old now, but I don't know, it's a pretty perfect movie in its own own way.

Great back. I want to give some love to James Gammann, the manager, Lou. Lou Taylor. He's unbelievable. Has a heart attack in Major League 2. I probably have seen Major League 2 more than Major League 1.

Really? Why? Because it was on cable all the time as a kid. Omar Eps fan. You know, He did a solid work filling in for Wesley. We would have preferred Wesley Snipes, but, you know, he did his thing.

Okay. Those are two very good picks. There's a character in Major League two named Kamikaze Tanaka, who I don't know if that's the most sensitive naming of a character I've ever seen. Oh, dear. I wouldn't say Major League also, you know, James Verdez character, Pedro Serrano, not exactly the most woke characterization. Yeah.

A voodoo practicing slugger. Okay. Can't hit the curveball. I mean, those are two all-time classics. I'm going to take the most recent favorite in comedy and take everybody wants some. Oh, okay. I love that movie.

Just because I think it is the most elite baseball hangout movie of all time. I think the thing that it gets the most right is what baseball bros are like. You know, I played travel baseball. I was just talking with somebody about this. Maybe even your husband, Amanda, but it was like, I joined a travel baseball team when I was eight and I played travel baseball until I was 17. And so I, in addition to playing for the school team, was just around my teammates, around all year for 10 years.

Were you preparing Zach for the next decade of his life? That's what we were talking about. I was like, you've got two boys and they're both look like athletes. Yeah. You're fucked. Yeah. And I wasn't even that good, but I was still on a team that was like traveling all around Long Island every Saturday morning. San Bernardino on a Saturday.

I was going to say, do you want to be the travel baseball coach? I think you need to be more esteemed. No offense. I know you were calling a ball player yourself. I guess by that I meant like family coach. Oh, you mean like your chauffeur? Perfect trainer. Yeah. This movie obviously is about a college team, a Texas college team that is very specifically

based on Richard Linklater's experience. He grew up as a very competitive baseball player. And the camaraderie of dudes. Like Sam Houston State? That's where he played. Yeah. I don't know if that's actually the school that is portrayed in the movie, but that is where he played.

And it's just very authentic to the way the guys should talk, the way that they talk about girls, how they party, their relationships, their friendships, their their, their, um, rivalries, you know, the ways they don't get along. The, what is Kurt Russell's son's name? Wyatt. Wyatt.

The Wyatt Russell character in this movie is one of the greatest creations in modern history. So good. Is him listening to Fleetwood Mac? It's Pink Floyd. Is it Pink Floyd or is it the, I thought he was listening to, I thought it's the early Fleetwood Mac's song.

Oh, you might be right. It is instrumental. It might be painful. I can't remember anyway. Taking bong hits and then we later learned out, learn that he's 30 years old. One of the most amazing reveals, like, casually is to leave the team. This movie cracked me up and is a very warm and cozy nightlight kind of a movie that I really dig. So I'll take that in comedy.

Great one. Great pick. Oh, Dobbins. What are you going to do? I'm going to go kids movie. And I'm going to do Sandlot. Well, listen, you got to. I think that was the leader.

I was like, it's right there. I mean, this is, so this is also, this is 93. So you get a league of their own in 92, sandlot in 93. I was like eight and nine. Saw both of these in theaters. I don't want to bring up any harsh memories. But baseball is like alive locally. Mm-hmm.

Sure. Where I was at that time. And this is. They say much the same thing in Moscow right now, you know? I've renounced. them. Okay? I was there, but I left. They hadn't won yet at this point.

Yeah, but it was exciting. And you got to, you know, they were in, and they had not been like exciting for a long time. And it was, down on the chop. Not good. I don't think that we should be doing that. That was embarrassing. Still going. I was there last year. Anyway, now, I remember watching this as a kid. I've watched it.

No, it's insane that they still do it. It's absolutely, everything about the Braves then, but especially now, was outrageous. Yeah. Many people are saying. The sandlot. Yeah. It's great.

It's amazing. The sandlot. Let's bring it back to the sandlot. I showed this to my son, who's for my older son, who does play T-ball. And he loved it. Asked to watch it again the next day, which is the sign of a movie really. Yeah. So there was a maverick.

Incredible, like, ensemble of young kids, including I had forgotten until I rewatched how, like, important Mike Vitar, Vitter, was to me. growing up and then he just and he doesn't act anymore he's like that's funny the jet yeah yeah yeah yeah uh powerful childhood childhood powerful powerful powerful powerful childhood crush i just also got to say like the the costume design and these boys yeah that it is certainly my fashion inspiration for my children and maybe possibly for myself they look so awesome are you kidding no i know they're amazing they're the coolest kids in the world uh we had wendy pepper corn they had they had benny the judd yeah uh so san lans it is for me.

I think that's the right pick. I was hoping it would somehow fall one more to me. Yeah, I respect. I respect the choice. I think that the draft is pretty unimpeachable so far.

Without looking, who's the director of the Sandlot? David Mickey Evans. Wow. Who also directed National Improintz barely legal. Okay. You wouldn't know that.

You started? Recently. Yeah. He also directed First Kid. Remember First Kid? And Beethoven's But first kid is not chasing liberty. Well, no, those are two different films.

Right, but they are about the same concept. But the first kid was a more irreverent comedy. Sure. What happens in chasing liberty? Can you tell me right now without... Mandy Moore is the daughter of the president. Yes. And she wants to be free.

Who to... Who is the president? Yeah. Sinbad. Nope. Oh, I'm thinking of the Channing Tatum movie where he protects James. Fox as the president? Is it like Tim Matheson?

Who is it? No, it's Mark Harmon. Oh, Mark Harmon. Right. And then who is the person that, uh, so why, how does she want to be free?

She wants to be free because she's fallen in love with a classmate who's played by Leonardo DiCaprio. No, she wants to go to some parade in Berlin and she falls in love with her secret service agent played by. Oh, Chris Pine. Matthew Good. Chris Pine is Princess Diaries too.

Absolutely. I love Matthew Good. Please get your source tests. Is there any baseball in any of these movies? No. Love. I don't know, actually. Could be a chasing liberty.

Oh, man. All right, now, you have a turn. I do. Two turns, in fact. A couple of movies that I really love are here. All classics off the board thus far. I think we've got some left. For sure.

We've got some left. So I'm going to go high concept here. Because that, as you noted earlier, is like, not the deepest category. And I could still get one of my top two picks in that in that, uh, in that field. So I'm going to take the natural as my high concept. Okay. Price is still on the board. Yeah. I didn't think it would be a first or pick, but I thought it would be a second. Yeah, I'm super excited to hear you try to explain this.

Go ahead. At the table where I was told that Middiclorians were in a Skywalker family. What's high concept about a guy being good about it baseball? But that's, oh, Chris, if only it were so simple. So tell me it was so complicated about it. I think so when I asked Sean what's high concept, he said anything that has like a magical quality or something that is like highly myth. Yeah. Why are you doing all of this? Remember when he berated me on the Star Wars draft and was like ask me more questions and sometimes then I'll let you do things. I learned my lesson.

Why are your nostrils flaring already? I only ask you one question. This was the only question I asked you. He's a very relaxed dungeon master today. I feel like we could get away with a lot. I'll read with you what I wrote to Mallory. But he's right. Why is this happening behind closed doors? She texted me. Yeah. But again, why?

They didn't want to bother you guys. Bringing in the council. I wrote anything that features a magical presence or quality, anything that is absurdist and gimmicky. Uh-huh. So I would posit that... It's pretty broad. Yeah, that's broad enough to make a lot fit, including the natural, a movie where a prodigious

talents, life and career are derailed by. by a ill-timed bullet wound, but also a magical bat is felled by a bolt of lightning? Wonderboy. Lightning bolts hit trees all the time. I think the natural qualifies. Okay. I think it's close, but there's a mythological quality to the stories. This is baseball gods come to earth.

Like, Roy Hobbes is a baseball god. He is a mythic figure. He's as much a comic book figure and a figure of lore as he is a baseball player. And so I think by that standard, it qualifies. Okay. What do you think? I'm going to allow it. I forgot.

I forgot about the also the random gun person. I mean, and why that happens. His girlfriend. Yeah, I know, but it's. Is it Kim Basinger? Yeah. What a night that was. Worth it?

Some might say worth it. It's a bit of a confusing moment in the story. It is. That's another kind of why I think high concept. It is actually a little bit of a, oh, wait, this is the plot of this movie. Like, every time you return to it. But look, you can't really say Roy Hobbs or, or these certain key terms from the natural

without thinking of the spray of the lights when the Homer hits the light tower. It's just, it's great. Never tire of the natural. So that's my pick for high concept. And then because Sandlot is off the board, I will go bad news bears as my kids movie. Which one?

The first. Okay, good. The first. With respect to all the breaking training heads out there, of which I am one, I'm going with the first bad news bears. Great movie. You know, Kelly Leek.

An important figure. An important figure for people of our age. The cigarettes. The attitude. In general, bad news bears. You know, what a wonderful story that examines. What is winning really worse? What does it mean?

You know, second chances, newfound connection. And also tell those fucking Yankees where to stick their trophy, you know? Great film. Do you like the sequel? I do, actually. Do you like the Linklayter remake? I'm always one thing I'm I like pretty much every link later movie one thing I'm always a little bit troubled by as I age is when people are like oh I watched the wrong bad news bears oh yeah which happens a lot I think meaning they watch the Billy Balton version instead of the original wait so that's always that happens I think with increasing I've never seen it until this year yeah and it is wonderful it's such a delight and I was like oh this it's great it's Michael Ritchie and him in the middle of an amazing period of film movies and it's edgy and it's edgy and it's edgy

It feels when you're a kid. It's definitely a kid's movie, but it feels edgy, right? It feels like slightly promiscuous in a fun way. So, yeah, the natural and high concept, bad news, bears, and kids' movie. Back to Dob Mob. Yeah. I'm sorry for what's about to happen. Oh, boy.

Summer Catch? What? No, I just, I, many of my comedies are off the board, so I am going to take Ephis. That's fine. Which I also, it's a beautiful movie. Is that a comedy? It's funny. It's observational comedy.

It's also quite sad. I would put it in drama personally. So are all comedies because comedy is about exploring your trauma through laughing, right? What? What's that? You circle on that? I don't know. It is funny.

It would be considered a comedy, but at the end of it is like a real existential. Of course. Which is why I respond to it. instead of, you know, some of like the more slapstick options. Yeah, this is, as we were referencing earlier, a movie about a rec league and one game that goes on and on. And everything that it reveals about this community of people and what baseball means to them, but also just what it is to be a person and trying to connect with people and trying to find something that has meaning and to preserve it. A real hidden gem from the last couple of years.

Really wonderful. So that is Ephis, and that's my comedy. My name is Siyah, and I live in the most beautiful place on Earth. Seven months ago, I blew up my life, and a lot has shifted since then. Everyone is moving forward. I'm still working on that. And that's me. Welcome to Ice Cove.

Where are the penguins? That's Antarctica. We're the other one. North of North Stream all episodes Available on CBC Gem For 50 years Canadians have wondered

what the names of IKEA furniture mean Like Natopa The Guardrail for Children's Beds Natopa means Giving your favourite person room to grow It means their safety And your piece of... No

In Swedish Natopa means Night Monkey Mom He's back Ikea, 50 years of Swedishness at home. Look, he's wearing little pajamas. So cute.

In a tough spot. I'm going to fucking kill you if you get me again. I'm in a tough spot. Because there's three movies I want, and there's no way all three of them are going to last through Chris's turn. I'm ghostbustering you, man. I'm trying to ESPU. Are you being Vigo?

I'm just trying to project what I want. I've done it. I can only do so much. Hmm. It's all good because if you do it, it just means we're brothers. It's cool. That's beautiful.

In drama, I'm taking sugar. That's not what I was going to do. But I was definitely high up my list. That's a great. Great movie. Well, then that worked out. Bowden and Fleck cooking.

All these picks are great. Is this their last great movie? Did Mississippi Grind come out before this? It did, right? After. After. After. It was after half Nelson and then this.

Yeah. Sugar was 08, right? Anna Bowden and Ryan Fleck, who are probably best known widely for having directed Captain Marvel, which is an atrocious film. And a couple of episodes of Masters of the Air. They made some TV. They've made some good films since. Was it the Callum Turner episodes? It's the second half after Fukunaga vanished.

I can't remember what. Oh, God, okay. Yeah. Sugar is a film they made in 2008 about a young player who's nicknamed. is Sugar, played by Al Hanas Perez Soto, who is a Dominican farmhand. He's a young, like a rising young talent. The movie is probably the most realistic portrayal of what it means to play in the minor leagues. It's very different from Bulldorum, which is more farcical and fun. And this is more about, it's an immigration story. It's a story about a person kind of lost inside of a culture

and also a person who has to confront what they do when they're a lot. Life doesn't work out exactly as they're told it's going to work out. Very, like, sharply, nicely observed drama. And there's not a lot of films about this, like this, about sports in general. It is not about a famous person that features an actor you've never seen before. And it does feel like it's from a completely different era in Sundance filmmaking. I really, really like this movie. And it's one of the very few baseball dramas that isn't like a star-laden kind of gloopy vehicle.

and we'll see if people get into any of those films as we keep going in here. But I would take this over some other stuff. Yeah, okay. That's sugar. Good pick. Okay, two for me. Based on a true story, I'm going to take Ait Man out.

John Sales' movie about the Black Sox scandal. I think we've talked about this on this pod. We have. At various points, but the 1919 World Series and the gambling scandal that rocked baseball stars John Cusack, David Strathern, D.B. Sweeney, a litany of other people, especially. Incredible Shoeless Joe pod from you so far.

I know. I've gotten too much. Shulis Joe Jackson. Kind of forgotten because at the time, because a lot of the movies that were coming out about baseball around this time celebrated baseball and celebrated the mythology and the romance and the fantasy of, you know, you'll hit the home run in the last inning or whatever. and this is about a bunch of guys who basically had their lives ruined by participating in

or being adjacent to a gambling scandal in the early 20th century. And it's a fucking incredible movie. Well, part of what's so good about it is, like, there's a lot of nuance in the way that it's portrayed because, like, as with all John Sales movies, it's really about power and wealth and who controls who and the idea of ownership

and just what a terrible... Was it, Kamiski was the owner of the team at the time? Yeah, but there's also... Or Abe... Kamiski... Yeah, no, it was Kamiski because it was the White Sox. But then there's all this stuff about

who put forward effort even in throwing it. You know what I mean? And like the guys, like various guys who didn't really seem to have any idea of what was going on or guys who were basically like, I'm not taking the money, but you can only do so much as an individual and a baseball team.

And that is, I mean, that is part of them, the plot of Field of Dreams, right? Like when he has to reckon with the guilt he carries for saying to his dad, like how could you hear? be a criminal. And then, of course, this is the, this is the penance, right? And this is the way that he can reconnect with ghosts of many forms is to find some empathy for that experience.

So, yeah. So he says that to me all the time about Chase Sutley. I walk into a cornfield. Okay. So I take that in based on a true story. Yeah, you have another pixie. Yeah. And.

Hmm. I think in high concept. I'm going to take the 1, a third 1989 film, and that is Nightgame starring Roy Shiger. Oh, my God. Which is about a Houston police detective trying to catch a serial killer

who only kills blonde chicks while the Astros have night games. This is just... First of all, it's a fantastic pick. Second of all, this is one of the greatest movie posters of all time. It's a hook hand

through a baseball. Okay. Lot of really good Astrodome footage in this movie. Sure. Shider. That's what you were looking for. Shider is on a phone, phoning it in. In this movie, like, whatever he thought he was signing up for, this is the paycheck of all paychecks.

It has such a crazy that guy cast and is mostly about blondes being murdered in Houston. And I'm only emphasizing that because the film goes to great lengths to be like, this guy likes killing blondes. Yeah, okay. It's on Tooby. I highly recommend it. Peter Masterson directed it. Trans World Entertainment put it out. One of our great studios at that time.

Have you seen this one? Big Dog? I have seen this movie. Sitting at a 2.7 on Letterbox right now. I'm looking for the logs. How do I see how many people have seen this movie? Not many. This is the first true twist of the draft.

It'll be interesting testament to my influence in that space to see if we get a couple of a couple more logs. Get those numbers up Hit the one million club There we go You know When it passes Eddington

Peter Masterson also came up I forget for the Hackman Did you watch Full Moon and Blue Water No I don't think so The Terry Gar movie No What a weird career he had

I mean honestly A great CR pick Neither of your picks Were the movies That were on my board Which is fascinating for me A fan out Wasn't on your board

It was but I already Picked based on your story So it was Okay I don't know where to put this movie but I'm going to take this movie because this is also a relic of my childhood. I've got two potential spaces where I can put it.

Okay, that's exciting. And I think I'm going to put it in high concept. Yeah. And I'm going to take Rookie of the Year. Yeah, you got to. This movie rules. This movie's so good. I love it.

I have no problem saying one of my absolute favorite movies when I was 11. Same. It's still one of my favorites. He got there first. It's all I can do. Yes. Henry Row and.

He breaks his arm. He breaks his arm. The tendons stays tight. It's too tight. And the doctor's just like, you don't need to say it like that. Just because we were all of an age where... I was watching night game.

If you know what I'm saying. Indeed. Okay. Yeah, this is wonderful movies. I believe this is Daniel Stern's directorial debut. He also plays the pitching coach in this film. Phil Brickma. Yeah.

Is he the Cubs? The Cubs. Bobby Benia is in this movie as a Met. Yes. The Mets do you get played a key role. Yeah, the Mets are embarrassed, which was hard to accept, but the Cubs were kind of a joke at this time. So it was okay. And they needed something.

A couple of things about this movie. Truly deranged Gary Busey performance as Chet Rocket Stedman. Yeah. He thought he was a night game. He was like, but I love it. He seems completely coquette at his mind. It's so entertaining. Give me a favorite kid.

Don't call me that. A lot of demons. A lot of demons. Thomas and Nicholas. Honestly, great job. Great job by him. I'm not sure that the science checks out on Henry Roan Gartner, being able to throw 104 miles an hour. But it seemed like a lot of fun when I was 11.

I just want to cite two people. One, Amy Morton, legendary Chicago stage actress, TV actress, who plays Henry's mom, who's terrific in the movie. It's so wonderful. And they have that nice moment at the end when he's on the man. I know. They're so good. I may have cheered up watching that this morning. May have.

Like a baby every time I see. No, but I did like rewatch it this morning because I was like, I haven't seen this in many years. This is a great kids movie. And then the last person is Bruce Altman who plays like the new stepdad figure, who's just a real motherfucker. Evil. Just a real motherfucker. Well, I sold them. Yeah, that could have obviously gone in kids movie.

Yeah. And maybe I'll regret not taking it in kids movie. Nevertheless, it is a high concept that a 12-year-old boy would be able to throw 100 miles an hour and strike out major leaguers. Yeah. Okay. What a movie. What a film. That's true.

I probably watched that a thousand times when I was a kid. I watched it all the time. Me too. And that was on my high concept list and now it's out, but that's okay. Things are getting a little thin for me. That's okay. You know, so I'm going to go, except for a wild card where I can go for days. So, based on a true story, I'm going to take the other film that made me cry this morning when I was doing a refresher, which is the rookie.

Oh, yeah. Great movie. Listen, when he calls his son to tell him that he's going to start in the major leagues. I mean, it's wonderful. Yeah. This is a really good movie. Yeah. And everything with the team.

So this is about, it's Dennis Quaid plays a high school coach and I believe, no, a high school teacher. I believe Texas who did not get to pitch. He never got to try out for the major leagues because his dad, Brian Coxon, believe in him. And then he does. It's kind of a sequel to a succession now that I think about it. And then at the age of 35, the high school baseball team that he, coaches kind of like goads him into trying out, and then he ultimately gets to pitch. And it's just absolutely beautiful.

Based on the true story of Jim Morris. Yeah. I would say Dennis Quaid probably has the silver medal for sports movies of this era underneath Casparoony in any given Sunday. And then also, uh, incredibly credible as an NFL quarterback. What's the one with Robin Williams? Best of times. Best of time.

No, that's Kurt Russell. Uh, no, but Quaid is a Ellis. He's, He's got a football movie. Hold on. That's not... That's not any given Sunday? Yeah, a second.

I think he's really good as Caparini. Basically playing Dan Marino in any given Sunday. The Rookie is a really good movie. It's really, really... And, you know, it's like old school. Very classic. Very sentimental, totally Disney-fied,

but works really well. Very emotional. It is the kind of movie that... The early part of this conversation was like, could you still make this? And would you accept it because of its sentimentality? I don't know, but they're trying to do...

What's the... Superman plays a giant movie coming out. Mr. Irrelevant. Mr. Relevant is like, I mean, it's football. It does look good. And I will say he gave like a very convincing intro at Cinema Con just being like, you know, I'm Eagles born and bred. And it was very hard for me to put on a giant's jersey. And I just want you to all know.

Court sweats a G. He is. I don't really recognize that depiction of Lords Taylor in the preview that I've seen. Or Bill Parcells. Or Bill Parcells. Well, it's being played by Michael Shannon. Who is known to play lunatics. Dennis Quay was in Everybody's All-American.

Oh, I've never seen that. Taylor Hackford movie. I've never seen that. Okay. Now we're to Mallory for two picks. Oh, hoie-vee. Okay. We're getting down to the end here.

Who's going to break the seal with Wildcards? I wonder if Mal's going to do here. I am going to take my wild card on the turn. Yeah, I am. I'm going to save drama for last. Mal's got drama based on a true story and Wildcard deal. I'm going to take my base on a true story. I'm going to take 61, which I really love.

I think that movie is great. Billy Crystal. This is the Maris Mantle movie. Shout out Thomas Jane. Always fun to see him. I'm more of a Barry Pepper guy. Barry Pepper is Maris. It's a wonderful performance, just sensational.

Like a fucking optical illusion. I really love this movie. The first time I saw it, I thought it was just absolutely excellent. And I haven't rewatched it as many times as I'd like over the years, but I quite enjoy this film. And it is like a version, you know, you were saying it's kind of like, okay, where's the... Where's the Sosa-McGuire, Bond, Stereid era? Like, movies, this is obviously a historical backdrop for the PED moment that came after in terms of the records and what stands and how we now appreciate the deeper history anew. But movies dramatizations, fictionalizations about real baseball history, and these moments where every single at bat carried some sort of significant consequence, just.

like, I don't know, electric. So yeah, I love that movie. I'm taking 61 in based on a true story. And then I'm going to... Hold on, hold on. Yeah, please. Who is the real, who's the true home run king in baseball, in your opinion? Oh, wow. Okay. Oh, that's a good question. Do you not think it's Barry Bonds because of the steroids? I'm asking your opinion. I, my feeling, this is a very, we could have a four-hour discussion on this, but I think that it's a complicated thing in real time to litigate cheating in baseball because there are versions of cheating in baseball across baseball history. I agree with that.

So betting on the game is like befouling something sacred. So that's why you're not acknowledging Pete Rose's hit king in honor of Grand Wizard Ty Cobb? Barry Bonds hit those home runs. He did it with some aid. To me, it's crazy that Barry Bonds wouldn't be in the Hall of Fame. Do you disagree? Barry Bonds is the best baseball player I've ever seen. without question.

What about you? What do you think? I mean, it's funny, I'm going through this right now. It'll be Aaron Judge by the end of it. Manchester City cheating for the last decade in the Premier League. Has that been happening? Yes. Yeah. And they've been brought up on 114 charges of financial fraud. Oh, I miss this one. Was Jude? Part of it?

Jude is not part of it. Okay, thank God. Jude is not very important to me as well. Not my beloved Jude. Burling Holland is part of it. Oh, dear. Oh, yeah, everybody's got to return those transfers. In any case, I don't think that they should have to give back those trophies.

They won them. There you go. Can you name the 10 seasons in which a player has hit 60 home runs? No. Sorry. Isn't there, like, a bunch recently? Like, didn't Cal Raleigh do it? Cal Raleigh did it last year.

Aaron Judge. Yeah. He did it in 2022. Bonds. Bonds did it one time. He hit 73. Sure did. Roger Maris

hit 61 Hank Aaron Hank Aaron never hit 16 in the season Okay Did Hank Aaron even hit 50 in a season? Not sure that he did

He just hit 40 for 30 years like that I believe so I know Obviously McGuire and Sosa who we already talked about Of course Hank Aaron's the most he hit It was 47 in the season

McGuire Hit it did it twice Sammy Sosa did it three times. Sammy Sosa had 66, 64, and 63 home run seasons. Pretty remarkable. PEDs and quirked bats. Yeah.

Yeah, he did have some help. Barry Bonds was 36 years old when he had 73 home runs. That's older than Kyle Schwaber and Bryce Harper are right now. It's true. So it could go the other way. Yes, they could get on PEDs. On PEDs. Yeah, yeah.

Okay, you have a second pick. I'm sorry to interrupt. Oh, gosh. I think that Jude had some teammate relations issues recently. Okay. Someone from Real Madrid? Oh, yes.

Yeah. But my two remaining categories are drama and wild card. They seem to do that based on what I learned this summer. Okay. The highest overall rated movie that I still have left is... According to who? To me, to my personal ranking. My color-coded spreadsheet that I quickly whipped up.

Great. Could I try to get it into drama? Like, maybe, but I think it would be more authentic to take it as my wildcard. I'm going to take damn Yankees. Mm-hmm. Fuck, Mallory. Sorry. Really?

That was going to be high-concept. Oh, musical comedy and a high concept? I mean, you're selling your soul? Yeah, it certainly could have been. I almost took it in a high concept earlier. Yeah. Then I was allowed to take the dad out. Yeah.

What the fuck, Mallory? I mean, it's fine. Luckily, I have another bad, not another about me. You can get back to me by taking summer catch in the last round. Okay, fine. Whatever. This movie's great. No, I mean, that reaction says, you made the pick for me.

I think with that reaction. Wonderful concept, wonderful film, wonderful, wonderful theatrical production. You guys see this on the stage? No. I didn't, no.

It debuted some time ago. I think you see Tyler Ferguson is like just does it, has been doing it for like 12 years or something. The sensational stuff. Isn't it Bob Fosse who originally did the choreography in this? Yeah, and it's Gwen Varden is in the movie as well. And Fossi is in what I was just singing when they do the Mamba number.

Yeah. Fuck. Sorry. It's fine. Joe Hardy-Hive, Rice. I don't know what else to say. My pick is, the pick I have left is stupid but funny to talk about. Okay, let's hear it.

You're up. Well, who says I'm going to do that? I'm obviously just going to go to Wild Card and take Goodwill Hunting. And the scene with the scene in the therapy office, I had to see about a girl, you know, when he's recounting. Okay, so this is why you were asking earlier. Yeah. Interesting. Multiple baseball scenes in Goodwill Hunting.

But we call it a baseball movie? We talked about this at the beginning You were present for it Where baseball scenes in baseball related scenes In non-baseball movies They do also get kicked out of a little league game The best baseball scene in the movie is going to the little league game Talking shit and sitting in the bleachers

A bunch of fucking losers It's a great movie I think that's totally fine in Wildcard The Carlton Fisk and you know reenacting it and waving it out and I had to go see a about a girl. There we go. So shout out Goodwill Hunting. Who are you rooting for this year in the playoffs? Can't root for the Red Sox.

Probably the Brewers. Yeah. We'll see some Ms. Magic. No, I'm pretty cool. We'd love to the Phillies, you know. We have the Dodgers. We have the Braves and then the Dodgers if we get past the Braves. So it's off road. If we get to pass the Dodgers, it's because, like, God has come down and touched Bryce Harper and it's going to happen. That would be beautiful. That's a, that's a movie making. Could absolutely happen. Okay, is that my pick?

Yeah. Yes. Oh my. Kids movie. Bangers left. I'm going to take the Bad News Bears in breaking training. I'm not going to say it's better than bad news bears. It's not.

It's good. But in terms of like you lost your star and this is clearly a cash grab, kind of remarkably good. Yeah. Sure. Two reasons. One in Major League two. Kind of similar.

Although, rather than try to replicate Buttermaker with a different actor, they bring in William Devane as Kelly Leake's long-lost dad. Kelly Leak finds him. The whole movie is about this struggle between them, their inability to get along. But William Devane turns out to be a great manager. Speaking of the Astrodome, some great Astrodome stuff in breaking training. They're playing against the Houston team.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think legitimately one of the best sports sequels ever, there's a couple of movies that I liked when I was a kid that are still on the board here and we can talk about them. I don't think those movies are actually good though. Whereas I do think the bad news bears and breaking training is good. I'm not trying to sully anyone's pick. Like if you put one of those movies on for me right now,

I think I'd be like, eh, I'm not as into it, but we can save that conversation in case those films come up. So Bad News Bears and Breaking Training. Okay, CR, you've got two, are these your last two picks? These are my last two picks. Can I have Summer Catch in a kid's movie? Young adults. Yeah.

Yeah, what do we mean by kids? I think, why not? I think kids is like a little restrictive. Summer Catch is rated PG-13 for sexual content, language, and drinking. And you know what? I would be mad if it's targeted at 13-year-olds. Yeah, I agree.

Yeah. Beal Lillard, Prince, Denahey. All cooking. Yeah. They're cooking in it? Do you know what Summercatch has on Rotten Tomatoes? I think it's like a 5% It's 8%.

8%. Well, I didn't say it was a long-lost American cinematic classic. It's just my kid's movie of choice. I support you. And it's about Freddie Prins plays a prospect who has one last summer to show his wares to pro scouts.

So he's in this like, basically like this minorly semi-pro league in Cape Cod. Yeah. And then Jessica Beal comes along, gets in his head. And he starts thinking about a life outside of baseball. And all his boys are like, this is your chance. You got to, he's like an Otani-esque two-way player.

And Tenly, this Beale plays this woman named Tenley. She's getting in his head about. Tenly Parish. Yeah. Life and love. This movie was sold so hard to me and many other young men with a very memorable image of Jessica Beal emerging from a pool. Yes.

Sure. Which was prominently featured in the trailer. I know it well. I know it well. I still didn't go. See it. I like it more than the other kids' movies that are left. Okay.

Damn. And in Wildcard, Interstellar. There's baseball interstellar. The Yankees play an interstellar during the Dust Store. I remember the Dustor. The way that Christopher Nolan chooses to communicate the severity of the environmental crisis facing these people is to, is to, is to, is to, ruin a baseball game with a with a dust storm blowing over. Yeah.

We also, in addition to having... We didn't run out of engineers. Right. Ran out of farmers, you know? Right. Right. In addition to having a shoeless Joe draft, you've also had a cornfield draft. Yes, right. And it's telling because I've started to move into off of snow and mountain horror into

cornfield horror. Okay. Okay. It's a cornfield horror season for you. Yeah. Yeah. So what comprises that children of the corn, of course? How many of those films have you seen?

Also, Jeepers, creepers, problematic, but also very good horror movies. And... We have so much time in October to talk about problematic horror movies. I promise. I'm going to carve out a lot of space. I was just saying, corn is on the mind. The more problematic, the movie, the better for you? No, no, not when it comes to horror.

You know, I like it right down the middle. Okay, good to know. Anyway, Interstellar is my wild card. Why not? Can I ask you a sincere question out of genuine curiosity? Are there not

like other more fully framed around baseball baseball movies that you like enough to take? Or is it more just you wanted to take

Interstellar? I'm just curious. High concept was a movie where a guy hits a home run. I'm not, I'm not trying to challenge to pick.

I'm genuinely curious. Are you like, I don't really like any more of these baseball movies? No, I have a bunch that I could have picked. Yeah. But I thought it would be funny

if I did an interstellar. Yeah. And a lot of my wild cards, I would say, are only tangentially baseball or later. Interesting. Okay. I have a wild card. Now, there are plenty of baseball, scripted baseball movies on the board still. A lot of documentaries.

But I'll be taking baseball by Ken Burns. Wait, is that eligible? Is 61 eligible? 61 is a feature film. Ken Burns is a... Where did it air? HBO. But Ken, I mean, the baseball is nine discs. Sure.

I know it's because it was one of the graduation gifts. received from my dad for high school graduation, the buck set. It's a film. It's a documentary film. A lot of great Walter Johnson, big train info in there. Also wild card, you know, we allowed Goodwill hunting, so I think it's okay to allow it. Why are you talking to me like I'm a charity case? We discussed the parameters.

She and I brought good content. We brought good content ideas. As did Ken Burns. I'm here to celebrate. Is this not a mini series, Sean? That's what, that's what I was asking. We have expanded. We've expanded the parameters of this category.

Okay. Feel free. You could have had so much fun, you could have picked something wacky. No. I'm here to represent the historicity of this sport, which is finally told decade by decade across nine innings in the original series. Now, one thing I wanted to point out, there was an expansion of the baseball series in 2010 to account for the time period between 1994 and 2010 that transpired. A lot of time spent on baseball in 9-11 and the relationship that baseball fans had. and, you know, New Yorker's amazing.

Mike Piazza home run after the 9-11 game. It's now been 16 years since the 10th inning installation. Well, you know where this is all going. Ken Burns is National Parks, Ken Burns is baseball. When they play a baseball game at Grand Teton, like they asked Trump if they could do, that's when the two films collide. And you think Trump should direct it? Whatever he'd like to do after office, that would be great.

Anything to get him out of the paint. If he wants to make films, I support that. Anything. Should he... Should he run Paramount? Yeah, it is... I don't know. I don't know why I am.

Go ahead, fight it. Fight it. She and I did a lot of work. You know, like, we really looked into where El's baseball has been found in cinema. By pointing out two of the most popular movies to the history of the show. Congrats on all your hard work.

Yeah, I got a lot of those. I'm just saying, yeah, this, I mean, it is more, it's episodic. If you want, I'll take Avengers Endgame Encore because there is, of course, a memorable sequence in which Joe Russo says, I miss the Mets, and there is an overhead shot of an abandoned city field. That's right. There you go. I think you should have to do that.

I think you should do that. Yeah. Because I want the social engagement of people being like, Why did Sean have a traumatic brain injury? I mean, there are other good documentaries I could taste. Of course there are. Yeah, there are a lot of, I thought you might take no-out. I didn't know I was on the big documentary, you know?

Well, this is the biggest of them all. Yeah. This is the biggest baseball documentary that ever will be. Was it eligible for Oscars or was it eligible for Emmys? It won an Emmy. Do you think that Ken Burns should continue to... Was 61 eligible for Oscars or was it eligible for Emmys? Well, oh, okay.

It was eligible for Emmys. What? Stop making the face of me. I don't do anything. Sorry for pointing out the obvious. Well, we allowed 61. Sally Field won an Emmy for the octopus movie. Yeah, remarkably bright creatures.

Congratulations to her. Chris hasn't seen him. I have not seen it. Do you know what's narrated by? It's narrated by somebody? Well, the octopus has a voice. The octopus is the voiceover. I haven't seen the film when I read the book.

Ever since they took Paul the octopus for me, I haven't really engaged with octopus content. There was my octopus teacher. Sure. Like that. And then Paul, the octopus running the fucking table on the World Cup. Yep. And then he's RAP.

So I'm just out. You know who voices the octopus, right? In the film? No. It's out from Molina. That's cool. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Doc. Funny. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Exactly. Uh, okay. Amanda's turn.

Yeah. You're taking baseball by Ken Burns. Okay. And Amanda is. So since we're all feeling flexible. Let me pitch you guys. Oh, boy. God.

Okay. Is this going to be more. Let me pitch you guys on the high concept of a movie about a magical baseball bat that allows his in a Daniel Caffe to take on the highest drinking. Oh, one member of the Marines. I have bad news for you. That is a softball bat. So, yeah, because, but you can have it when he's got his bat and he's watching like a Twins game.

Yeah, and he said, no, no, no, I'm talking about when it's, oh, he really does think better with that bat. Is that still a, that's a softball bat? No, that's a baseball bat. That is a wooden baseball bat if I remember correctly. He uses an aluminum bat in the softball in the background. You have men by any definition of baseball. Let me pitch you on another, another high concept movie. Okay.

About two men, not brothers by blood, but brothers by the streets of Boston. And specifically Charles Town. Oh, wow. Let's go. Who need to rob Fenway Park. Yeah, sure. She's not going to punch it in a view. She's not letting me.

Yeah, thank you. Sorry. Because they have to pay back. I mean, neither of them are high concepts. One is a legal drama, and the other is a heist movie. They're just genre movies. If you come up with a movie that is a high concept movie that has baseball in it, we could at least entertain the concept.

Can I give you one? Well, I do actually have one more of that. I watch. Are you covering the money? We're podcasting. I was going to cheat. I was going to throw. She's chuged to me.

Okay. I have one more. I think that those were great pitches, you know? And you picked a TV show, and so did you. So whatever. But those are at least, those are films that were released in theaters that have baseball in them. And baseball plays pivotal roles. If you had never opened the can of worms on wild card, we wouldn't be in this situation.

I did it too, though. I think if we would have said we were doing strict definition. Of what? Of all categories. Okay. We wouldn't be in this. But because we opened up Pandora's box. In what position that I don't have a high concept because she took damn Yankees?

No, we wouldn't, we might not have been, you know, having to work through. Well, you needed to watch more high concept films because there are more out there. Thanks so much, Sean. I love your feedback. Keep pitching now. See if you get one across the line. Or we can just keep this show running in purpose. Okay, I have one more that I watched on Fast Forward.

In the last 45 minutes before Chris and Mal got here, you guys know about the catcher was a spy? Yes. Did you see it? Yes, not a high-concept movie. But the catcher was a spy. Yes, yeah. But then he has to like diffuse a bomb or something. I think you're not understanding high concept.

Take days and confused. I did, but Mallory took it from me. And then you took Rookie of the Year and he took Field of Dreams. Not too late to do Angels in the Outfield. You don't know Angel in the Outfield. I don't like Angels in the Outfield. You got caught up. What about Casablanca?

I should be able to take Pocahontas. They don't have baseball. Because I know those films well. Terence Mallor is the New World. I don't want Angels in the Outfield. What about Little Big League? Yeah. Yeah.

Little Big League is definitely. eligible. That movie's also great. Obviously what you were referencing earlier, right? Little Big League and Angels in the Outfield, I assume. They're not great. They're not actually good, but like we have They're memorable from our youth. Watch them thousands of times. Why can't I do days and confused?

I don't think it's a high concept movie. It says it takes place over the course of one night. Is that a high concept? That's a concept. That's not really good. And they get high in the movie. Now that's funny. If she pitched that, I would have accepted that. Oh my God. Incredible.

I'll reread when I said what I wrote to Mallory. What you did it right to us? So once again, the definition was not the video. You could have asked. You could have asked. You know what? I don't like to ask for permission. I like to ask for forgiveness.

Well, unfortunately, you have to get permission from me to end this episode. Magical. This film features you can walk off and you're drafting incomplete. Yeah. Do you want to file an incomplete? I don't think so. The film must feature magical presence or quality, anything that is absurdist or gimmicky.

Okay, I'm Googling magical baseball movies. You want to do this? We're going to do this. Okay. Let's see. I don't want to do angels. Would Eiffis be a high concept baseball? I don't think so.

I'm willing to hand you this one. You may not have seen this movie. Okay. But I think Brewster's Millions is a great high concept baseball movie. What about it happens every spring? You know, I've never seen that. Also eligible, there's a substance that comes into play. See, I thought for the love of the game would be a high concept baseball movie.

I had it, but then. I think that's debatable. Because of its structure? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. High concept is the first thing that they walk into the room and they pitch the movie is like, it takes place over the course of one game.

This guy having flashbacks about his emotions. In a way, for the love of the game. I mean, if Jim Yankees is hugely influential on well-fall. then for love of the game can be. But Damn Yankees involves treating your soul. Satan isn't in Dan Yankees. I, you know, I will say this. You don't know what's going on in Costner's head.

I just, I mean, he's not Satan. I can assure you that. Got a hand job under a towel, asked how do you like to be kissed? So we have a pretty good idea, actually. I have on my camera roll, as I've said, on rewatchables before, about 5,000 pictures of Kevin Costner

smelling his glove in that movie. Very important film. I wouldn't mind it being selected in this draft. I'm willing to roll with that if that's something you want to do. You want to take egg? Ed is eligible. That is definitely all. That would be amazing.

Ed is about a baseball playing monkey. And it is the first project that Matt LeBlanc signed on for in the aftermath of his friend's success. That is. That's actually an incredible pick. Fine. And it is. Ed is eligible. You're going to get to take the village.

Holy shit. That was really worth it. Genuinely. That was great. Ed. I think I'm out. You're out. Yeah.

Mal has one more pick. Excuse me. Boy. We're going to get to go home today, folks. It's hard to top Ed to bring the draft home. So my last, actually I haven't taken my drama. Oh, okay. Wow.

Congratulations. Interesting. Interesting. Well, Ed's off the board. But for love of the game is still here. I could go with the Kossner book in, you know, Bull Durham to open and for love of the game to close. But I'm going to take 42. I feel like that movie should be selected in this draft.

Yeah. Right? Sure. I can't believe I just took Ed off my lung list. I also had to cross off Ed, which I did have on my board, I got to say. There were a lot of movies that weren't taken. Angels in the Outfield Little Big League. Pride of the Yankees for love of the game.

Fever pitch, Million Dollar Arms. Yeah. A lot of documentary. Hardball didn't get taken. Okay. Bang the drum slowly didn't get taken. I think bang the drum slowly and the bingo long traveling all stars are both great. Those are two like great 70s movies that don't have as much of a legacy now, but are both very, very good.

I was deciding for my... I think everybody wants them. For my pick here, I was deciding between... Between 42 and bang the drum slowly. But I don't know how many... I don't know. How many people have seen bang the drums slowly, do we think? I've seen it.

Great movie. Well, well-regarded. It is very, very good. Michael Moriarty and Romer Teno as a pitcher and catcher. Quite sad. Who are literally tied together contractually and emotionally. That's right. You know, I think, Amanda, you could have gone after the naked guy.

Oh, interesting. Sure. But, like, I don't really care about that. So, I mean, Ed was an iconic thing. Would you have a lot of Amanda to take Ferris Bueller's Day off? Hmm. You're really interested in movies across one day being high concept. Oh, is a high concept movie?

I wasn't saying that. I was saying it's a wild card. Oh, it's a wild card. Yeah, it's a wild card. Yeah. Okay. High concept, I think I just had a different interpretation. But you know what?

You're the author of this pod. What about Mr. 3,000? Yeah, for sure. Have you seen that? That's Bernie Mac. I have seen that. The late great Bernie Mac plays a player of some renown who we learn due to a clerical error. In fact, he did not get 3,000 hits in his career.

He was three hits short of 3,000 hits. And so at the age of 47, he goes back to the major leagues to try to get three more hits. Do you think the fan is high concept? I thought that you might take the fan as like a lot of cards. I rewatched it for the major leagues to try to. this. Drama. Just to check in to see if it was any better than I'd realized or if I could reclaim it.

Yeah. And it wasn't as good as I had hoped. I don't know if it's high concept. Okay. It's basically just the king of comedy, but for baseball. What about the scout? That is a comedy. I'm not sure if it's high concept.

I kind of like the scout. Steve Nebraska, played by Brendan Fraser, plays a rising... Psychiatric issues. Baseball star with some problems. Okay. And Albert Brooks is the scout who holds his hand through the process. leading him to Yankee Stadium. Leading him to a therapist played by Diane Weist.

That's right. Sure. That's right. I thought Dobbins might take trouble with the curve. The Clint Eastwood movie? Yeah. It's kind of the anti-money ball. I do think I saw that, but I don't have any memory of it.

Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Twilight has baseball. Sure does. Sure. Which one? Boyhood.

Oh, yeah. Oh. My best friend's wedding has a pivotal baseball scene. Rigley, right? Showdown. No, it's White Sox. Kameski? Yeah.

Okay. Were you hoping more documentaries would be taken? No, no, a documentary facing Nolan. Yeah. Fastball. Screwball. The league. Up for grabs.

Batterbusters of baseball. Yeah, there's a lot. I think they're all good and not great. Chris, you didn't take Cobb. I didn't. It was between that and a million dollar arm. Can you tell Amanda a bit about Ty Cobb? Well, he was racist.

Yeah. I think he was from Georgia. As many racists are. I believe it was the Georgia Peach, his nickname? And he was a diehard competitor. What was Tycox nickname? Okay. Detroit Tigers for the entirety of his career, I believe.

He was the Georgia Peach. Yeah. Yeah. He was a virulent racist. He played 24 seasons. He had a career batting average of 366. Yeah. He was portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones and Ron Shelton's less beloved follow-up to

Bull Durham in terms of a baseball game. Huge, huge movie for Robert Wool baseball fans. Just making you sure that War North of 10 twice Actually named after Ty Cobb. And it's not, but... North of 10 twice. War North of 10 twice and north of nine four times.

He was an absolutely demon at baseball. Who? Ty Cobb. His career war is 149.8. He was significantly better than everybody except for Babe Ruth, Rodgers. You guys like study Ty Cobb stats, huh? Oh, I was so into baseball stats as a kid.

Yeah, I was so into baseball stats as a kid. What else is on the board? Any other long list stuff? Let's see. Anybody ever see Game 6? The Dondolillo script, right? Michael Keaton, which all takes place effectively through a guy who has tickets to game 6 of the 1986 World Series but doesn't go. That's like a crazy lost downy performance, right?

Isn't he the theater critic at that? Yes, he isn't that. Have we talked about Pride of the Yankees already? You know a movie I really? We didn't really talk. I'll pair it with another movie that I'll recommend for people if they haven't seen it, which may not have aged super well in terms of its relationship. to psychiatric health, but in

1957 there's a great movie called Fear Strikes Out about Jimmy Pearsall based on a real player who played for the Red Sox. I had that on my list too. That's great. That I saw as a kid. Anthony Perkins plays him. And I think it's like right before he, it's right before Psycho.

Yeah. And he's amazing as an outfielder who gets the yips. Not unlike we were just discussing Drake May. He's got the yips right now. And a guy who can't hack it in the field or at the plate because he's having some mental struggles. And it's like a, I thought, a pretty sensitive movie given the time frame.

It's Carl Malden, his father in the movie? It's, like, really hard on him. What else? Is the Sluggers' wife as bad as everybody says it is? I've never seen it. Haven't seen it. It's got like a 2%. It's like Hal Ashby's last movie.

2%. And Neil Simon wrote it. I will say that the catcher was the spy. Was as bad as everyone said it was. Even like twice the speed. I have to get it. Yeah. One last question for you guys.

Basketball? Yeah. I have it on my list. Is that a baseball movie? I think it is, right? Of course. Specifically not because it's baseball. Yeah, I mean.

There's baseball in it. Baseball has to, yeah. It would be a core concept that they pulled off of. We allowed that. We didn't allow. What did you? Gone with the Wind? What'd you go for?

That was Ty Cobb. Tycoff's favorite movie. I see one movie. I think a few good men in the town. Uh-huh. And the catcher was a spy, which is quite bad. Yeah. Dazed and confused.

Yeah. All great films that in one way or another. They all would have been great wildcar picks. Include the sport of baseball. Yeah. There's probably baseball in other movies. What am I not thinking of? War of the Worlds.

Oh, sure. Yeah. Yeah. For like two seconds. They're like working out the Red Sox Yankees rivalry. That's right. That's right. Cruz.

Speaking of, our next episode is about Tom Cruise and Digger. Exciting. Yeah. Would you say you're excited about it? Sure. I'm looking forward to it. Yeah. I'm interested.

But you don't. Interested in the tickets? No, not yet, but I tend to... Doesn't seem like she needs them? I tend to say this, you know, let me look this morning. Is something available mid-morning? That's kind of my approach, unless it's like... I like that.

That's a good way to live life. Yeah. Yeah. You will see it opening weekend? This coming weekend, right? Well, Saturday I'm going to see the director's cut of Miami Vice. Sick. Michael Mann will be presenting it.

Okay. I will be present. Just you and him together? You're levitating right now. It's not in the bathtub. He's holding up an iPad for you. But I will go see Big D this weekend, yeah. Big D.

Should we recap our draft picks? Sure. All right, Mallory, since you went first, you can go first. Okay. In order? Round one through round six. You're the only person who keeps track track. But go ahead.

I took Bull Durham as my comedy. In round one. In round two, I took The Natural as my high concept and bad news bears as my kids' movie. In round four, I took 61 as based on a true story and damn Yankees is my wild card. And then I took 42 as my drama in round six. Dobbins. I'm just reading them as they are in the spreadsheet. In comedy, I took Ephis in drama, Moneyball. In high concept, the acclaimed film, Ed. based on a true story the rookie in kids movie the sandlot and in wildcard goodwill hunting I love it when you do the Scarlett Johansson her voice

to do these like lists because when you're talking baseball the catcher was a spy in comedy I took everybody wants some in drama I took sugar in high concept I took rookie of the year

and based on a true story I took a league of their own in kids movie I took the bad news bears and breaking training and in wild card I took Ken Burns' baseball. It is a wild card. In comedy, I took Major League. In drama, I took Field of Dreams.

In high concept, I took Peter Masterson's Night Game. And based on a true story, I took Eight Men Out. In Kids' movie, I took Summer Catch, PG-13. In Wildcard, I took Christopher Nolan's Interstellar. Incredible closing. Stretch a fix from you. At Nightgame? this happens so many drafts where I'm playing so within the lines for the first three picks

and then I have a massive brain hemorrhage and start is that what happens? Yeah, all the time. It's always like, I'm gonna win. I'm fucking dominating. Is it at the like 42 minute mark? You're like a now and out? Yeah, like my three picks are unbelievable.

It's not like focus. It's just that like I start to just overthink it and like, oh, what would be cool here is if I did something for laughs. And then I'm like, oh, no. Oh, no. You should, at the next live show, you should bring, like, samurai energy. She'd be like, I'm not going to do bits.

No laughs. I'm here to win. Because, you know, she's won, like, the last nine consecutive live shows. Wild and a Rockford Beach's. I got to, we got to figure that out. I just have a Hanzo sword. As I stand in a Rockford Beach.

Maybe you should be Beatrix kiddo from Kill Bill. I think I pulled out. A.K. Bruce Lee. I'm not going to be a Rockford Peach But I'm going to be something Are you going to wear a costume? Of course I will

Don't wear a mask This has not been discussed before It's a great idea though Yeah You nailed it So are you It's only rock for peach You won't do any other costumes

I just thought it would be a nice group I never got to do that You know what she should do You never asked We should make her to be the girl From the ring The hair down She's kind of already got that going

I call that Tuesday Okay. Hey, Mal, thank you very much. Guys, thanks for having me. What a treat. Love baseball. Love you guys. Love, Kevin Koster. Just to recap some of the things that I already said.

Good job by you. Is the shame you don't have like a legendary baseball player as your guest to throw to right now? A legendary baseball player is my... Is he a legendary baseball player? To me. I don't know who would be my ideal... I'm in Carson Beck. Benjohn's right now.

Carson Benj is my guy. guy. Mike Piazza, complicated. He was a great legend to me once upon the time. Now I believe he's fully behind Donald Trump. So. And he was mean to Shia LaBouf. Is that a fact? Yeah. What do you say? Did he not deserve it? When did Mike Piaz and Shailabuff interact? He talked about it on his Channel 5 interview.

Shia LaBoof did. And he said that Mike Piazza treated him like shit when he was trying to get his autograph when he was a kid. No kidding. Yeah. Oh. Wow. Gosh, that's a whole other episode. That's a rich text. Let's table that. Thanks to Jack Sanders, our producer for his work on this episode. Thanks to Amanda.

Thanks to Lucas Kavanaugh. Thanks to Ed. Amanda. Amanda, thank you, Amanda. For all your great works here. Amanda and I shall return imminently. Maybe. To discuss me on Digger.

If the apology is written down. Me solo on Digger. And read aloud to that prompter. Okay, I'll see you guys very soon to talk about it. Digger. Bye.