The Sports Staff
In honor of the upcoming Oscars, here is our favorite sports movies, from the sports section of The Carolinian. With a long genre to pick from, do not be angry if your favorite did not crack our top spot. It was not easy having to pick from some all time classics.
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Daniel Johnson: The Sandlot
As much as I want to pick “Remember the Titans” for the performance from Denzel Washington as Coach Boone or “Happy Gilmore” for being the best Adam Sandler movie hands down, “The Sandlot” is the my favorite sports movie.
I have seen it so many times, I can quote it back and forth. “You throw like a girl” and “You’re killing me, Smalls” are all part of the baseball lexicon because of a movie about the boys of the sandlot.
This movie has the same feel as the “A Christmas Story,” a simple movie about the everyday life of a child or in this case, children.
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Andrew James: The Sandlot
There is no movie that strikes a warmer sense of nostalgia than The Sandlot. There’s the pathetic baseball abilities of the main protagonist that made us all feel a little more confident as kids, the impossible fly ball accuracy of Benny Rodriguez as he placed them into a stationary glove from two hundred feet away, and the giant English Mastiff that seemed threatening enough to be referred to as “The Beast.”
The Sandlot is about baseball, friendship, and crushes on lifeguards. It rings of childhood summers just the same as water gun fights, popsicles, and lemonade stands. Don’t lie—you have always wanted to know where Benny Rodriguez ended up on the home run list.
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Patrick O’Grady: Without Limits
My favorite sports movie is Without Limits. It’s a movie starring Billy Crudup about the late American distance runner Steve Prefontaine. Steve Prefontaine, who died tragically in a car accident in 1975 just as he rose to global prominence for his achievements on the track, has become a venerated figure for pretty much every high school cross country team in the nation. Known for his charisma and wit as well as the strides he took (pun intended) for athletes’ rights off the track, Prefontaine has become a secular saint of sorts.
Funnily enough, I’m not a huge fan of the man or the movie, but seeing as watching it was a rite of passage of sorts both as a high school and a college student-athlete I’ve attached a lot of meaning to the film over the years.
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Michael Fields: Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
My favorite sports movie has to be Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. It is about a pit crew driver in NASCAR named Ricky Bobby who actually gets a chance to race. He takes full advantage of this opportunity and turns into one of the best NASCAR drivers in history. This movie shows you the life of Ricky Bobby and his rise and fall from stardom. It is such a fantastic story and the movie is absolutely hilarious. I have never seen a sports movie that makes you laugh so hard. It is definitely a classic!
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Will McGarty: Baseketball
Let’s be honest, we all could pick classics like Field of Dreams, Angels in the Outfield, The Sandlot, Remember the Titans, Friday Night Lights, Space Jam, Tin Cup, The Legend of Baggar Vance, ect and no one would bat an eye. The list of films such as these goes on and on and all are wonderful, reputable sports movies. I personally just find these films too easy of an answer; that’s why I’m choosing Baseketball.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone (creators of South Park) star in this ridiculous movie where they combine the likes of Baseball and Basketball to create a new sport. If nothing else, it is a fun, mindless watch that will have your stomach hurting from laughter.
THE CAROLINIAN 