“There are only two seasons – winter and baseball.” ~ Bill Veeck
Looking out the window again today and I realize, we are still in “winter”. So, what to do? My mind wandered to all those great baseball movies which I’ve watched countless times. I bet I could come up with a pretty good team from all those movies.
I hate rules, but I gave myself some. First and foremost, the player had to be fictional, so that leaves out movies like, “Eight Men Out”, “Cobb”, “42” and “The Rookie” to name just a few. Second, they had to be major leaguers at some point or at least be signed by a major league club. Third, it could be any fictional player, coach, or front office person. So out came my notepad and then my laptop, once I began typing, it flowed.
Here's my list:
Starting Position Players:
C – Lawrence "Crash" Davis / “Bull Durham”
1B – Jack Elliot / “Mr. Baseball”
2B – Mickey Scales / “Little Big League”
SS – Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez / “The Sandlot”
3B – Roger Dorn / “Major League”
LF – Mickey Hart / “For Love Of The Game”
CF – Willie Mays Hayes / “Major League”
RF – Roy Hobbs / “The Natural”
(L-R Corbin Bernsen as Roger Dorn, Charlie Sheen as Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn, and Tom Berenger as Jake Taylor. Found on the internet. Assuming Public Domain.)
Starting Pitching:
SP – Billy Chapel / “For Love Of The Game”
SP – Ebby Calvin “Nuke” Laloosh / “Bull Durham”
SP – Steve Nebraska / “The Scout”
SP – Rigoberto “Rigo” Sanchez / “Trouble With The Curve”
SP – Henry “Author” (“Arthur”) Wiggen / “Bang The Drum Slowly”
(Kevin Costner as Billy Chapel. Found on the internet. Assuming Public Domain.)
Bullpen:
RP – Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn / “Major League”
RP – Duke Simpson / “Major League”
RP – Ryan Dunne / “Summer Catch”
RP – Jim Bowers / “Little Big League”
RP – Sam “Mayday” Malone / “Cheers”
(Ted Danson as Sam “Mayday” Malone. Found on the internet. Assuming Public Domain.)
Bench Players:
OF – Davis Birch / “For Love Of The Game”
OF – Pedro Cerrano / “Major League”
C - Gus Sinski / “For Love Of The Game”
IF – Ray Mitchell / “Angels In The Outfield”
(John C. Reilly as Gus Sinski. Found on the internet. Assuming Public Domain.)
Management:
Front Office – Billy Heywood / “Little Big League”
Manager – Lou Brown / “Major League”
Coach - "Red" Blow / “The Natural”
Coach – Mac Macnally / “Little Big League”
Coach - Ernie "Coach" Pantusso / “Cheers”
Pitching Coach – Larry Hockett / “Bull Durham”
Hitting Coach – Uchiyama / “Mr. Baseball”
Bullpen Catcher – Jake Taylor / “Major League”
Radio Announcer – Harry Doyle / “Major League”
(Robert Wuhl as Larry Hockett. Found on the internet. Assuming Public Domain.)
One thing I noticed right away was that in some “games” Kevin Costner would be pitching as Billy Chapel and catching himself as Crash Davis, so I made the decision to list a few bench players. Next, I found that there wasn’t a surplus of infielder characters to frame out the team, so I had to do some digging. I also expanded the roster to television because you just couldn’t leave “Mayday” Malone and “Coach” off this roster.
Now, some might point out that Ryan Dunne was a starter in the film, “Summer Catch”, but that was only in the Cape Cod League, when he appears in an MLB game in the last few minutes of the movie, he’s used in relief for the Phillies and Ken Griffey, Jr. hits a long dinger off him.
Did I miss some players? Absolutely. So, your mission, if you decide to accept it, is to comment on this post and give me some viable additions. Perhaps you are not familiar with all these movies or characters. I suggest getting yourself through the next month and a half or so by viewing some of these movies. All of these can be watched multiple times. You may also read (or re-read) my blog post “Top Nine Baseball Movies” to get some ideas as well as various quotes. CLICK HERE. Or you can peruse the Archives section, the link is at the bottom of this post.
I’m looking forward to hearing about your additions.
Thanks for your support.
~ Coach Mike
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WOW 🤩 You know as much about baseball movies as you do the real game‼️ I have nothing to offer but my amazement at your knowledge 🤩
How about Hamilton “Ham” Porter from The Sandlot ? You just know he had to grow up to be a bad-ass player !!