HH Favorite Baseball Movie Round 1: The Bad News Bears vs. 61*

Note: If you haven’t voted on the sixth matchup (Field of Dreams v. The Rookie), vote HERE

The American pastime has lent itself to countless films. But which one is the consensus favorite among the HH faithful? Let’s find out.

For this exercise, I’ve set up a 16 film bracket. To determine the films and seeding, I’ve crowdsourced rankings from Rotten Tomatoes, Ranker, and the ultimate authority on everything, Stirrups. Then I’ve added a dash of my own influence to include a couple of Angels-centric titles and make a bracket that makes sense.

This one is a little off. I had to include both of these films as they both appear on every top list I have. There’s not reason or rhyme to the pairing, but one has to go.

The Bad News Bears is the ultimate Little League film. Walter Mattheau at his curmudgeonly best guiding a young Tatum O’neil and a band of misfits to the title game. This film has plenty of laughs, tons of old style beer cans, and has become the blueprint for many youth films to come.

61* tells the story of Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle chasing Babe Ruth’s single season HR record. The fans all want Mantle, the two players are trying to remain friends, and there are games to win. Add in the commissioner adding an asterisk to the record due to the 1961 season having more regular games than the seasons in Ruth’s day, and you get controversy.

This will conclude Round 1.