Gordy’s Favorite Sports Movies

I recently saw the 1961 classic The Hustler, with Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason, and couldn't resist trying to think of all the sports movies I could and where I would rank them.

Just for fun, I thought I'd share them with you, and I would love to hear your favorites.  There are a lot, so to make a top 10 list you have to leave some great movies off the listing. Here it goes.

1. Hoosiers (1986): Starring Gene Hackman, Dennis Hopper and Barbara Hershey. Just might be my all-time favorite movie, period.
2. Brian's Song (1976): This was probably the first movie where I cried.
3. Field of Dreams (1989): Starring Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones.
4. Pride of the Yankees (1942): Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright and Walter Brennan. This Lou Gehrig tribute was completed about a year before Gehrig died at age 37. Imagine a man that young saying he's the luckiest man on the Earth when he had to give up the sport he loved.
5. Rocky (1976): I remember my friends and I trying to do one-arm pushups after watching and people cheering in the theater at the end of the movie.
6. Million Dollar Baby (2004): Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman.  This was another one that got my tear ducts worked up a bit.
7. Bull Durham (1988): Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins. My favorite scene is when Costner's character (Crash Davis) tells the batter what Robbins' character is going to throw and the batter smacks the baseball over the fence.
8. Raging Bull (1980): Robert Deniro, Joe Pesci.
9. Caddyshack (1980): Chevy Chase, Bill Murry, Ted Knight and Rodney Dangerfield. Simple hilarity.
10. Blue Chips (1994): Nick Nolte, Mary McDonnell. Nolte is very good in this movie, playing a college coach with pressure to win.

The list is pretty long for me. Listing a top 10 was not easy. Some of my other favorites, in no particular order:

• Jerry Maguire (1996): Tom Cruise
• Slap Shot (1977): Paul Newman
• Major League (1989): Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen. It's a lot like Bull Durham.
• White Men Can't Jump (1992): Woody Harrelson, Wesley Snipes and Rosie Perez.
• The Blindside (2009): Sandra Bullock, Quinton Aaron, Tim McGraw.

Some others on my list of favorites include The Longest Yard, Bad News Bears and Rudy.

When I sat down to do this, I had about 50 films I listed just off the top of my head. I would love to see what your favorites are. There is no right or wrong here. We all have our own tastes.