Schmoldt says:
I love sports and I like movies. Let's just get that straight — I would much rather watch an actual game than pick up a movie any night of the week. That said, if I'm going to watch a movie, I'd like it to involve sports. I love "Caddyshack," "Field of Dreams," "Sandlot," "Tin Cup," "Slap Shot," "Rudy" and, of course, "Hoosiers." But in the case of Best Sports Movie Ever, I'm going to have to take "Major League."
With characters like Rick "Wild Thing" Vaughn, Willie Mays Hayes, Jake Taylor and Roger Dorn, how could you not love this cast of characters, especially as they took it to their awful owner who wanted them to do nothing but lose?
But while the emergence of the Wild Thing and the "stick-it-to-the-man" and win the pennant Indians are both great stories — as is the twist when Vaughn sleeps with Dorn's wife — there are two things that put this movie over the top in my — and much of Wisconsin's — eyes.
The first is the fact that in the movie, the Indians' home stadium is County Stadium, formerly the home of the Brewers. With the stadium extinct thanks to the building of Miller Park, anytime this movie comes on, it allows us Wisconsinites to recall what I still believe was a great ballpark.
The second thing that seals the deal is announcer Bob Uecker, the current Brewers' radio announcer who plays Harry Doyle in the movie. It's not hard to imagine him actually using a line like "The post-game show is brought to you by … Christ, I can't find it. To hell with it." Or how about when he asks his colorman Monte if he has anything to add. Upon finding out he's got nothing he says "He's not the best colorman in the league for nothing folks."
It's got classic characters, playing in a classic stadium and playing games commentated by a classic announcer. No doubt, it's a classic movie.
McGrath says:
When handing out my Oscar for best sporting picture, much deliberation was necessary, as the list of awesome athletic films is longer than Troy Polamlu's mane. However one film stands above the rest, due to its incomparable contributions to today's society: "Caddyshack."
The world is a much different and better place because of the Harold Ramis classic.
It took fashion to a new level, on the strength of Rodney Dangerfield's ahead-of-its-time wardrobe.
It brought new awareness to environmental issues on golf course, such as the hazards of using dynamite on the links and the positive aspects of growing your own hybrid of grass. Also, children could learn at an early age as to why playing golf in a thunderstorm is a bad idea.
The movie promotes world-wide awareness through Bill Murray's in-depth description of Tibetan golf practices (like stiffing the caddy), and how the people from Mr. Wang's country bury folk upright, to save room, because "Golf courses and cemeteries are the biggest waste of prime real estate."
Heck, there is even philosophical advice like "Gungala, gungala," (straight from the Dalai Lama's mouth himself!) and "be the ball."
And to respond to Schmoldt's comment that Wisconsinites love "Major League," what movie promotes the hatred of Gophers more than "Caddyshack" and what is more Wisconsin than hating Gophers?
As an aside, my Oscar for best sporting actor would have to go to Shaq, not for his puffy garbed wizardry in "Kazaam," or for his juvenile pratfalls in "Blue Chips," but for his superhero work in "Steel." In the movie, the Diesel had to make a free throw with a grenade to avoid being blown to smithereens (Kobe Bryant's dream). And in an acting exposition not seen since Anthony Hopkin's portrayal of Hannibal Lector, Shaq makes the suicide free throw.
Like to see George Clooney pull that one off.