By Amy Orndorff
The Washington Post
Can’t stray too far from home plate this weekend? There is no reason you can’t get in the mood with a hot dog and a few DVDs.
Good for any time are these baseball movies:
ó “A League of Their Own” (PG, 1992) Two sisters (Geena Davis and Lori Petty) join a professional women’s baseball league that was popular during World War II. Includes Tom Hanks’s famous line “There’s no crying in baseball!”
ó “Eight Men Out” (PG, 1988) The film is based on the true story of eight underpaid Chicago White Sox players who were bribed into throwing the 1919 World Series. They were caught, sued and banned from the game.
ó “Field of Dreams” (PG, 1989) “If you build it, he will come.” After hearing a voice, an Iowa corn farmer (Kevin Costner) builds a baseball diamond. The ghosts of the eight Chicago White Sox players banned for throwing the 1919 World Series visit.
ó “Major League” (R, 1989) The owner of the Cleveland Indians wants to move the team to Miami, so she puts together a team of misfits so bad they are guaranteed to lose. When the players (including Charlie Sheen and Wesley Snipes) find out her plan, they band together to win.
ó “The Natural” (PG, 1984) A middle-aged rookie (Robert Redford) recovers from a gunshot wound to lead a bottom-of-the-standings team to the top.
ó “The Sandlot” (PG, 1993) A group of friends spends a summer playing baseball at the local diamond. When they lose a ball autographed by Babe Ruth over a neighbor’s fence, they must outsmart the Beast (an infamous dog) to recover it.