Why Baseball is the Best Movie Sport
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- čas přidán 15. 03. 2021
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Hey, there was baseball in Space Jam, too.
I thought that was golf.
EDIT: Oh, I remember now... we sports fans tend to block that out.
@@Gemnist98 it had that too
Shit you're right. Does this mean that space jam is simultaneously the best basketball movie ever made and the best baseball movie ever made?
@@galactic85 Obviously.
Micheal Jordan’s entire Baseball career summed up in that one scene.
I love how Patrick just set himself free from "youtube rules". He is just making the videos however the hell he wants.
I'm sure Kiki is very proud of you, my man.
Man I'm reminded of how good that video is
And how awesome Kiki's Delivery Service is
Soccer was the only sport you didn't mention how easy it is to play on the street, like it's the one that's easier than basketball and baseball because you don't need baskets or bats, hell sometimes you don't even need a ball. I've seen kids on the street ball up all their socks into one big ball to play street soccer and put two rocks in a row to create a goal. Or crush up soda cans to form a puck and kick that around to play soccer. But I guess that culture exists more around the world than the US.
Here in Brazil we make goal posts using slippers. Normally in a informal game, there's no goal keeper so the width of the goal post is very narrow and players need to get close to attempt a goal kick.
@@robsonwaterkemper slippers, school bags, trash cans anything
Here if we have an odd number of boys we play what is known as common goal games, one goal keeper standing in one goal and both teams are trying to score on the same goal
lool none of what you mentioned goes into making soccer better in movie form then baseball, also no Cricket is the easiest to play, You've obviously never been to India, You can go to the slums of Jharkhand next to abandoned coal mines and find kids playing cricket with a stick, trash rolled up into a ball and dirt marks as wickets, GTFO
Favourite ball in primary school was a plastic bottle half filled with water😂
@@debodatta7398 soccer you only need a ball no sticks no wickets, and to the uninitiated (like me) cricket and baseball aren't that different.
still the whole video is more focused on the american experience in sports and informs the filmic value of the sport from that background
I hope one day Patrick understands that Space Jam being rancidly bad is precisely what makes it so good
Patrick refuses to come on and slam and welcome to Japan.
My mom says my obsession with Lola Bunny is cute.
@@yuothineyesasian no thanks
Nah, it's just bad.
@@Kaz999998 Don’t disrespect Space Jam. It’s CINEMA! It’s the most cinematic cinema ever cinema’d in the history of Cinnamon. Wait…
I would like to nominate the "I Don't Dance" scene from High School Musical 2 as the best baseball scene
Easily my favorite scene from those movies! I rewatch it every Valentine’s Day!
I second this notion
I'll add a thirding
I fourth this.
Only the greatest movie sport could contain the romantic tension of that number. Patrick might be on to something.
Nolan may hate the sport, but he recognized its cinematic potential enough to put a baseball scene in Interstellar.
Yeah, that line was pretty ironic. There were even two baseball scenes, IIRC, both of which use the classic baseball iconography to show how the world has changed: first popcorn at a New York Yankees game nowhere near New York; then kids breaking a window that’s straight above them on the other side of Cooper Station.
I forgot about that, LOLZ
@@MIRobin22 You're right. I was referring to the Yankees scene but I forgot about the kids at the end. Good catch! (heh)
As a native Philadelphian, I'm pretty pissed that Patrick didn't spend all 46 minutes of this video talking about how the Eagles are the greatest team in sports history and Rocky is the greatest sports movie to ever exist. So pissed that I can't even finish my cheesesteak.
as a former philadelphian displaced to the pacific northwest, my cheesesteak meter has been desperately low for far too long... E - A - G - L - E - S etc etc
I just love that he mentioned Philly twice in the intro!
Makes me miss Wawa.
"Eagles' and not 'Iggles'? Are you even a Philadelphian?
Go birds
I recently had an epiphany about baseball when it took over my comedy radio station for the season again, and i'm predicting this might line up. The reason baseball has been able to endure for such a long time is that it is so well suited to be communicated over the radio. The game has a very limited number of game states, players have set positions where they can be, so you can tell someone everything happening in a game of baseball with no visuals easily.
Baseball evolved with cinema...just as American Football evolved with television
Oh, I like that
American Football evolved with Mike Kinsella
Great point
Baseball was a great fit for radio. American Football was a better fit for television.
I am so stealing this.
As my friend said when I asked him why men like Field of Dreams so much, “Field of Dreams isn’t about baseball; it’s about your dad.”
Also, that Twilight baseball scene is very influential. My husband was in France when that movie came out, and some French people asked if they could join his baseball game because “it was like Twilight.” That movie is singlehandedly teaching French teenagers about baseball. 🤣
And Muse!
When Patrick said that Twilight baseball scene was silly, what he really meant to say was that it fucking SLAPPED. Because it did 😤 All hail Twilight for educating French teenagers about baseball and Muse!
Field of Dreams even turns that inside out. Typically, the son is seeking for his father to accept him. Costner’s character by contract has essentially disowned his father ultimately telling him that amongst other things that he can’t respect him because his father’s boyhood hero was a cheater. Field of Dreams is about Costner’s character accepting his father, something he needs because he destroyed his relationship with his now dead father, so his father can in turn accept him. But then it is about so much more too like Moonlight Graham realizing he was a success because he had failed at baseball, Jones’ character realizing that there was still something important for him to do even though the world had ultimately ignored the hippies’ message, and that sometimes sacrificing to do something good for other people will be it’s own reward.
Patrick; A soccer coach does nothing
Me: **laughs in Argentinian**
"Laughs in any nationality that's not American", actually.
- Simeone, Sampaoli, Peckerman, Bielsa, Galhardo watching this video: "What a f*ck this guy talking?" Hahahahahah
Yeah, seriously. Soccer managers are extreme micromanagers. Only until recently they've begun to do less with the rise of the Director of Football role.
@@XanderVJ One would think, but let’s look at a lot of countries.
China - Maybe, but they also like basketball a fair bit. I’m not really sure which is bigger.
India - Cricket
Russia - Hockey
Japan - Baseball
South Korea - Baseball
Philippines - Basketball
Australia - Rugby/Australian Football
New Zealand - Rugby
Canada - Hockey
Pakistan - Cricket
South Africa - Rugby
Pretty much every country in the Caribbean will be baseball, basketball, or cricket
At any rate between those countries and the US you end up with somewhere between a quarter and a half of the world’s population don’t see it as their favorite though yes it does have a lot more countries than anyone else.
Yeah, as a soccer player for all of my youth, I have no idea what Ted Lasso is talking about....
the coach is constantly screaming instructions throughout the game lol
Fun fact, one of the first literary mentions of baseball is Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey! It's in the first chapter, discussing Katherine's hobbies which includes playing baseball with her siblings. Just thought it was interesting.
I read the notification as “why BASEketball is the best movie sport.” I couldn’t click fast enough. I thought finally it gets respect.
Damn sure has my respect. One of Dave Zucker's best.
A homerun is behind the meatballs
Of course we graduated high school cock. Beer?
Come on, we all know Calvinball is the most underrated sport.
.. I guess that's why she didn't move around a lot...
Ya know, I'm startin' to think that Charl might not have the best interests of the crew at heart.
You silly goose, charl is a fan favorite!
I love charl!
He's isn't threatening!
@@jakeb6703 charl is the key to our success!
I hadn’t watched Pat’s videos in a while & it’s really funny to see the bits of the framing story going more & more off the rails.
I really started to suspect Charl after he killed Jake.
This largely covers why Bollywood cricket movies can also work so well. I love watching Lagaan and how it turns a 5 day marathon in the middle of the desert into an epic battle for human rights.
Lagaan is amazing!
And different human rights than baseball can cover, namely colonialism and the caste system.
Yes Patrick should absolutely watch Lagaan
Came to comments to say the same thing! From a movie perspective, baseball and cricket are functionally the same - no visually obtrusive costumes (except for the batter i guess), easy to understand when someone has scored, team sport but with individual moments, big field, simple geography, etc. The only difference is the cultural relevance. For americans, cricket isn't all that important, so baseball is the best sport for hollywood movies. But for Indians, cricket is the biggest deal ever, so it's the best sport for Bollywood movies. It holds sort of the same cultural place too - it's played by people of all classes but especially by middle and lower classes, and it's historically been a way for lower class Indians to become incredibly visible and successful. It also has the added cultural context of having come to India from the British, but having been truly reclaimed and adopted by Indians. The cricket movie can be a beautiful nostalgic portrayal of a middle class Indian life across history, and it can also be a triumphant tale of sticking it to the man. But outside of South Asia, I don't think they make many cricket movies, because it just isn't as big of a deal to, say, Hollywood.
@@sadicalradness6927 The biggest problem with cricket movies is that the minor role of fielding in the game (sure you can catch a hit for an out, but it is rare) and the ability of the batter to choose not to run after hit reduces some tension that would otherwise be present.
As a Brit who has never seen a baseball game in his life and has never grown up around Baseball and is not into any sport whatsoever, I absolutely adore Baseball movies and this captured why so well
“There’s no crying in baseball!” That line never fails to make me laugh.
it could be nothing, or just bullying or whatever, but it's delightful because hanks doesn't play it as angry, but as genuinely baffled- it's not a command, he's saying it as one would say like 'there's no slam dunks in baseball'
I fully expected it to turn up in the montage at the beginning of this essay! Kind of surprised that movie wasn't singled out at all. Oh well.
Anyone ever tell you you look like a penis with a little black hat on?
Using the same font for the section titles as the font from Ken Burns' Baseball was a nice touch.
This is why I came to comment section. Probably my one of my favorite Ken Burns series behind Jazz. Nice that he also used clips from it
Japanese manga also established something fascinating about baseball. They wanted to "capture the natural narrative weight of baseball, and set it to the aesthetic of the samurai films".
As I’ve always said, there’s a strong correlation with people who like Space Jam, and people who haven’t seen it since before they were 10.
Space Jam is a very bad movie, that i will never stop to love
@@ThyAxeman full respect
I didn’t see it until I was 20 and still enjoyed it. I don’t think it’s well made at all, but I get a kick out of the simple fun it provides.
@@Gemnist98 that’s the best kind of way to enjoy space jam, I’m talking about people who like it and think it’s just good in an unironic sense
I rewatched it for the first time since I was a kid just a few months ago, it's not good but it's nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. Solid c+ I'd say.
I knew those letterboxd reviews were setting up something
I feel like my letterboxd account for my reviews and working out what Patrick's next video is going to be about, and it's pretty much a bang-on 50/50 split.
Not every review is research for a video. Sometimes he just watches movies for fun,
@@JamesLawner I mean he logged fourteen baseball movies within a two-week span, that's the part that caught my eye. I know not every log is for video purposes.
I waited 38 minutes for this man to mention the baseball scene from Twilight
The entire time I was like "Is he gonna do it? Is he gonna do it?! When is he gonna mentio-...wait a minute, what does he mean by 'silly'?!" 😂😂😂
I THOUGHT I WAS A FOOL FOR NOONE
OH BABY IM A FOOL FOR YOUUUUUU
Everything you've said about baseball is true of cricket, from the mechanics -- balance between team and individual, showdown between batter/batsman and pitcher/bowler, beautiful open field, clear geography, tension and silence, great speed as well as long pauses, the drama of the home run/hit for six, the lack of a clock, and the tendency of games to end in one big epic flourish -- to the social aspects -- a two-hundred-year history in England, another century of colonialism and postcolonialism, incredibly high stakes (from West Indian rebel teams of black men touring apartheid South Africa to Indians rejecting colonial rule to Indians and Pakistanis using cricket as a kind of proxy war in the shadow of nuclear annihilation to Australians playing the game as payback on their former British overlords), and an indelible imprint on a far wider variety of peoples and cultures than any other sport (other than football/soccer). Cricket has it all! Patrick, it is time you watched a Bollywood classic called "Lagaan".
Except it's hard to make a tension-filled sports scene about a sport that takes several days to play and the winning margins can be in the hundreds. No one score is ever really that important. It's a game of trends and averages, not specific moments.
Riot Edits I’ve seen countless matches that have been settled by one or two runs also, especially in limited overs cricket. It’s just as easy to sensationalise as any other sport in that regard
@@lukeshannahan2099 Except limited overs doesn't have the hundreds of years of history that Akbar was talking about, so it kind of defeats the purpose.
Australian here, and was hoping someone would say that. I will add that a close-fought test match can be tenser than anything else I've seen in any sport - I can still remember being on the edge of my seat for the Australia vs West Indies test in Adelaide in 1992.
I'd actually love to see more cricket movies/TV shows (aside from the aforementioned Lagaan, the only non-documentary one I can think of off the top of my head is the miniseries Bodyline)
I was so prepared to yell about Shaolin Soccer, I no longer know what to do with my night.
That's my favorite sports movie hands down
My third favourite sports movie.
Edit: actually fourth, I forgot about 'White Men can't Jump'.
This man really forgot to mention when my boy buddy made the last out at first base, winning the world series in the movie Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch.
The Deep Space Nine baseball episode is still an absolute delight to watch every time. "Death to the opposition!"
"Find him and kill him!"
It is phenomenal. Love the final scene in the bar afterwards.
Bro ikr? I'm glad someone mentioned this episode. It's one of my favorites Star Trek episodes ever and I don't even like or understand baseball.
That was such a terrible episode
Take Me Out Of The Holosuite is so goofy & delightful
Dude, the idea to mix Chloe's and Jake's conversations with Charl in the editing was really good
I've never seen Ted Lasso, but I already love it. "I got a lot less control, I just have to hope that the lessons have left an impact and that they make the right decisions when they get out there"
HE SAYS TO HIS SON FROM ACROSS THE ATLANTIC! Holy shit, that's so good!
Yes, this video is what made me finally watch _Ted Lasso_ when it came out.
Goddamn dude the Ken Burns formatting is inspired
I scrolled down to check if someone had said this already, so I didn't need to.
I've got to say... you've finally done it. As someone who loves baseball, no, who lives baseball, and whose seen pretty much every baseball movie and documentary ever... I have to admit, this video brought a tear to my eye. You get it. You've got great videos, but there was something about this one that got to me. Keep up the diversity of the "content"! I love your superhero and SFF stuff, but you're other stuff is solid too.
After watching this video and finding out they’d been cut from consideration...
Boxing Movies: I coulda been a contendah!!!
This makes the case for Cricket in films too.
Unfortunately there aren't many cricket films.
Lagaan is a great cricket film.
I really like Dil Bole Hadippa
BASEketball: The 'Nightmare Before Christmas' of Sports Movies
HAHAHAHA WHY DOES THIS SENTENCE MAKE SENSE?!??!! It shouldn't, but it does.
I once saw it on TV a long time ago and didn't remember the title. For some time it felt like this movie didn't exist to me, like it was some kind of fever dream, because without the title I couldn't really find it again and it was so weird! XD
So close, just missing enough focus on the two most iconic pieces of baseball media, Keanu Reeve's Hardball and the baseball scene from Hook
Darn it, I was specifically hoping for both of those.
“I swear guys, I’m not biased towards any sport” *proceeds to intermittently tell us reasons, why you are slightly biased towards baseball*
Your points are still very valid though, great video :)
I think it's more a bias towards the USA and American culture (which he somewhat acknowledges)
“patrick willems has totally fallen off with all that CHARL stuff”
“so you don’t watch it anymore?”
“oh no i watch every single frame everytime he drops something”
I have no idea what the rules of baseball are, and at this point, I'm too afraid to ask...
Think Cricket but simpler
In all honesty, the song "Take Me Out to the Ballgame!" is a great place to start. Doesn't cover all the bases, but there's a good reason it's played at almost every ball game.
You want, like, a full run down?
Never be afraid to ask, I just want to cover all the bases that need covering
Just ask who's on first
It's kind of like if a heist was a sport.
Essentially: what makes other sports good to watch makes them bad for cinema and viceversa.
Except when he talks about Basketball. I think the bit where he talks about the myth of baseball and the nostalgia about it, it *can* be watchable. I know when the Rockies were making their run I took it in (being from Colorado). You just gotta be a hyper fan or you have to have that bit of nostalgia ticked off. Still my favorite sport to play. And still love the lore. Can get caught in baseball clip rabbit hole pretty easily even though I don't currently really watch any teams.
definitely. baseball movies are great because you feel like you’re playing. and baseball is definitely one of the most fun games to play. but also it’s torture to watch an actual game bc of those same reason
@@doing_aok Baseball is a really fun game to watch in person at the stadium. On TV it's pure boredom.
The problem with baseball is that it also requires specialized gear and location. Also any film about baseball pretty much has to be set in the US or Japan.
This is unlike basketball and soccer which can be set both in lavish arenas & back alleys opening up for more nuanced stories.
I do agree however that films that focuses on soccer instead of using it as a vehicle for other types of stories usually suck.
To bad there aren't more volleyball and tennis movies. Small teams, simple rules, and possibility for exciting moments where the server controls the start and stop of time.
You need a ball and a bat to play baseball, it's not that hard.
@@Bloodshark123 And a large open area. If not you're just playing catch which is imo not the same.
At least with football and baseball you can shot at a goal.
Based on this video alone, Patrick exists somewhere in the Star Trek holographic systems just for Sisko to have a chat with.
Every time I see the new intro it elongates my lifespan.
Really, really love seeing Sugar (2009) be brought up here. A woefully underseen masterpiece that deserves far more exposure. Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck are absolutely phenomenal filmmakers.
I was really hoping Charl would be voiced by Werner Herzog.
And everything is an existential threat.
Read that as “Whitey Herzog”
You can probably understand why 😂😂
My dad is a boomer (in age, thankfully not in prevailing attitudes), his favourite movie of all time is Field of Dreams, and we've been making good use of lockdown together making our way through Ken Burns' Baseball over the past month...
Don't think I was supposed to get misty-eyed at this video, but there you go
"hockey is the most violent sport"
Laughs in Australian Rules Football.
Obviously he meant in movie form or every combat sport would win
You play that on grass right? Not ice as hard as concrete?
Aussie rules has huge fights but rugby is the most violent by far, imagine the hits of American football but without any official breaks or timeouts, helmets or gear.
Its basically a concussion and broken ear/nose simulator
@@Tom-eq7eh violent sports that beat out rugby: mma, boxing, kickboxing, shit I'll throw in cheerleading as a wild card for the rediculous amounts of injuries and the occasional deaths it gets. . But none of these apply to the movie format he described.
@@LSOP- ice hockey is played in padded armour. Aussie Rules is played in singlets and boxer shorts. It has players jumping onto the shoulders of opposing players to catch the ball. With falls of 5-6 feet on to the "grass". Plus all the punchups of hockey
I see a willems yellow thumbnail, I’m instantly happy. Yellowillems™️
Other than the terrifying scenes of Charl asking people if they want to live deliciously, I feel like you took this video essay straight from my head. I feel the exact same way about baseball movies and baseball
Man this made me so emotional for a sport I've never played and a country I'm not a citizen of. Great job Charl!
Patrick, you've got to look at One Outs, the Japanese comic and TV adaptation. It uses baseball to talk about capitalism. It's the Death Note of baseball fiction. It's truly unusual and weirdly great.
See also that episode of Samurai Champloo.
Did not expect someone else to recommend One Outs in the comments. Gave me goosebumps tbh 😂😂😂
I think that, from the perspective of someone who has loved baseball for most for their lives, that you have nailed why baseball means what it does to people. Its romantic and silly and truelly amrican in a way that Jzz and comics are american. I shed a tear when you mentioned the 4th of July scene in sanlot. That encapsulates what it reperesents in america, something increadably, if a bit nieavly hopeful.
The only thing that I think you can add is that the shape of the baseball diamond, with its straight lines at right angles naturally draws the eye to the horizon line when filming the playing field from the POV of the batter or catcher. This allows not only the cinematographer to very easily form better shot compositions even if they’re not very talented (see something like Major League) but it draws the audience’s eyes to the horizon and background naturally while keeping the foreground in focus which imparts a lot of painterly artfulness.
Quite literally, the baseball diamond is just more cinematic than other sports fields of play.
Something to add on with the homerun aspect - a homerun hit *sounds* different. Fly balls and in fielders just don't have that resonance. So the whole stadium can be not paying attention, and then there is that *crack* and everyone is riveted. LOVE baseball.
just when I thought the blue flame specials were dead...
This may be the day that I start a Patick Wilems parody channel, beginning with a 46 second video called “Why Jousting is the Best Movie Sport” that’s just a cut of awesome moments from A Knight’s Tale.
28:18
*Fear Strikes Out* isn’t just based on a true story-it’s based on the autobiography of Jimmy Piersall, who as a young Red Sox outfielder really did go from playing centerfield to shock therapy treatments when he suffered a few nervous breakdowns. Piersall was able to return to baseball and had a nice long successful career.
Less well known is the story of another young Red Sox player a decade later: Tony Horton, who also suffered from severe confidence issues springing from childhood abuse from his father. Unfortunately, when Horton left baseball, he really did leave baseball. I mean, he became an odd recluse who refused to even talk about the fact that he used to play Major League Baseball. To my knowledge he’s now a 77 year old man. I hope he’s had a happier life than he did a baseball career.
"I'm getting emotional just talking about this", Pat says, as he talks about movies I've never seen, showing the clips of their cathartic climaxes, and I, too, feel tears well up and my throat close and wonder, "Why HAVE I never seen The Natural??"
Blue Flame Special breaking the mold, love it!
As a big soccer fan, i saw few films about it that I wouldn't have rather spend watching an actual game for 90 minutes. It gets better when it is about the culture more so than the game. Mike Bassett: England Manager does it well as a parody about the characters and the things that happen of the pitch.
I agree that Baseball lends itself to cinema very well.
I'm from Iowa and I've got an uncle who was involved with the private vs corporate farmer fights in the 80s and early 90s and not only is Field of Dreams probably the most accurate portrayal of Iowa in cinema, because it is actually filmed there. It is actually I good portrayal of the issues Iowan farmers faced around the time
I've loved baseball (particularly the Chicago Cubs) my whole life, and baseball movies, like "Field of Dreams," "Bull Durham," and "A League of Their Own" are stone-cold classics. So glad that someone is giving the game its due.
Don’t tell anyone, but if you want to make me cry just put on “A League of Their Own”. I cry like a baby at that ending.
I’ve often thought that the dance between a batter and a pitcher, especially a movie character pitcher against the badguy batter (or vice versa)
It’s a duel, like a cowboy western duel...
And the catcher and pitcher talking is a lot like the commentary between two guys in a chess match
Still waiting for a Happy Gilmore-style fencing movie.
No Naked Gun shoutout. By far, the funniest baseball scene ever.
Every sports anime ever would like to know your location.
Agreed, when talking live action I'll agree with the video, but anime can make up for a lot of the shortcomings of other sports that he mentions.
Volleyball is the best team sport ever apparently
anime can do other sports well too but have you actually watched any baseball anime? or just that your favorite isn't a baseball one?
Major is a baseball anime and it rocks
Speaking of sports anime/manga, Mitsuru Adachi's work maps onto Patrick's praise of baseball movies really well.
Hey Patrick, I just want to say your video essays are some of the best on youtube. They are analytical without being boring and funny without being overbearing. You strike a very fine balance between examining lesser known films and the big blockbusters everyone knows. Most importantly to me is that you're never ashamed about what you like. You can appreciate a popcorn flick that might be chastised by pretentious film snobs as overrated, and you can take similarly take down highly praised independent movies. What I guess I'm trying to say is you are always authentic with what you like -- you can defend your opinions but also understand the alternate perspective. I don't know, your videos always reinvigorate my love for movies and make me appreciate aspects of the film industry I never thought I'd take a look at, whether it be Mamma Mia 2, some Turner Classic Movies, or some old boomer baseball movies. In an online landscape oversaturated with discussion and video essays of superhero movies and Chris Nolan, you decide to take a look at other aspects of Hollywood -- and as a dumbass wannabe movie maker, your videos remind me to branch outside of the "filmbro" zeitgeist (though you can still appreciate a nice Marvel movie or gush over Blade Runner 2049). You remind me to stay true to what I like, even if a bunch of people on letterboxd disagree with my opinion or if I'm straying away from the general consensus. Not to even mention the absurd rate at which you put out these videos. They've got insane production quality too. You make better videos than people with millions of more subscribers. Your videos deserve a million more views too. Alright, enough jerking off from me. Thanks.
For some good soccer cinema, watch "Heleno", a brazilian masterpiece on the first troubled star. It's football's Raging Bull
Pretty much everything said about baseball can be said about cricket. One difference is the geography - one line of the pitch instead of four lines of a diamond. The other difference obviously being the lack of Americana. There are cricket films even if baseball films get more money. Badger's Green (1934) and Lagaan (2001) spring to mind.
There really should be more cricket films. Hollywood already see Asia ad their biggest source of money, so they make films specifically with Asia in mind. And cricket is HUGE in Asia. It seems like a no brainer to make a big cricket film
Even though I wish you'd have replaced the Charl content with some Angels In The Outfield content because what a weird ride that is, I think this is one of your best videos. Excellent job as always.
I've been following this Charl storyline so much I've become ingrained. This is leading to such a climax I don't know if I can cope... Also Baseball films are great, I'm not a fan of Sports but can appreciate a good Baseball film from time to time.
I think you were mostly right between the "Urban Basketball VS Heartland Baseball", HOWEVER, I'd argue, if anything, Baseball works because is the happy middle between "Urban Basketball" and "Heartland Football".
Baseball works for both, let's say, traditionalist stories about nostalgia, but it can also have its edge for subversive stories about injustices.
Smart of you to immediately disqualify "Rocky" from this conversation, because it wins any discussion of "best sports movie" almost automatically.
Great essay, as usual - given me some new incentive to finally check "The Natural" off my watch-list.
One of my favorite movies
Creed is better
Rocky IV is best Rocky.
I'M LITERALLY SO HAPPY PATRICK LIKES MIRACLE. Such an underrated film.
Charl’s voice was genuinely creepy! Great job, loved the video all around :D
Watching this video made me think of all the times I used to watch baseball with my GP. I still try to keep up with the game, but it's not quite the same without him.
I like the point you make about how an individual shot in basketball loses its importance due to the amount of scoring that happens. What I think most Americans miss is that in soccer, the inverse happens. Because of how few goals are scored, their "worth" is amplified, making each individual goal in soccer more important than an individual bucket in basketball. And I know, different sports, different dynamics, different rules, but it's what makes soccer so appealing to so many.
I think why soccer has taken so long to become popular in the States and Canada is because we've grown up with games where the scoring is stacked. Games where teams can score anywhere from 14 to 110 points (in football and basketball). It's a lot harder to be excited about a 2-1 game when you're used to 97-101 blowouts every night.
Oh I also love this video.
Yeah, when I've had Americans tell me that "football is boring because scoring is so rare" I'm just thinking, wait, is the only bit you like about sports the scoring, you find all the rest of it boring? It just seems nuts to me
Football (soccer) is designed in such a way that yeah, every individual goal is of huge importance and feels amazing if it's your team that scored. But the thing is, a 0-0 draw can be the most exciting games, even more exciting than say a 5-4 victory or something. Because you don't _need_ lots of scoring for a game of football to be entertaining. Seriously, some of the most exciting action filled matches in history were draws.
Because fans of football actually love football, funny that... They don't just love the scoring, they love the whole sport
If American football is so terrible that the only part of it you enjoy is the scoring, then why bother watching it? You clearly don't like the sport in that case, just the scoring, so stop watching the games and just watch highlights of just all the points scored in every game instead
Also all these games have inflated scoring numbers anyway. Like in football, one goal equals 1 point. Very simple. But then you get other sports where scoring once will give you 6 points or something. So it's not even necessarily that the scoring is even that much higher than in football anyway, it's just that every score provides multiple points
But anyway if you really just care about numbers, and want really high scores, start watching cricket. That has crazy high scoring numbers. You'll get a result like 435-522
I am VERY happy you dropped the "guys bein' doods" meme
Finaly someone is answer this question that has perplexed me for years. I am a nerd, and as a nerd, sports is the most boring thing on the planet, But i fucking love movies about Baseball and Boxing, which Boxing is another Sport i feel is perfect for movies with like Rocky, The Fighter, and Million Doller baby being some favorite sports movies of all time as well
P.S I don't consider Raging Bull a Sports movie, and neither does Scorsese as he stated specifically wanted to just focus Jack Lamtta's personal life not the boxing has he finds sports boring, and didn't want to make a Rocky knock off
I had the same feeling as a nerd, baseball and boxing are soo good.
Same! Also sports audiobooks are exhilarating but I won’t watch any game
What's being a nerd got to do with it? You realise that nerds are the biggest sports fans, right? It's an incredibly nerdy pursuit, with decades or centuries of lore to learn, hundreds of statistics to compare, tactical set ups to debate with other nerds, signings and trades to debate too, etc. It's like one huge DnD game played out in real life. It's essentially infinitely complex, especially with sports like football (soccer) where there's never been a collection of stats that can tell the whole story, it's not a game that can easily be boiled down into statistics, because there's way too many variables, and so it comes down to subjective opinion a lot of the time. Meaning it's exactly the same kinda argument as "who'd win in a fight, batman or wolverine?". And for people who can intuit reality better, with noticing all those little human variables that statistics can't display, and can do it better than anyone else, well they become coaches or scouts, or maybe just they win a lot of money playing fantasy football. It's such a valuable skill though. Every top club uses statistics heavily, but never 100% rely on them, they use human scouts before deciding to sign a player. Which just means that it's a really really fun nerdy debate, debating with other fans of the same club who your club should sign. And there's so many things like how one player can be the best player on earth at one club, but then they sign with a different club and their ability goes way way down (like Fernando Torres for example). That's why the debates are so fun. Nobody can really be proven right or wrong, until the club actually does sign the player and you see what actually happens
There's pretty much no more nerdy a pursuit than sports. Is this some kinda American thing I'm too European to understand. Is America _actually_ like the movies, where there's nerds and jocks and the two groups never mix? I thought that was like a joke, or something. Your schools aren't _actually_ like that are they? God America is so _weird_
Like there's a huge difference between playing a sport and watching a sport. Sports nerds don't play the sports, they just obsess over the watching of them, they spend hours a day analysing them.
@@duffman18 no lies here.
“Without goals there’s no drama”
So, did none of the World Cup games you watched have good saves/easy shots sailing into the crowd/players making the wrong shoot or pass choice, etc, etc? Because there’s LOADS of things to create drama from in a soccer match that isn’t an actual goal!
The tension of the adversary almost scoring,i would say for cinema a well made soccer movie it woukd be really tense.
Bend it like Beckham is the best Futbol movie and that’s because its about other things plus futbol
The pitcher-batter standoff is the modern day gunslinger standoff. Those shots in old westers where you see shots of both participants their hands twitching ready to draw their guns.
as a non american/ non japanese...i care so little about baseball (at least its not cricket i suppose) but i ll still watch
To be fair, a lot of Americans don't care about baseball. It can be a very 'low action' sport.
Don't forget about Cubans, Dominicans, Taiwanese people and Venezuelans 🤝
@@marioricomeza2839 and Koreans
@@marioricomeza2839 fair enough sorry, I wasn't aware. i am sure even some people in europe like baseball but it's pretty small crowd compared to other major sports (not a massive fan in general) still think best sports movie are actually about more than the sport of course...
A pity that Cricket wasn’t at least brought up during the other sports pro/con list considering it’s one of the forerunners to Baseball and the first international game was between the USA & Canada.
Though that being said, it does seem to be very alien to current American culture & movie studios. Also it’s seen there as a very British game even though it’s far more popular in places like India than in the UK. With almost all recent movies on the subject being filmed in Bollywood. So I’m not too surprised. But I would love to see what a major Hollywood picture could do with the sport on screen.
There is a great scene in the Canadian film La Grande Séduction where a bunch of fishermen are pretending to play to impress a doctor who happens to be a cricket fan, even though they don't have a clue how to game is played.
It's not even actual cricket, yet this could very well be the whole extent of cricket being depicted in North American movies.
I love baseball, and I watched this because I disagreed with the title (thinking that boxing is the most cinematic) but maybe the title should have said ´team sport´ .... anyhow, amazing points made, and it made me cry... I love baseball, and miss it....
wow that intro. also given canon stuff has included meta talk about the channel, I think the credit shot is totally canon. But maybe Patrick in canon is only aware of the show he is making, and not of the show outside the show we are watching. ala Truman Show. So maybe Patrick in the show doesn't consider it canon, but we really do. Ya. That made sense!
Baseball movies are good but Boxing with Rocky I & II, Creed I & II, Cinderella Man, Raging Bull, The Fighter, Million Dollar Baby, etc. Ima need some convincing. Looking forward to this.
Siskel & Ebert themselves disagreed w/ you about Space Jam.
Angels in the Outfield was a favourite of me and my sister when we were little. Even though it's basically "oh, it's okay to cheat except during the playoffs".
Not only was there a resurgence of baseball movies in the ‘80s, but four of them are widely considered the greatest baseball movies of all time and were all released within *only one year* of each other:
- Bull Durham - June 15, 1988
- Eight Men Out - September 2, 1988
- Major League - April 7, 1989
- Field of Dreams - April 21, 1989
"One of the great movie scores plays as he scores"
Baseball movies are nostalgic. As someone who loves nostalgia, today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.
baby boomers:
"moving into their thirties and settling down with jobs and families"
me:
"a 34 manchild still obsessed with lola bunny"
There's an element to baseball that breaks tension everywhere. In some way, it's like one-on-one poker but every player makes up their cards
The dog petting Matt is adorable
This is my favorite video you’ve ever done. Baseball is my favorite sport and I love how well you describe how beautiful the game is.
“People hit a ball with a stick really hard, and it’s cool as hell”
Wait til this guy finds out about hurling
Just found this channel. Burned through all the videos in the last 2 weeks. This was the first one I watched, and it’s still the best...by a considerable margin. Great stuff. Can’t wait for more
I've missed most of Patrick's 2021 videos, and coming into this one blind and finding there's plot and characters is just so amazing.
Ditto! It’s gotten really weird & wild.
Wow wow, Patrick, not even a bit of "Escape to Victory" for Football (Soccer) ?
Scrolled down to check if some mentioned Victory as a great soccer-footbal film, and not disappointed. Well, disappointed it wasn't mentioned in the video. Maybe non-American films don't count?
How about Bend It Like Beckham for an excellent football movie that also focuses on racism, female empowerment and the struggles of British Indian families in England? And it also has some cricket in it for good measure!
But, to be fair, these are individual examples, and Patrick says how "there are so few good soccer movies", not that there aren't any :)
Sandlot, Field of Dreams and Major League were among my favorite movies to watch as a kid, and I barely even cared about baseball, let alone sports. Now I get why the president in Fallout 3 was so obsessed with it.
I realize how old this video is, and I’m at the beginning of the actual video, and I’m already tearing up. I LOVE baseball. It’s in my DNA, and have studied and read everything about the game “Ken Burns’s baseball” Growing up near Cleveland has made my love of the game rough “thank god for Major League” My husband grew up close to Oakland and has always loved the A’s “Moneyball” and no one does a baseball movie like Kevin Costner “For love of the game, Bull Durham, and of course Field of dreams”. Honorable mention goes to Billy Krystal for *61
Awesome video as always Pat! What a great subject to tape into. Also, watch out, around the 9 minute mark, and the 29 minute mark there are some odd glitches that I think might be the signs of a computer on the fritz! Can't wait for the next video!