BEST MOVIE BALLPLAYERS

BEST BASEBALL MOVIE ROLES

OF ALL TIME
WHO WILL BE # 1?

COUNTING DOWN HOLLYWOODS BEST CHARACTERS:
The rules are simple, they have to be a made up character. So no Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig or Shoeless Joe Jackson on this list.
The rankings come from a judging panel of highly respected fantasy baseball owners and movie critics. Yes I polled some nerdy people. They were asked to rank the top 10 movie ball players based on these factors.

1. Quality of the movie. we like Scarface and we look down upon movies like Gigli.
2. Level of ball. is it the Major Leagues or the California Penal League?
3. Value to Team. was the player an MVP candidate? or was he a Roger Dorn?
4. Fantasy Baseball Rankings. is he the make believe Albert Pujols or Jeff Mathis?


With such a wide variation of characters submitted I give to you the honorable mentions:

RYAN DUNNE. Freddie Prinz Jr, in Summer Catch. It's clear the quality of the movie criteria hurt Prinz with this one. Freddie plays a live armed young lefthanded pitcher who finds himself playing summerball in The Cape. Next thing you know his character dominates the league, gets drafted and while making his major league debut he has to pitch to Ken Griffey Jr who welcomes him to The Show by dropping a 400 ft. bomb on the kid. A LHP with a plus plus fastball has Prinz in consideration by a few.
WILLIE MAYS HAYES. Wesley Snipes in Major League. Think Michael Bourne meets Brett Butler. Guy sneaks into camp, gets kicked out of camp, then runs a sub 5 "60. The motor mouth carries a weak bat, but this Center Fielder can run with the best of them. A Fantasy Baseball Star this leadoff man will win you the Stolen Base category by himself.

LOU COLLINS. Timothoy Busfield in 1994s Little Big League. I hate to say it but by the producers of the movie ignoring the rules of MLB that clearly state an owner can not be the manager of his own club, this hurts the street cred of this movie. Lou Collins is the Twins aging perennial All Star 1B. Remerable scene: With two outs in the bottom of the 12th, Lou tells Billy he asked his mom to marry him. The All Star goes on to say her reply was to ask Billy. Billy says if Lou hits a homer, he will give the marriage his OK. Lou crushes one to deep Center but who is there to make a season saving catch? Ken Griffey Jr. Turns out Billy lets him marry his mom anyway.
RICK VAUGHN. Charlie Sheen in Major League. Making the Indians pitching staff after previously pitching in California Penitentiary League Rick struggles with his control throughout the majority of his first season. He would of killed most fantasy owners E.R.A and WHIP categories to make this top 10. The young fireballer could either be the next Nolan Ryan or Oliver Perez. TBD. A strikeout artist and possible future ace makes him an intriguing player.
NUKE LALOOSH. Tim Robbins in Bull Durham. Great baseball movie helps Laloosh. Nuke plays a secondary role to Kevin Costner's character but we can't help but remember Nuke's "million dollar arm" After a rough start, and some help from Costner, Nuke becomes a dominant pitcher by the all- star break. By the end of the movie, Nuke is called up to the majors and is on his way to what we all assume a Dan Haren like career.

KELLY LEAK. Jackie Earle Haley in The Bad News Bears. Clearly the level of play hurts Leak for this lists concerns. Problem here is he is only starring at the local little league level. He is a 12 year old, chain smoking, motorcycle riding, skee ball whizkid badass. leak has 5 tools and he isn't afraid to use them. He has a cannon for an arm and drops bombs like he is A-Rod. It's no surprise when he joins the Bears their run totals jump up resulting in his Bears making the playoffs. If little league had fantasy baseball he would be the Matt Kemp of your drafts.
BENNY RODRIGUEZ. Mike Vitar in The Sandlot. LA neighborhood legend Rodriguez leads a group of rag tag ballplayers who get together at a local beatup field. The quality of the movie helps here but Benny has some serious credentials. While he dominates the local kids we see get a glimpse at his professional playing career at the end of the movie. Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez is one the Dodgers star players. While he is in the twilight of his career, Benny manages to steal home in the movie’s final moments.
ROY HOBBS. Robert Redford in The Natural. A up and coming superstar to the game of baseball Roy is mysteriously shot leaving his career up in the air. Apparently he losses his swing or something for a while, idk? We pick up with his return to baseball for a made up team called the NY Knights. Using a fake organization really hurts Hobbs with our rankings here as we aren't quite sure about this National League he is playing in. A fake professional team gives us Fantasy experts a hard time when trying to project numbers. Blah Blah he hits a bomb to breaking the lights, We all know this classic no need to continue.

TOP 10

10. CRASH DAVIS. Kevin Costner in Dull Durham. A veteran of 12 years in the minor leagues, the power hitting catcher is brought in to mentor a young phenom pitcher. Crash breaks the all time minor league record for homeruns towards the end of the movie. Hitting that many bombs at the catcher position would make his fantasy value of the charts. He lands in the no. 10 and second in our catcher rankings because he never did stick in the Big League's.

9. HENRY ROWENGARTNER. Thomas Ian Nicholas in 1993's Rookie Of The Year. The 12 year who breaks his arm and when it heals he magically can throw a 100 mph, now that is a movie I can get into. As the season progresses, Henry's control improves and his walk to strike out ratio becomes off the charts. The Cubs keep winning, and he keeps earning saves. Baseball hadn't seen a closer that dominate since Dennis Eckersley. While only a one year wonder Henry did the impossible, help the Cubs win a World Series and that is good enough to make our list as the top make believe Closer.

8. MEL CLARK. Tony Danza in Angels In The Outfield. Danza plays a highly durable all star caliber pitcher in the twilight of a brilliant career, coming to an end for the Halos. Fighting off a dead arm with a little supernatural help Clark finds himself at the top of his game again. Becoming the ace the Angels need they shoot up the standings and find themselves in one game winner take the pennant. After a 159 pitch outing in the final game of the season Clark leads the Angels to a division pennant.

7. JAKE TAYLOR. Tom Berenger in Major League. The Indians pull Jake and his aching knees out of Mexico to take one last shot at making another big league roster. Not only does Jake make the roster he is the starter and mentor to the young up and coming stars of the team. This former All Star shows the heart of a champion throughout the movie guiding the Indians to their first pennant in anyone's lifetime. While only making the league minimum, he would be a good safe pick in Salary Cap leagues. Chris Ianetta type numbers with a few standout seasons, Jake Taylor makes our top catcher in movie history and we think that is quite a honor.

6. BILLY CHAPEL. Kevin Costner in For The Love Of The Game. Obviously this isn't a picture of the movie I am talking about. thats the joke. Pitching for a crappy Detroit Tigers team we go on a journey of Chapel's final game on the mound, which just happens to be a perfect game. Billy had a 19 year pitching career, which proves he was a workhorse which is always a plus. Most projections have Chapel's numers comparable to a Mike Mussina. Nice and long, very productive career. And for that Billy ranks as the no. 2 Pitcher on our list. Throwing a perfecto against the Yankees in Yankee Stadium to end a career isn't a bad way to go out.

5. SCOTT ELLIOT. Tom Selleck in Mr. Baseball. With a nickname like Mr. Baseball its no wonder this sweet swinging 1B makes the list. A longtime Yankees All Star, the movie picks up with Elliot on his way out of town. The only team willing to give the Barry Bonds type arrogant star a chance is the Nagoya Chunichi Dragons of Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. If he is a star in the AL then of course he is a star in Japan. He blasts 6 homeruns in 6 games on his way to leading the Dragons to the pennant. With the Dragons winning the pennant Elliot returns to Major League Baseball as the hitting coach for the Deroit Tigers. Think Joey Votto type numbers when you think of Scott Elliot.

4. STAN ROSS. Bernie Mac in Mr. 3000. Stan Ross is a Milwaukee Brewers all star, think a black Paul Molitor- a hit machine. The selfish superstar learns that do to a clerical error he didn't reach 3000 hits, instead fell 3 hits shy of the milestone. Hilarity insues when Ross tries to get back in shape and earn 3 more hits. Spoiler Alert: He comes up 1 hit shy and he changes his name to Mr. 2999. Collecting nearly 3000 hits that would put Ross at no. 30 all time on the MLB hits list. Pencil this long time 3 hole hitter in for 200 hits a year.

3. BOBBY RAYBURN. Wesley Snipes stars in The Fan. Bobby Rayburn is a 3 time MVP Award winner who joins the Giants after signing a 40 million dollar deal. The Gold Glove winning Center Fielder, was the highest paid player in baseball and often draws comparisons to Barry Bonds with a better glove. We like to compare Bobby Rayburn to the Matt Kemp of last season. Rayburn would sure to be the first OF taken off the board in almost every Fantasy League. The only multiple MVP Award winner on the list lands himself firmly in the top 5 of all the voters.

2. CLU HAYWOOD. Peter Vuckovich in Major League. The nemesis of Ricky Vaughn along with every other pitcher in the American League. This powerhitting 1B is the closest thing to Albert Pujols in Hollywood history. The Triple Crown winning 1B led the Yankees to a World Series title and brought them to a playoff game the following season against the upstart Indians. Things didn't work out for Haywood during that game but hey you can go yard every at bat. The most feared 1B on the list and a cornerstone keeper in any Fantasy League Haywood just misses the top spot.

1. STEVE NEBRASKA. Brendan Fraser in The Scout. More hyped then Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg combined Nebraska comes from the depths of Mexico. This power hitting Pitcher impresses everyone and the Yankees end up winning the bidding war for the fragile minded Baseball God. This riddiculously horrible movie shows Nebraska making his Major League debut starting the opening game for the Yankees in the first game of the World Series. The result? he pitches a perfect game, striking out all 27 St. Louis Cardinals batters on 81 consecutive strikes (this has never been known to happen at any level of organized baseball). Facing Ozzie Smith with two outs in the ninth inning, Steve's final pitch is so fast that it knocks down his catcher and the home plate umpire. Steve also hits two solo home runs in the game, no need to use a designated hitter with Nebraska in the lineup - The outcome was a 2-0 Yankees victory. Clearly the no. 1 ranked player on any Fantasy board he would be the only player I would deem untradeable.