These are hard days for sports fans.
Every major sport — baseball, basketball, hockey, golf, tennis and soccer — have suspended or canceled the remainder of their seasons due to the coronavirus outbreak. And now Jacob deGrom, LeBron James and Serena Williams are all hunkering down at home like the rest of us. While we wait for them to get back on their fields and courts, why not check out some classic sports movies?
Baseball




America’s pastime is also Hollywood’s. No sport has been given the film treatment more often, or more successfully, than baseball. The go-to classic is “Field of Dreams,” starring Kevin “If you build it, he will come” Costner as an Iowa farmer inspired by the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson to build a baseball diamond in his cornfield. But, there’s one for every taste.
If you’re also lamenting the shut-down of Broadway, there’s 1958’s “Damn Yankees”: a musical starring Tab Hunter and Gwen Verdon about a desperate Washington Senators fan who sells his soul to the devil so his team can beat the Yankees. For a bit of romance, try “Bull Durham,” also starring Costner as a minor league vet who mentors a rookie pitcher (and canoodles with Susan Sarandon). Kids home from school? “The Sandlot,” about a group of boys who play baseball after school, deal with a giant dog and a Babe Ruth-autographed ball is still good fun almost 30 years later.
Basketball



For whatever reason, basketball films tend to be stranger than the rest, with characters such as cartoon aliens and likable hustlers. A beloved, traditional option, however, is “Hoosiers” starring Gene Hackman as a coach with unusual methods who turns around an Indiana high school team. Extremely weird, but nonetheless obsessed over, is “Space Jam,” in which the Looney Toons kidnap Michael Jordan to help them win an intergalactic basketball game. A 2021 remake is on the way starring LeBron James. And then there’s the “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” of basketball, “White Men Can’t Jump.” In that comedy, Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes play a pair of tricksters who use Harrelson’s unexpected on-court skills to swindle bettors.
Hockey


Films about hockey lean sentimental, and are often catered to younger viewers, but a couple memorable ones stick out. The most inspiring is “Miracle,” which is based on the unlikely victory of the 1980 American Olympic team against the Soviet Union. Kurt Russell plays the coach in that inspiring tale. And in “The Mighty Ducks,” a lawyer (Emilio Estevez), after being arrested for drunken driving, is forced to do community service: coach the worst kid hockey team in the league.
Tennis, Soccer & Golf



A tremendous tennis movie is “Battle of the Sexes,” about the famous match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. Emma Stone and Steve Carell make perfect sparring partners. You can’t go wrong with the indie hit “Bend It Like Beckham,” in which an Indian girl in Britain longs to play soccer, er, football. And I don’t need to tell golf nuts to turn on “Caddyshack” immediately.




