Baseball goes to the movies

(Applause Books). Lights! Camera! Play ball! From the early silent era to the present day, baseball movies have always been a staple of the cinema, from coming-of-age childhood classics to MLB-level epics. Baseball Goes to the Movies chronicles America's fascination with the sport from the beginning of the sound era to the current decade, quite literally covering the bases on all of the great and several of the not-so-great baseball flicks. From Field of Dreams ("If you build it, he will come..."), The Pride of the Yankees ("But today today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth"), and A League of Their Own ("There's no crying in baseball!") to an Academy Award nominee for Best Picture ( Moneyball ) and a sports flick that many believe is the worst ever made ( The Babe Ruth Story ), Backer always swings for the fences in his all-inclusive analysis of this underappreciated genre. Striving to emphasize the baseball aspects of every film featured, the book balances its critical discussions with information about players, teams, ballparks, interesting plays, statistics, baseball rules, and the legend and lore of the summer game (all without a DH!). Baseball Goes to the Movies is equally at home in the hands of silver screen fiends, sports fanatics, and frightened parents looking for a soft lob at the beginning of Little League.