My top 5 sports movies - sans lizards

Wine of the Week:
The Black Chook McLaren Vale Langhorne Creek 2009 Shiraz - As there are more and more spaces appearing in our wine racks I decided to go to Liquorland and see what "cheap and cheerful" selections I could find. The Black Chook stood out obviously because of the name and we were heading out that night to catch up with our friends Janet & Chris so we thought, why not?.

The Black Chook certainly had some legs. While different to a Hunter Shiraz in that it doesn't have the strong pepper characteristics, it holds up both drinking on it's own or with beautiful, slow cooked casserole like we had last night. That and it is a bargain at less than $20 a bottle so we will look at have more of the Black Chook in our wine coop sooner rather than later. Woop Woop Wines

For the flight back from NYC, I bought the latest issue of Sports Illustrated and there was an article that was a retrospective of the movie 'Major League'; which was made 22 years ago and is a classic when it comes to sports movies. 

Anyhoo, that article and the fact that we had to sit through 'Rango' three times during our trip made me think of the top five sports movies that I have seen. I mean really, a animated western where the main character is a lizard??? My mind had to wander...

1. Major League: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097815/

This is a classic particularly with the guys at AKA Cricket Club who can recite many quotes from the film (eg; "Hats for Bats..keep bats warm..gracias" and "Welcome to another summer of Indians Baseball"). 

It also featured Charlie Sheen who claimed in the SI article that he took steroids to strengthen his pitching arm and stick to the shooting schedule. He also told how he had a screening of the film recently at his mansion where he watched it with the director, some friends and "my two girlfriends and everyone cheered in the right spots"!

2. Field of Dreams: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097351/

The first of my Kevin Costner double which includes the famous quote "If you build it...he will come". And yes, I did consider bulldozing the family backyard and creating a mini cricket ground after seeing this movie...but keeping it to real people as opposed to ghosts that came to drop in. 

Turns out, if you have some spare cash and wish to make that long desired US property investment, the farm that was transformed into that famous baseball field is up for sale! http://www.fieldofdreamsmoviesite.com/aerial/FieldOfDreams.html

3. For Love of the Game: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0126916/

This is the perfect sports movie if you are in a relationship. The men can follow the story of whether pitcher Billy Chapel can throw the perfect game and the ladies can follow the love triangle between Chapel, Jane Aubrey and the game of baseball - in short, something for everyone.

This is the second Kevin Costner movie in this list which to me means he did his best work while playing baseball...lucky I am not into water sports that much as I could have referenced 'Waterworld'.

4. We are Marshall: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0758794/

This movie is a true story of the rebuilding of not only a football team but a community after the 1970 airplane crash that killed 75 people including the Marshall University football team, coaching staff, fans and community members. It's a great story, an inspirational story and for the ladies...Matthew McConaughey.

And once you have seen it, I dare you not to shout out "We are....Marshall!"

5. Rocky III: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084602/

You can not have a top five without Rocky Balboa...and for me it is Rocky III. Please...Hulk Hogan, Clubber Lang (aka Mr T) beating Rocky for the title, teaming up with Apollo Creed for the return bout and of course...'Eye of the Tiger' by SurvivorI 

If this movie doesn't sum up the 1980's, what other movie does?