The Return of the Mack

RETURN OF THE MACK! Hello ladies and gentleman, boys and girls and welcome back to another edition of ETC. ETC. ETC. It's been a while since I've posted and that's because a lot has changed since my last post. I went on vacation (again) and I got a new job. It is the latter that is most responsible for the lack of posting in recent weeks but its the former that keeps me going. As the summer months ween to an end, I can only think back to the adventures in Stone Harbor and Maine and say "There's always next year".

Now I'm faced with the daunting task of 13 hour work days and a demanding schedule that is college football. After almost 2 weeks on the job I've finally got some free time and decided that my readers needed a little pick-me-up. So to my dedicated readers of ETC. ETC. ETC, know this.. We will carry on. Today is the day our followers declared in one voice "we will not go quietly into the night". We will not vanish without a fight. We're going to live on! We're going to survive. Today we celebrate...THE RETURN! (Thank you Bill Pullman. Thank you.)

So the other night I was clicking around the best of basic cable in my temporary home aka the friendly confines of a Hofstra dormatory. I came across the movie "For the Love of the Game". Kevin Costner solidifies his legacy as the greatest sports movie actor of all time in this flick. Before becoming Billy Chapel, the future hall of fame pitcher near the end of his career, Costner starred in several classic sports movies including Bull Durham, Field of Dreams and Tin Cup. He is the Frank Sinatra of sports movies. (His non-sport performances are more like Frank Sinatra Jr.) So this got me thinking about some of my favorite sports movies and I decided to make a top 10 out of it. Now let me clarify, this is my top 10 favorite sports movies. Not my top 10 best sports movies. For instance, Varsity Blues made my list. However in no way do I think its one of the 10 best sports movies ever made. Some day, and that day may never come, I will make a list of the 10 best sports movie. But until that day, accept this list as a gift on my daughter's wedding day (never ask me about my business)

10. Varsity Blues
It's the ultimate high school football movie. It's cheesy and cliche, and the majority of the football sequences will never happen in real life. But its awesome. It's got Ali Larter in a whip cream bikini. That really should be all I need to say. And it's got "Good Bad Movie" All-Star Jon Voight. Certainly not the best football movie ever made, but when its on TNT on a Saturday afternoon am I watching? You know it.

9. Miracle
The reason I don't have this higher on my list is because you know what happens before you see the movie. It's the most famous sports moment in the history of America. I'm sure even someone who doesn't like sports has heard the famous Al Michaels clip "Do you believe in Miracles?"That's the only drawback of making a sports movie based on actual events, there's no suspense. With that said this is a fantastic movie. It would 100% make my list of best sports movies. Kurt Russell is terrific as Coach Brooks and the actual hockey sequences are some of the best playing sequences of any sports movie I've ever seen.

8. For the Love of the Game
This would be much higher on my list if it weren't for all the sappy, slow and unnecessary parts of the movie involving Kelly Preston's character. She is needed to drive the story, but I think they went a little overboard. As for the baseball parts of the movie, I think they are terrific. It's got my boy Costner as the aging veteran in quest of a perfect game. Throughout the one game, we see flashbacks of his career and relationship with Preston. Good job by the makers of this movie to cast Vin Scully, the legendary broadcaster, as the commentator for the game. He adds the the reality of the game, along with actually shooting in Yankee Stadium with fans in the stands. And Kevin Costner was actually pitching in the movie, so good job by him for not having a stunt double or CGI to enhance the throws. I know this because it was before CGI was invented.

7. Any Given Sunday
This is a more dramatic and dirtier look at the game of football compared to Varsity Blues. It's got an all-star cast including Pacino, Cameron Diaz, Jamie Foxx, LL Cool J and many former NFL players like Lawrence Taylor and Jim Brown. The drawback of this movie is that it is very long, almost 2 and a half hours and at times feels like it is dragging. But it really captures the many aspects of football like the business side, the players view, the partying and inflated ego's. And it gave us "Steamin' Willie Beamen".

6. The Natural
Another classic sports movie that would be featured on the best sports movie list. It's only at number 6 on my list because it's a little slow. Robert Redford is Roy Hobbs, a mysterious baseball player with tremendous talent. There's a good chance you haven't seen this movie because it's a little older than the other movies on this list. I get chills every time I watch this movie. It gave us the mythical bat named "wonderboy" as well as a stellar performance by Wilford Brimley aka the guy on the Diabetes commercials aka the Postmaster General on Seinfeld. "There goes Roy Hobbs, the best there ever was".

5. Remember the Titans
Any movie with Denzel has instant credibility but his role as Coach Boone was one of his finest. This movie has the perfect balance of comedy and drama that a good sports movie needs. This is also based on a true story, but there's a good chance you hadn't heard this story before the movie came out. I highly recommend it.

4. Tin Cup
There really aren't alot of good golf movies. Tin Cup, Caddyshack and Happy Gilmore and the list about ends. Another great performance by Costner as Roy McAvoy, the driving range pro who is the best ball striker anyone has seen. Don Johnson and Cheech have solid supporting roles as does Rene Russo.
*Editors Note: I'm excluding Caddyshack off the list because I think of it more as a comedy then a sports movie. And I can't have 1 movie take the top spot on two of my lists.

3. Major League
Wild Thing Rick Vaughn and the rag tag Cleveland Indians try to turn their season around to spite the owner of the team who is trying to relocate the team. Wesley Snipes stands out as Willie Mays Hayes as does Tom Berenger as Jake Taylor. But the guy who steals the movie is Bob Euker, the famous Milwaulkee Brewers announcer, as the comically frustrated and partially drunk announcer. So many great lines from this movie like "too high? what does that mean too high?" as well as "Juuuuust a bit outside".





2. Bull Durham


Minor League baseball at its finest. You've got the journeyman cather "Crash" Davis (played phenomenally by, you guessed it, Kevin Costner) and the up and coming young star "Icky" Nooke Laloosh", played by Tim Robbins. Susan Sarandon plays the groupie who picks one player a year to sleep with and teaches them all she knows about baseball and love and life. It's got plently of humor in it and it produced some of ESPN's best lines of commercials when they parodied the "Lolly-Gaggers" scene.





1. Field of Dreams


I can rewatch this movie over and over and over. I can't count how many times I've seen this movie and I've never gotten sick of it. How can you? It's all at once about ghosts, baseball, corn, Iowa, medicine, books, dads and James Earl Jones. Costner once again carries an amazing sports movie. Very good performances by Ray Liota as Shoeless Joe Jackson as well as James Earl Jones as author Terrance Mann. My one request of the Pauper was to stop at the Field of Dreams in Iowa as he made his cross country trip of Enlightenment. Well as always the Pauper did not disappoint.

I will leave you all with a little diddy from Field of Dreams that should ease the pain until my next blog. People will come Ray, people will come. Until then, as always....Stay Sweet