Sports Movies

Rocky Balboa accompanies his friend Apollo Creed to the ring in a boxing match against a Russian Boxer named Ivan Drago. Drago is too strong for Creed, and unfortunately kills him in his match. Balboa blames himself for Creed's death and is determined to defeat Drago in a boxing match. He gains the help of Creed's former manager, Duke and travels to U.S.S.R. to take on Drago.

Gus Cantrell is a major league pitcher in the twilight of his career. He contacted by Roger Dorn, General Manager of the Minnesota Twins, and offered the role of managing the Buzz, the Twins' AAA team. Cantrell accepts but regrets it almost immediately. The Buzz is a dysfunctional no-hoper team, with an odd assortment of characters. However, Cantrell quickly sets about forging them into a winning team.

Rudy grew up in a steel mill town where most people ended up working, but wanted to play football at Notre Dame instead. There were only a couple of problems. His grades were a little low, his athletic skills were poor, and he was only half the size of the other players. But he had the drive and the spirit of 5 people and has set his sights upon joining the team.

It's the start of the minor league baseball season, and Annie Savoy, for who baseball is *the* religion, is going through the annual process of choosing the one player on her home team of the Durham Bulls of the Carolina League, he who she will take under her wings, sexual and otherwise, solely for the season, and who has always gone on to have his best year as a player. She has narrowed her choice to two recent acquires: Ebby Calvin LaLoosh, the wild neophyte pitcher with a wicked fastball - the pitch on which he solely relies - but can't aim, the more he thinks about it, the more erratic the pitch gets, while he doesn't appreciate anyone criticizing him or it in believing he knows best in his lack of self-awareness; and catcher Crash Davis, the veteran who has been around the minor leagues for twelve years and who was brought in solely to harness and reign in Ebby's power. While Ebby would gladly accept Annie's offer in seeing sex as an inherent part of his being, Crash, who is as philosophical in being a thinker as he is athletic, takes himself out of the running - the first player ever to do so - as, although attracted to her, does not see sex as the "game" she seems to treat it, especially as he knows he is nearing the end of his baseball playing career. Part of Annie's initial transformation of Ebby is to give him that nickname he sorely wants - Nuke - to match his pitches. Thus begins Annie, Crash and Nuke's three-way season-long relationship as they evolve because of it as baseball, sexual and human beings.

A semi-fictionalized account of the scandal surrounding the 1919 World Series, coined the Black Sox Scandal, is presented. The Chicago White Sox, considered the cream of the crop and one of the best major league teams ever, has just won the American League pennant, and are odds on favorites to win the World Series against the Reds. While team owner

In November, 1970, virtually the entire football team and coaches of Marshall University (Huntington, W.V.) die in a plane crash. That spring, led by Nate Ruffin, a player who was ill and missed the fatal flight, students rally to convince the board of governors to play the 1971 season. The college president, Don Dedman, must find a coach, who then must find players. They petition the NCAA to allow freshmen to play, and coach Jack Lengyel motivates and leads young players at the same time that he reexamines the Lombardi creed that winning is the only thing. The father and the fiancée of a player who died find strength to move on. Can Marshall win even one game in 1971?

To scrape up some extra cash, the semi-inebriated, cigar-smoking, former minor-league pitcher and now professional exterminator, Morris Buttermaker, agrees to coach the inept little-league baseball team of young misfits, the Bears. Against the backdrop of a tough championship and an intense rivalry with the impeccable Yankees, Coach Buttermaker goes as far as to recruit Amanda Whurlitzer, the twelve-year-old daughter of one of his ex-girlfriends and star pitcher, and the troubled bike-riding baseball hitter, Kelly Leak. Under those circumstances, do Morris' uncoordinated boys have what it takes to start winning? Did the maladroit Bears bite off more than they could chew?

Rocky Balboa is forced to retire after having permanent damage inflicted on him in the ring by the Russian boxer Ivan Drago. Returning home after the Drago bout, Balboa discovers that the fortune that he had acquired as heavyweight champ has been stolen and lost on the stockmarket by his accountant. His boxing days over, Rocky begins to coach an up-and-coming fighter named Tommy Gunn. Rocky cannot compete, however, with the high salaraies and glittering prizes being offered to Gunn by other managers in town.

A Detroit pitcher Billy Chapel, reflects on his life in major league baseball, after he finds out his girlfriend moves to London for a job. Thus forcing the ball player to analyze his life and how his career as a player, and his life without her will change, thus altering his priorities between his career winding to a close, choosing what his path will be, the love of baseball or the love of his life?

Al Stump is a famous sports-writer chosen by Ty Cobb to co-write his official, authorized 'autobiography' before his death. Cobb, widely feared and despised, feels misunderstood and wants to set the record straight about 'the greatest ball-player ever,' in his words. However, when Stump spends time with Cobb, interviewing him and beginning to write, he realizes that the general public opinion is largely correct. In Stump's presence, Cobb is angry, violent, racist, misogynistic, and incorrigibly abusive to everyone around him. Torn between printing the truth by plumbing the depths of Cobb's dark soul and grim childhood, and succumbing to Cobb's pressure for a whitewash of his character and a simple baseball tale of his greatness, Stump writes two different books. One book is for Cobb, the other for the public.

Pete Bell, a college basketball coach is under a lot of pressure. His team isn't winning and he cannot attract new players. The stars of the future are secretly being paid by boosters. This practice is forbidden in the college game, but Pete is desperate and has pressures from all around.

A comedy based on the 1987 professional football players' strike. Gene Hackman plays the coach of the team, Jack Warden is the owner, Brett Cullen is the All-Pro quarterback that goes on strike and Keanu Reeves is the "scab" who replaces the star QB.

In small-town Texas, high school football is a religion. The head coach is deified, as long as the team is winning and 17-year-old schoolboys carry the hopes of an entire community onto the gridiron every Friday night. In his 30th year as head coach, Bud Kilmer (Jon Voight) is trying to lead his West Canaan Coyotes to their 23rd division title. When star quarterback Lance Harbor (Paul Walker) suffers an injury, the Coyotes are forced to regroup under the questionable leadership of John Moxon (James Van Der Beek), a second-string quarterback with a slightly irreverent approach to the game. "Varsity Blues" explores our obsession with sports and how teenage athletes respond to the extraordinary pressures places on them.

Henry Wiggen (Author to his friends) and Bruce Pearson are members of the New York Mammoths major-league baseball team--Author the star pitcher, Bruce the catcher who never quite lived up to his potential--friends and roommates when they're on the road. During the off-season, Bruce is diagnosed with the terminal case of Hodgkin's disease. Author is the only teammate who knows about it; neither plans to tell anyone. Author takes extraordinary measures to ensure that he is playing ball with Bruce during what will probably be Bruce's final season. Author looks after Bruce in part because Bruce is mentally a simple man who can easily be taken advantage of, especially by his opportunistic girlfriend Katie. As the season progresses, the team isn't quite gelling, despite being the best team on paper. But as information comes to light, the dynamic on the team changes to make it a memorable end of the season especially for Bruce, who finishes on his own terms.

Jim Morris is a Texas high school chemistry teacher and coach of the school's baseball team. He's always loved baseball and as a way of motivating his players, he agrees to go to a professional try-out if they win the championship. He once had aspirations to be a professional baseball player but an injury brought that to an end. Sure enough, the 39 year-old father of three finds himself at a camp for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and he somehow seems to have regained his pitching arm, easily throwing a 98 mph fastball. Signed to a contract, he toils in the minor leagues while his supportive wife stays home raising their children. He soon finds himself called up to the big club and pitching for Tampa which is in Texas playing the Rangers. Based on a true story.

Those Cleveland Indians are at it again! After losing in the ALCS the year before, the Indians are determined to make it into the World Series this time! First, though, they have to contend with Rachel Phelps again when she buys back the team. Also, has Rick "Wild Thing" Vaughn lost his edge? Are Jake's knees strong enough to make it as a catcher another year? These and other questions are answered as the Indians recapture the magic and win the championship "their way".

Best friends Dave, Mike, Cyril and Moocher have just graduated from high school. Living in the college town of Bloomington, Indiana, they are considered "cutters": the working class of the town so named since most of the middle aged generation, such as their parents, worked at the local limestone quarry, which is now a swimming hole. There is great animosity between the cutters and the generally wealthy Indiana University students, each group who have their own turf in town. The dichotomy is that the limestone was used to build the university, which is now seen as being too good for the locals who built it. Although each of the four is a totally different personality from the other three, they also have in common the fact of being unfocused and unmotivated in life. The one slight exception is Dave. Although he has no job and doesn't know what to do with his life, he is a champion bicycle racer. He idolizes the Italian cycling team so much he pretends to be Italian, much to the chagrin of his parents, especially his used car salesman father, Ray Stoller, who just doesn't understand his son. Dave crosses the unofficial line when he meets and wants to date a IU co-ed named Katherine Bennett, who, intrigued by Dave, in turn is already dating Rod, one of the big men on campus. Dave passes himself off to her as an Italian exchange student named Enrico Gismondi. Beyond Katarina as he calls her, Dave's main immediate focus is that the Italian cycling team have announced that they will be in Indianapolis for an upcoming race, which he intends to enter to be able to race his idols. After an incident at the race, Dave, with a little help from his parents and unwittingly by actions of his friends, has to reexamine his life, what he really wants to get out of it and how best to start achieving it.

Roy 'Tin cup' McAvoy, a failed pro golfer who lives at the run-down driving range which he manages with his sidekick and caddy Romeo in the West Texas tin pot town of Salome, ends up signing over ownership to a madam of 'show girls' to pay off debts. His foxy novice golf pupil, female psychiatrist Dr. Molly Griswold, turns out to be the new girlfriend of McAvoy's sarcastic one-time college golf partner, slick PGA superstar David Simms, who drops by to play into Roy's fatal flaw: the inability to resist a dare, all too often causing him to lose against lesser players, in this case gambling away his car. Falling for Molly, Roy decides to become her patient; in order to earn her respect, he decides to try to qualify for the US Open, after starting off as Simm's caddy 'for the benefit of his experience'. His talent proves more then adequate, but over-confident negligence of risks, while pleasing the crowds, is murder on his scores, while Simms spits on the fans but never wastes a point...