Movies

Let's talk favorite movies today. I'm not saying they are the best movies, just my favorite. And, honestly, the top six are interchangeable. Any one of those could be number one, depending on how I feel that day. What's your top 10 favorite movies? Let me know in the comments section.

10. The Natural
The mysterious Roy Hobbs seemingly comes out of nowhere to become a baseball hero with the help of his homemade bat, Wonder Boy.

9. Bull Durham
This movie about veteran catcher Crash Davis, rookie fireballer Nuke Laloosh and their Durham Bulls brought the quirkiness of minor league baseball into view. Contains one of my favorite movie lines of all time, when Crash helped up Nuke after punching him out and then introduced himself: "I'm Crash Davis. I'm your new catcher and you just got lesson number one: don't think...it'll only hurt the ballclub." I would not recommend this movie for kids, though.

8. Tommy Boy
Chris Farley and David Spade star in one of the funniest movies ever. Farley, as Tommy Callahan, has to go on the road and become a salesman in order to save the family business, Callahan Auto Parts. Tommy takes along Richard, the opposite of Tommy in every way, and hilarity ensues. Too many great lines in this movie to pick one favorite.

7. Major League
Another baseball movie, another comedy. The Cleveland Indians bring a bunch of has-beens and never-will-bes North after spring training, when the new owner wants to lose as many games as possible so she can move the team to Florida after the season. Rickie "Wild Thing" Vaughn, Willie Mays Hays, Roger Dorn, Jake Taylor and Pedro Cerrano decide they are going to do what they have to do to keep the team in Cleveland. Another movie with a million quotable lines, many provided by play-by-play man Harry Doyle (Bob Ueker).

6. Hoosiers
Like I said, from this point on, any of these movies might be considered my favorite depending on my mood. Hoosiers is based on a true story of a tiny high school in Indiana that defies all odds and does the impossible. A touching story starring Gene Hackman as the head coach of the Hickory High Huskers. A few years ago, USA Today listed the top sports movies of all time. Hoosiers was No. 1.

5. Top Gun
Maverick and Goose in airplanes shooting down other airplanes. Pretty much non-stop action. Great soundtrack. What else do you need?

4. Remember the Titans
Another movie based on a true story about a high school team overcoming all odds. Denzel Washington stars as the head coach of newly-integrated T.C. Williams High in Virginia in the early 70s. But before Washington's character, Coach Herman Boone, can win any games, his team must come together. Many of the training camp scenes at Gettysburgh College were actually shot on the campus of Berry College in Rome, Georgia (where I was the sports information director from 2003-06).

3. Forrest Gump
You can't go wrong with a Tom Hanks movie. My favorite Hanks movies include Big, Saving Private Ryan, Punchline, A League of Their Own and Cast Away, but Forrest Gump is by far my favorite. It covers so many major US events and captures so many emotions held by Americans from the 60s through the 80s. And, it's just a great story...with a ton of quotable lines. Incredible movie. I watch it every time it comes on television. And it comes on a lot.

2. Tombstone
"You gonna do something, or just stand there and bleed?" The great story of how Wyatt Earp and his brothers came to Tombstone, Ariz., to make a fortune, and ended up teaming up with Doc Holliday to protect it from the hated Cowboys gang. Another movie with tons of action (how could any movie depicting the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral not have a ton of action?), you are constantly on edge during this movie.

1. Rocky
I could have made this list really easy and make Rocky the top six slots (Rocky, Rock II, Rocky III, Rocky IV, Rocky V and Rocky Balboa), because I love every Rocky movie. But what fun would that have been? So, I'll just combine them into one. The first two in the series are definitely the best. You gotta love the underdog, rags-to-riches (and back to rags) story. Any fictional character who inspires a real statue in front of a museum in Philadelphia and makes everyone who climbs those stairs that the statue sits atop re-enact a scene from the movie has got to be one of the greatest movie characters of all time.

Others Receiving Votes (in no particular order): Miracle, The Karate Kid, Field of Dreams, Dumb and Dumber, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, The Sandlot, Caddy Shack.