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51 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP PLAY BALL 6.EightMenOut Sameperson(Sheen), completely different style of movie. I think it's great because it's different from everything else. It's differ - ent from "Field of Dreams," from "Bull Durham," from "Major League." Those are romanticizing baseball. This doesn't romanticize. It's not subdued, they don't try to pad it with anything soft, they just kind of give it to you as it is. There's a lot of great dialogue. There's a lot of great act - ing. A good film where you can actually see baseball done in a good, dramatic, storytelling way instead of a romanticized version. THE A'S 7. Sugar I haven't seen it since it came out a few years ago, but I remember loving it. It's the struggle of a Dominican ballplayer trying to make it in the big leagues. That's a side of the game that people don't realize or see. They did it in a good way. Without doing it as a documentary, as a feature, you actually get to see the struggle. You see the hurt, the harm, the anger, the love that can come along with trying to make it in this game. And you really feel the differences in the two countries. 8. The Natural I love it for the romanti- cized version of baseball. And it's something that I studied in film school. The cinematography was in - credible. It was nominated for an Academy Award for the cinematography. Also Glenn Close was nominat - ed for Best Supporting Ac- tress. It's hard to knock an Academy Award-nominat- ed baseball film, especially one as beautiful and as gorgeous as that one. There are a couple of particular scenes, obviously when he hits the home runs and there's the lights, lightning and the flashing. And in his struggling moment in that final game when Glenn Close comes to the game and Robert Redford looks up in the crowd, it's very subdued, almost sepia tone, and she stands and has this angelic light atop her and behind her. It's a very beautiful film. 9. Moneyball I don't think I could do this list playing for the A's without mentioning the other Academy Award- nominated baseball film. I mean, even if you didn't read the book from which it came, and the awards and the accolades it got, I think this was a nice telling of a good story of a side of baseball you never see. It's incredibly well-acted and done very, very well. 10. A League of Their Own / Bad News Bears I couldn't decide, so we actually have a top 11. I tend to push toward "A League of Their Own," maybe because I see it more often. But it's hard to put down the original "Bad News Bears" with Walter Matthau and Tatum O'Neal. Just being able to watch that from 1976, to be able to see and to watch and to enjoy that style of comedy, is good. The dryness, the utter disre - gard for what could be a kids' movie that absolutely is not. I think that's a good quality. And "A League of Their Own," I think it's well-acted, too. It gives you a romanticized side of the game that's different from all the others, but you see it from the other side, from the female perspective of the sport. That's not some - thing you see very often. Clockwise from left: Moneyball, The Natural and A League of Their Own.