THE JACKIE ROBINSON STORY
Free Screening!

Following his National League MVP award in 1949, and just three years after his electrifying major league debut in 1947, in which he broke baseball's color barrier and won the inaugural MLB Rookie of the Year award, Jackie Robinson plays himself in the Hollywood version of his real life story.

DIR Alfred E. Green; SCR Arthur Mann, Lawrence Taylor; PROD Mort Briskin. US, 1950, b&w, 76 min, digital format. NOT RATED

Print courtesy of the Library of Congress.

IT HAPPENS EVERY SPRING

With the help of a miraculous substance accidentally cooked up in his lab, college chemistry professor Ray Milland re-invents himself as a late-blooming rookie pitcher with an unhittable curveball.

DIR Lloyd Bacon; SCR Valentine Davies, from a story by Davies and Shirley W. Smith; PROD William Perlberg. US, 1949, b&w, 87 min, 35mm. NOT RATED

ANGELS IN THE OUTFIELD (1951)

Cussin', fussin' and fight-prone Pirates manager Guffy McGovern (Paul Douglas) has a lot to be angry about, with his team mired in last place. But after a late-night encounter with the archangel Gabriel in the outfield at Forbes Field, Guffy agrees to swear off swearing in exchange for some heavenly help on the field. With Janet Leigh, Keenan Wynn and Spring Byington. Look for cameos by Joe DiMaggio and Ty Cobb. The favorite film of Dwight D. Eisenhower!

DIR/PROD Clarence Brown; SCR Dorothy Kingsley and George Wells, from a story by Richard Conlin. US, 1951, b&w, 99 min, digital presentation. NOT RATED

ALIBI IKE

Cubs rookie Joe E. Brown has loads of talent, but his penchant for excuse-making and tall tales earns him the nickname "Alibi Ike" from his teammates. In a slump after getting dumped by girlfriend Olivia de Havilland (in her screen debut), Ike finds the mob attempting to coerce him into fixing the World Series–no, it's not a fantasy, Cubs fans, but a rollicking good baseball comedy.

DIR Ray Enright; SCR William Wister Haines, Ring Lardner; PROD Edward Chodorov. US, 1935, b&w, 72 min, 16mm. NOT RATED

THE BINGO LONG TRAVELING ALL-STARS & MOTOR KINGS

Fed up with playing for peanuts as a member of the Negro League's Ebony Aces, star pitcher Bingo Long (Billy Dee Williams) puts together a barnstorming all-star team of his own, including slugging catcher Leon Carter (James Earl Jones) and motor-mouthed outfielder Charlie Snow (Richard Pryor).

DIR John Badham; SCR Hal Barwood, Matthew Robbins, from the novel by William Brashler; PROD Rob Cohen. US, 1976, color, 110 min, 35mm. RATED PG

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME

Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra are a vaudeville duo in the winter and star baseball players for the Wolves in the summer, two-thirds of a celebrated double-play combo along with first-baseman pal Jules Munshin. Challenges for the new season include the team's new no-nonsense owner, Esther Williams, passionate Sinatra fan Betty Garrett and gambler Edward Arnold's intense interest in the Wolves' fortunes.

DIR Busby Berkeley; SCR Harry Tugend, George Wells, from a story by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen; PROD Arthur Freed. US, 1949, color, 93 min, 35mm. NOT RATED

DAMN YANKEES!

"Washington—first in war, first in peace and last in the American League." Fed up with his beloved team getting routinely trounced by the mighty Yankees, an elderly Senators fan makes a Faustian pact with a dapper, red-socked Satan (Ray Walston) and is transformed into youthful, golden boy slugger Joe Hardy (Tab Hunter). Soon he's leading his beloved team to the American League pennant, but pining for his wife and home. So the devil pinch hits with his best minion—sexy stunner Lola (Gwen Verdon), and when she belts out "whatever Lola wants, Lola gets," it's hard to disagree. Choreography by Bob Fosse.

DIR/PROD Stanley Donen; DIR/SCR/PROD George Abbott; SCR Douglass Wallop, from his novel "The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant." US, 1958, color, 111 min, 35mm. NOT RATED

FIELD OF DREAMS
Free Screening!

#28 on 100 Years...100 Cheers

#39 on 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes

"If you build it, he will come." Iowa farmer Kevin Costner hears a mysterious voice in his cornfield, builds a backyard ball park and is soon hosting the ghosts of the 1919 Chicago Black Sox for games in this heartwarming fantasy, a celebration of baseball's magical hold on the imagination and the spiritual bonds it fosters across generations.

DIR/SCR Phil Alden Robinson, from the novel "Shoeless Joe" by W. P. Kinsella; PROD Lawrence Gordon, Charles Gordon. US, 1989, color, 107 min, 35mm. RATED PG

KNUCKLEBALL!
Tickets $5!

Baseball's most famous trick pitch, the wildly unpredictable knuckleball, is discussed and dissected by an array of its most famous practitioners, including Tim Wakefield, R. A. Dickey, Phil Niekro and Charlie Hough. The knuckleball can flummox even the most skilled hitter, as Derek Jeter, Gary Sheffield and Carlos Beltran all attest, not to mention catcher Jason Varitek, Wakefield's long-suffering battery mate in Boston.

DIR/PROD Ricki Stern, Anne Sundberg; PROD Dan Cogan, Christine Schomer. US, 2012, color, 93 min, Blu-ray. NOT RATED

THE NATURAL
30th Anniversary!

One of the most beloved sports movies of all time, this film combines a classic tale of heroic destiny, a nostalgic love for the American pastime at its glory in the 1930s and the dramatic flair that the best sports contests deliver. Robert Redford is Roy Hobbs, a middle-aged rookie for the last-place New York Knights who has a mysterious past. Finally given playing time, Hobbs' electrifying abilities vault the Knights into contention, but the publicity attracts some unwanted attention from unfriendly sources.

DIR Barry Levinson; SCR Phil Dusenberry, Roger Towne, from the novel by Bernard Malamud; PROD Mark Johnson. US, 1984, color, 134 min. RATED PG

THE BAD NEWS BEARS

Walter Matthau is Morris Buttermaker, a drunken pool cleaner and onetime minor league prospect recruited to coach a Los Angeles Little League team of hapless misfits. Buttermaker adds two ringers: his ex-girlfriend's baseball-loving daughter, Amanda Wurlitzer (Tatum O'Neal), and the athletically gifted but precociously criminal Kelly Leak (Jackie Earle Haley), while the players learn to set their differences aside, pool their talents and rally around an us-against-the-world mentality to challenge the league's top team, the Yankees. Gloriously un-P.C. but surprisingly progressive beneath its crude exterior, THE BAD NEWS BEARS is an only-in-the-1970s version of a "kids' movie." "An unblinking, scathing look at competition in American society"—Roger Ebert.

DIR Michael Ritchie; SCR Bill Lancaster; PROD Stanley R. Jaffe. US, 1976, color, 102 min, 35mm. RATED PG

BULL DURHAM

#97 on 100 Years...100 Laughs

Ron Shelton's uproarious and ribald take on the minor league experience. With Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins and Robert Wuhl. Named the #1 Greatest Sports Movie by Sports Illustrated.

DIR/SCR Ron Shelton; PROD Thom Mount, Mark Burg. US, 1988, color, 108 min, 35mm. RATED R

A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN

"There's no crying in baseball!" Penny Marshall's beloved film, recently voted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, follows the rise of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League created by Chicago Cubs owner Walter Harvey (Garry Marshall) in the 1940s, responding to the diminished ranks of male pro ballplayers during WWII. With Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Madonna and Rosie O'Donnell.

DIR Penny Marshall; SCR Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel; PROD Elliot Abbott, Robert Greenhut. US, 1992, color, 128 min, DCP. RATED PG

THE SANDLOT
Free Screening!

New kid in town Scotty Smalls is clueless about baseball, but after a crash course in the fundamentals, he earns a spot on his neighborhood sandlot team alongside Benny the Jet, Ham, Squints, Yeah-Yeah and Repeat. But balls hit over the fence at the sandlot land in Mr. Mertle's junkyard, guarded by the Beast, and one day that's where Scotty's stepdad's Babe Ruth- autographed ball lands. Nostalgic and humorous, Roger Ebert praised the movie as "a summertime version of" A CHRISTMAS STORY.

DIR/SCR David M. Evans; SCR Robert Gunter; PROD Dale De La Torre, William S. Gilmore. US, 1993, color and b&w, 101 min, 35mm. RATED PG

MAJOR LEAGUE
Tickets $5!
25th Anniversary!

"JUST a bit outside." With the Cleveland Indians ownership intent on tanking the season and moving the franchise to Miami, a motley band of misfit players resolves to play hard, make the playoffs and save the franchise. The ensemble cast includes then up-and-comers Charlie Sheen, Wesley Snipes, Rene Russo and Dennis Haysbert, plus Tom Berenger, James Gammon, Corbin Bernsen and Bob Uecker.

DIR/SCR David S. Ward; PROD Chris Chesser, Irby Smith. 1989, color, 107 min, DCP. RATED R

EIGHT MEN OUT

John Sayles' chronicle of the 1919 Chicago "Black Sox" scandal, starring John Cusack, David Strathairn, Charlie Sheen and Christopher Lloyd.

DIR/SCR John Sayles, from the book by Eliot Asinof; PROD Sarah Pillsbury, Midge Sanford. US, 1988, color, 119 min, 35mm. RATED PG

JEWS AND BASEBALL: AN AMERICAN LOVE STORY
Tickets $5!

Ranging from Hall of Famers Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax to slugger Al Rosen and colorful characters like Moe Berg, Lipman Pike, Barney Pelty and "Subway Sam" Nahem, plus recent stars like Shawn Green, Kevin Youkilis, Ian Kinsler and Ryan Braun, this documentary explores the story of Jewish ballplayers and the American pastime. Written by New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning sports columnist Ira Berkow and narrated by Dustin Hoffman.

DIR/PROD Peter Miller; SCR Ira Berkow; PROD William Hechter. US, 2010, color, 91 min, HDCam. NOT RATED

THE ROOKIE
Free Screening!

Once a promising pitching prospect until a shoulder injury derailed his career, Jim Morris (Dennis Quaid) has settled down into teaching science, coaching baseball and being a good husband and father. Still displaying a blazing fastball, the 35-year-old coach is challenged by his players to try out for the majors, which he reluctantly does and, to his and his family's amazement, earns a job with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Based on a true story, directed by John Lee Hancock (SAVING MR. BANKS, THE BLIND SIDE).

DIR John Lee Hancock; SCR Mike Rich; PROD Gordon Gray, Mark Ciardi, Mark Johnson. US, 2002, color, 127 min, 35mm. RATED G

HANK AARON: CHASING THE DREAM
Tickets $5!

This Oscar-nominated documentary charts Hank Aaron's Hall of Fame career, capped off by his pursuit of a record long thought unbreakable: Babe Ruth's career mark of 714 home runs.

DIR/SCR Michael Tollin; PROD Fredric Golding. US, 1995, color, 120 min, digital presentation. NOT RATED

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HANK GREENBERG
Tickets $5!
In person: filmmaker Aviva Kempner

This Peabody Award-winning film is a humorous and nostalgic documentary about an extraordinary baseball player who transcended religious prejudice to become an American icon. Hammerin' Hank's accomplishments for the Detroit Tigers during the Golden Age of Baseball rivaled those of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. America's first Jewish baseball star was a beacon of hope to American Jews who faced bigotry during the Depression and World War II. (Courtesy of Aviva Kempner.)

DIR/SCR/PROD Aviva Kempner. US, 1999, b&w and color, 95 min, 35mm. RATED PG

Co-presented by the Washington Jewish Film Festival and Women in Film & Video of Washington, DC.

SUGAR

Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden's (HALF NELSON) probing drama follows 19-year-old pitching prospect Miguel "Sugar" Santos' journey from San Pedro de Macorís in the Dominican Republic to the small-town Iowa Single A farm team of the Kansas City Knights. Official Selection, 2008 Sundance, Toronto Film Festivals.

DIR/SCR Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck; PROD Paul Mezey, Jamie Patricof, Jeremy Kipp Walker. US/Dominican Republic, 2008, color, 114 min, 35mm. RATED R

THE LOST SON OF HAVANA
Tickets $5!

Former pitching great Luis Tiant returns to Cuba for the first time since leaving in 1961 at age 20, for a bittersweet reunion with his homeland and family members. Official Selection, 2009 Tribeca Film Festival.

DIR/SCR Jonathan Hock; PROD Kris Meyer. US, 2009, color, 102 min, DCP. NOT RATED

MONEYBALL

The true life story of Billy Beane, onetime phenom-turned-major league bust-turned-innovative general manager of the Oakland As. Six Oscar nominations, including Brad Pitt for Best Actor and Jonah Hill for Best Supporting Actor. Based on the mega- bestseller by Michael Lewis.

DIR Bennett Miller; SCR Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin, from the book "Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game" by Michael Lewis; PROD Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz, Brad Pitt. US, 2011, color, 133 min, 35mm. RATED PG-13

42
Free Screenings April 15!

The inspiring story of Jackie Robinson, the man who broke the color barrier in all-white major league baseball when he debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, achieving stardom, opening the doors for others and marking a key victory in the Civil Rights movement.

DIR/SCR Brian Helgeland; PROD Thomas Tull. US, 2013, color, 128 min, 35mm. RATED PG-13

Rare Films from the Baseball Hall of Fame
Introduced by David Filipi, Wexner Center for the Arts
Wear your favorite team cap for draft beer and beverage discounts!

Celebrate the new baseball season with cinematic treasures from the National Baseball Hall of Fame that will delight baseball fans and cinephiles alike. Highlights of the program include a clip of Willie Mays' 511th home run, Senators owner Clark Griffith being serenaded by J. Edgar Hoover on his 85th birthday, commercials featuring Gil Hodges, Harmon Killebrew, Phil Rizzuto and Frank Robinson, a film on the 1955 Senators and more!

Total program approx. 120 mins. Video.

Program organized by David Filipi, Director of Film/Video, Wexner Center for the Arts. Special thanks to Jim Gates, National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, New York.