Missing Baseball? Watch A Movie About The Twins!

[Eric Blonigen]

I don’t know about you, but this is about the time of year I start looking forward to another season of Twins baseball. With something like 85 days until pitchers and catchers report to spring training, many fans have a baseball-sized void in their nightly entertainment. How better to cope than watching a movie featuring the Twins?

Image courtesy of © Kim Klement-Imagn Images

As it turns out, the Twins (and former Twins players) are featured a lot in popular media—sort of a surprising amount, really. One might expect teams like the Yankees, Dodgers, Cubs, and Red Sox to be the main subjects of baseball-related movies, and they are. But, the Twins just might be the most frequent team, after those major-market clubs. Why is this? Who knows! We won't even attempt to figure that out. Instead, here’s a rundown, in no particular order, of some of the films and shows that stand out.

Little Big League
This was one of my favorites as a kid. At 11, the premise of inheriting a baseball team (the Twins, no less) was something I dreamed on. What would I do as owner? Whom would I sign? For whom would I trade? I thought a lot about how great the Twins would be if they could add Ken Griffey Jr. or Randy Johnson to their roster. Admittedly, adult me doesn’t think this is quite as good as 11-year-old me did, but it’s still worth a watch every few years. Suspending disbelief is certainly required. There are few things that make me even a little bit nostalgic for the Metrodome, but this film is one of them.

Moneyball
If you’ve seen the movie, you know it’s really about the Sacramento Las Vegas Oakland Athletics, and their adoption of analytics. In the 2002 Moneyball season, the A’s set the all-time record for longest winning streak, and took their $40 million payroll filled with on-base machines (and ace pitchers and sluggers who didn’t feature in the movie) to the ALDS. But, the Twins feature prominently in a few ways. First, Billy Beane played for the Twins in 1986 and 1987. The Twins defeated the A’s to end their winning streak, and beat them to advance to the ALCS, ending the A’s run. Also, Moneyball author Michael Lewis had approached the Twins first about being the subject of the book, but the Twins weren’t interested.

There are two great documentaries featuring former and future Twins players, and both came out in 2012 — Ballplayer: Pelotero, and Knuckleball!.

Ballplayer: Pelotero
This one chronicles the international signing process out of baseball academies in the Dominican Republic. One of the main storylines in this documentary is the controversy surrounding Miguel Sanó’s age, as he was preparing to sign as a 16-year-old. This uncertainty led to Sanó dropping his signing price from around $6 million to the $3.25 million the Twins signed him at. This film shines a light on a part of the baseball business that isn’t widely covered by many. And, it’s narrated by John Leguizamo.

Knuckleball!
Remember when the Twins had a future Cy Young winning knuckleballer? They signed R.A. Dickey twice to minor-league deals, in 2007 and 2009. He wasn’t great for them, but went on to become a very solid pitcher, winning the Cy Young award in 2012 with the Mets. Knuckleball! features Dickey and Tim Wakefield, as well as others in the small knuckleball fraternity. If you are feeling a baseball-sized void in your life this time of year, it’s worth a watch.

Major League: Back to the Minors
This is a film that’s not objectively good. It’s the worst of the Major League movies, but it is fun, and it features the Twins. Corbin Bernsen returns as Roger Dorn, who now owns the Twins. Scott Bakula plays a pitcher for the Fort Myers Miracle who becomes the manager of the Portland Buzz (at the time, the Twins’ Triple-A affiliate). He challenges the Twins’ manager to an exhibition game, and it’s played at the Metrodome. Many of the characters from Major League and Major League II return. Plus, there’s a young Walton Goggins, who always elevates anything he’s in.

There are a couple of other films that tangentially feature former Twins. Fever Pitch featured the 2004 Red Sox team that broke the “Curse of the Bambino”. Of course, David Ortiz was on that team. Torii Hunter was an executive producer on a movie called Chokehold.

Finally, there are a handful of former Twins who have acted in movies and shows. Kyle Farmer played an unnamed quarterback in The Blind Side, and Paul Molitor played “jogging cop” in a TV movie called Falling for You. Rod Carew was in an episode of George Lopez. Tony Oliva was in two movies: Thérèse, and Going the Distance. Harmon Killebrew was in Pastime; an episode of Step by Step; and an episode of Mr. Belvedere.

I’m probably still missing some. If you can think of any others, comment below. And, next time you are finding yourself missing the Twins, maybe you can watch the next best thing — a movie involving the Twins.

View full article

[Johnny Ringo]

Moneyball is a truly great movie. I sometimes vacillate in my view that it is one of the five best baseball movies of all-time and a movie not really about baseball at all, but about the universal struggle of decent people slugging it out in an unfair and uncaring world.  In any case, its the first film where I thought, "Damn. Brad Pitt can really act."

Little Big League and Back to the Minors  are lightweight and inoffensive fare I guess but they are noteworthy in that the Twins allowed themselves to look like great fools for what you presume was only a few dollars. So in that sense, they can be seen as haunting and as a harbinger for the next twenty years. 

[Unwinder]

My mom and my siblings were extras in Little Big League, we were part of the Metrodome audience. They had us move around to different sections of the stadium so that we could fill in the background for different shots. Mom set the diaper bag on the stairs next to our seats so that we could find ourselves in the movie, but we never found it. My parents weren't sports fans and this was the only time I ever set foot in the dome.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

From Kitty to Cooperstown