Sport and Cinema.com

One of sports’ most iconic venues is appropriately given all-star treatment in celebrating its 100th anniversary in this compelling and picturesque book.

Baseball’s Midsummer Classic returns to Anaheim Tuesday for the third time since the All-Star Game began in 1933, but the event has changed quite a bit since the city first hosted the exhibition (in 1967 when the NL won in dramatic fashion on a Tony Perez home run in the 15th inning).

As we begin 2010 it is time to consider which is the BEST sports movie from the first decade of the 21st Century.

There are some very good choices. Documentaries, by the way, like “Dogtown and Z-Boys” deserve their own column.

Here is the Top Ten:

In a matchup of two explosive offenses, both fleet of foot and with plenty of muscle, given the friendly confines for hitters, the difference could be summed up in the famous quote from the rascally old Orioles manager Earl Weaver who endorsed the “pitching, defense and three-run homer” theory to winning ball with the emphasis on the latter. Back in May in a series at Yankee Stadium, where the Phils took two of three, the first game featured seven home runs! Expect more of the same… at both parks.

This past Thursday the Big Unit joined an exclusive small unit by earning his 300th win as the San Francisco Giants defeated the Washington Nationals 5-1.

The 45-year-old Johnson is the sixth left-hander to win 300 games and the second-oldest pitcher to reach the milestone. Knuckleballer Phil Niekro was 46 when he won his 300th with the New York Yankees in 1985.

The incomparable stadium with an unmatched history is the site for these pitching gems as Major League Baseball Productions presents six historic New York Yankee games on six DVDs. Part of this compelling package includes the telecast of Don Larsen’s Perfect Game in the 1956 World Series which has never been available on DVD.

“And now…… Your Starting Five!”

Personalities from the worlds of Sports and Hollywood pick their favorite sports movies

                                       (selections listed in no particular order)

Sylvester Stallone

Producer/writer/director/actor -”Rocky”, “Paradise Alley”, “Victory”, “Death Race 2000″, “Over the Top”, “Driven”

Chariots of Fire

Jim Thorpe All-American

Champion

National Velvet

Requiem for a Heavyweight

Spike Lee 

Producer/writer/director/actor -  “He Got Game” “Jim Brown”  “Love and Basketball”

Fat [...]

Before all the accolades that came with writing an Oscar-nominated film (“The Wrestler”), Robert Siegel wrote and directed a small picture using football as a backdrop on the psychology of obsession. Having scored in a run through the film festivals, “Big Fan” has garnered some critical momentum that may yield broader distribution. One of the reasons why is that the story rings of a sad truth.

Depicting the greatness of not only one of baseball’s, but all of team sports franchises, is on vibrant display in this pictorial history of the New York Yankees.

Roughly covering the team’s golden age, from 1949 to 1964, when they won fourteen pennants and nine world championships, the New York Yankees shine brightly in this fine collection of material covering everything from spring training to Old Timers’ Day.