Favorite sports documentary?

[MSRebel22]

The Ghosts of Ole Miss

SEC Storied: The Book of Manning

The Immaculate Deflection: The Story of the 1983 Egg Bowl

[waltere]

Discovery has aired a few independent Formula 1 docs in the last years which are outstanding:

“Grand Prix: The Killer Years” and “Deadliest Crash: The 1955 Le Mans Disaster"

I saw them as well, they're outstanding

[kewp80]

30 for 30:Catching Hell. Being a Cubs fan,I get goosebumps seeing Steve Bartman.

That was a really good one. Especailly at the end when the guy goes up to Bartman in a parking garage.

I also liked the one (can't remember what it's called) about how players in pro sports spend their money like they think it wont run out, but then it does. Really interesting stuff.

And of course the Hillsborough 30 for 30 really touched me as a Liverpool fan. Literally brought tears to my eyes.

[MadmanLA]

I also liked the one (can't remember what it's called) about how players in pro sports spend their money like they think it wont run out, but then it does. Really interesting stuff.

That was "Broke"...it was directed and produced by Billy Corben, who also did "The U" (supposedly, there's a sequel in the works).

[Sport]

Catching Hell was inherently flawed because they couldn't get Steve Bartman to sit for an interview (you know they tried) so you had the point of view of everybody except the guy who "caught hell". I kept sitting there waiting for Bartman to finally state his case and he never showed up. It would've been better if they told you early on that he wasn't going to be in it.

My favorites:

- It's long and slow, but Ken Burns' Baseball is good

- Battered Bastards of Baseball (I was intrigued when this popped up on Netflix and I've watched it twice. DID YOU KNOW: the name of this doc comes from a line in Jim Bouton's "Ball Four"?. Had no idea about Kurt Russell's baseball past.)

- 30 For 30 Section: The U, Elway to Marino (great oral and visual history of the 83 NFL draft when many teams were still very very basic in their approach to scouting and drafting talent), You Don't Know Bo, *9.79, Pony Excess, The 16th Man, Into the Wind (I wouldn't even call this a sports documentary. Just a really great/sad story), The Marinovich Project, Survive and Advance, The Two Escobars, June 17th 1994

- The Dream Team

- I don't know if you want to call it a documentary, but all of the NHL 24/7 episodes on HBO have been really good. I've watched each season at least twice. That also goes for Hard Knocks (helps that my team has been on it twice in the last five years).

- the HBO doc about Ohio State and Michigan

- Also ESPN used to do this show called "The Season" where they followed a team for an entire year. There was a high school football team, the 03-04 Colorado Avalanche, Cal Ripken Jr.'s last year. They were all pretty good.

- Almost everything NFL Films does

[Sanic]

I just watched Once Brothers and it's very interesting. The only problem is this british lady narrating everything, making it sound dumb as hell.

Was the episode normally like that? (I was watching on vimeo)

[DnBronc]

I liked the series that ESPN did from 2005-07 (Top 5 Reasons you can't blame). They need to bring that back. There are a lot of subjects that they could do, or re-do, like:

The Blazers for drafting Sam Bowie (that needs re-done)

John Elway for not wanting to play for the Colts (they were going to do that one before it was canceled)

Neil O'Donnell for the Steelers losing SB XXX

Robert Horry's check on Steve Nash for the Suns losing to San Antonio in 2007

Pitt's Basketball program for never reaching the Final Four (since 1941)

NFL Teams for passing on Jerry Rice in the 1985 Draft

[A_J_H]

Top 5 30 for 30 films

5. Elway to Marino

4. The Announcement

3. Requiem for the Big East

2. The Fab Five

1. Bad Boys

4 of 5 are basketball and I'm not big enough fan of basketball but these films are good to watch!

[Cosmic]

- It's long and slow, but Ken Burns' Baseball is good

Probably around 20 hours, but I absolutely loved it.

[alxy8s]

I really enjoyed The U, Fab Five, and The Two Escobars. A lot (if not all) are on Netflix. So thanks, ESPN, for passing on at least one money grab.

4 of 5 are basketball and I'm not big enough fan of basketball but these films are good to watch!

Bill Simmons produces them, so that's probably why. I had to look up Catching Hell after I watched it to see whether he actually directed that one. In a film supposedly about Steve Bartman, there was a lot of discussion of Bill Buckner, the Sawx, and the great sports fans in Boston.

[Sport]

Bill Simmons is the executive producer of the 30 for 30 series (a name that is now meaningless. They were originally called that because they did 30 documentaries about 30 stories that happened in ESPN's first 30 years) so that's why there's so many basketball docs. I don't mind because my relationship with basketball is that I'll watch any documentary or movie about it, but the actual games are boring as all hell. It would be nice if they'd spread it around to some other sports a little more.

There's only been two hockey entries in the series and they were okay, but the mid 90's sale of the Islanders is not what I would've gone with if I were choosing stories to make a hockey documentary (hock-doc?) about.

[Jer15]

That said, the Islanders documentary was very interesting. Who could believe that someone with no money could have "bought" the team? what's the saying? Only in the NHL?

The original 30 for 30 had some real gems.

Kings Ransom, Small Potatoes, the 16th Man are all great but to me the best one was The Two Escobars. I've watched that at least a dozen times.

There have been a few good ones by Fadoo Productions (mostly airing on Sportsnet here in Canada):

Touch 'em All Joe- The story of the '93 Blue Jays

and

What if? The unlikely story of Toronto's baseball Giants- the story of the move that never happened when the San Francisco Giant almost moved to Toronto.

[Cosmic]

There's one coming about the Bills Super Bowl teams. Hopefully we get to hear the real stories of the epic parties they had when they should have been sleeping.

[BengalsJunkie]

Did anyone else see that 30 for 30 short on Richard Jewell? The accused Atlanta Olympics bomber?

[spartacat_12]

Did anyone else see that 30 for 30 short on Richard Jewell? The accused Atlanta Olympics bomber?

Yeah that was really interesting. Since I was only 4 years old during the Atlanta Olympics I had no idea that any of that went on. They're actually getting ready to make a Hollywood film about the story, with Jonah Hill set to play Jewell and Leo DiCaprio playing his lawyer. Almost every 30 for 30 is great, especially Pony Excess, Winning Time, Bad Boys, and Hillsborough. However, I strongly disagree with whoever said Silly Little Game. I found it to be by far the least enjoyable of the series, mostly due to the cheesy reenactment scenes. A couple other great documentaries are NBATV's The Dream Team, and HBO's Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals.

[infrared41]

- Battered Bastards of Baseball (I was intrigued when this popped up on Netflix and I've watched it twice. DID YOU KNOW: the name of this doc comes from a line in Jim Bouton's "Ball Four"?. Had no idea about Kurt Russell's baseball past.)

Indeed I did. It's precisely why I watched the documentary the second I saw it was on Netflix. The title actually comes from the "Ball Four Plus Ball Five" edition of Ball Four in which Bouton adds some new chapters and writes about his comeback at age 36 (I think.) Bouton ended up making it all the way back to MLB and playing for the Braves in, I want to say 1978. In the "+Ball Five" edition, he talks quite a bit about his time with the Mavericks.

If you haven't read Ball Four, I highly recommend it. It's probably my favorite book. Period. The most recent version (I think it's called "Ball Four - The Final Pitch) has the original book, the "+Ball Five" addition, and an update that covers the death of Bouton's daughter Laurie and how it resulted in him finally being invited to play in a Yankees old-timers game. My mom got me a personalized signed copy of "The Final Pitch" for Christmas a few years back. It's one of my most prized possessions. I also have an autographed baseball from Bouton. He wrote "Greg, Take a hike, son. Jim Bouton. That will make more sense once you read the book.

If memory serves, I think Kurt Russell made it to AAA before calling it quits. I had no idea his Dad was the guy behind the Mavericks.

[cmm]

- Battered Bastards of Baseball (I was intrigued when this popped up on Netflix and I've watched it twice. DID YOU KNOW: the name of this doc comes from a line in Jim Bouton's "Ball Four"?. Had no idea about Kurt Russell's baseball past.)

Indeed I did. It's precisely why I watched the documentary the second I saw it was on Netflix. The title actually comes from the "Ball Four Plus Ball Five" edition of Ball Four in which he adds some new chapters and writes about his comeback at age 36 (I think.) Bouton ended up making it all the way back to MLB and playing for the Braves in, I want to say 1978. In the "+Ball Five" edition, he talks quite a bit about his time with the Mavericks.

If you haven't read Ball Four, I highly recommend it. It's probably my favorite book. Period. The most recent version (I think it's called "Ball Four - The Final Pitch) has the original book, the "+Ball Five" addition, and an update that covers the death of Bouton's daughter Laurie and how it resulted in him finally being invited to play in a Yankees old-timers game. My mom got me a personalized signed copy of "The Final Pitch" for Christmas a few years back. It's one of my most prized possessions. I also have an autographed baseball from Bouton. He wrote "Greg, Take a hike, son. Jim Bouton. That will make more sense once you read the book.

If memory serves, I think Kurt Russell made it to AAA before calling it quits. I had no idea his Dad was the guy behind the Mavericks.

And his nephew is Matt Franco, who played for the Mets (and others).

[Sport]

- Battered Bastards of Baseball (I was intrigued when this popped up on Netflix and I've watched it twice. DID YOU KNOW: the name of this doc comes from a line in Jim Bouton's "Ball Four"?. Had no idea about Kurt Russell's baseball past.)

Indeed I did. It's precisely why I watched the documentary the second I saw it was on Netflix. The title actually comes from the "Ball Four Plus Ball Five" edition of Ball Four in which Bouton adds some new chapters and writes about his comeback at age 36 (I think.) Bouton ended up making it all the way back to MLB and playing for the Braves in, I want to say 1978. In the "+Ball Five" edition, he talks quite a bit about his time with the Mavericks.

If you haven't read Ball Four, I highly recommend it. It's probably my favorite book. Period. The most recent version (I think it's called "Ball Four - The Final Pitch) has the original book, the "+Ball Five" addition, and an update that covers the death of Bouton's daughter Laurie and how it resulted in him finally being invited to play in a Yankees old-timers game. My mom got me a personalized signed copy of "The Final Pitch" for Christmas a few years back. It's one of my most prized possessions. I also have an autographed baseball from Bouton. He wrote "Greg, Take a hike, son. Jim Bouton. That will make more sense once you read the book.

If memory serves, I think Kurt Russell made it to AAA before calling it quits. I had no idea his Dad was the guy behind the Mavericks.

I bought a used paperback copy off of Amazon for $1 about a year ago and I opened it to find that it has Bouton's signature inside the front cover. I'm not a big autograph guy, but I thought that was a pretty good steal by me.

I actually read about half of it and got distracted by other things so when I was moving out to Seattle I ended up downloading the audio book and listened to it the whole drive from Cincinnati to Seattle. It really helped pass the time.

[infrared41]

- Battered Bastards of Baseball (I was intrigued when this popped up on Netflix and I've watched it twice. DID YOU KNOW: the name of this doc comes from a line in Jim Bouton's "Ball Four"?. Had no idea about Kurt Russell's baseball past.)

A bunch of infrared's babbling...

I bought a used paperback copy off of Amazon for $1 about a year ago and I opened it to find that it has Bouton's signature inside the front cover. I'm not a big autograph guy, but I thought that was a pretty good steal by me.

I actually read about half of it and got distracted by other things so when I was moving out to Seattle I ended up downloading the audio book and listened to it the whole drive from Cincinnati to Seattle. It really helped pass the time.

Nice!

Normally, neither am I. I think I have three signed items that I actually asked for - the Bouton ball, I asked Hanford Dixon to sign my media pass at Browns training camp in 1999, and I asked Bill Buckner to sign a ball for me when I was covering the Syracuse Chiefs - he was a coach there. I'm just such a big fan of Bouton and Ball Four that I went out of my way to get the signed ball. The book was just a bonus - and it has a nice message from my mom in it too.

Anyway, did you like the book? It's pretty tame by today's standards but I think that's part of it's charm. It's hard to believe it caused all the trouble it did.

[cappital92]

I found Ball Four in my local Goodwill for 75 cents a few months back. It's in the top three of my "books I have but don't read" queue with The Breaks of the Game and The Rivalry: Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, and the Golden Age of Basketball.