Menu
A+ A A-

The Contributors

Al Percolo

Albert Brooks is often described as being a very funny man, but his movie efforts have been either hit or miss; or in this case a swing and a miss. Brooks was the scout turned agent, Al Percolo, and though we did not care for “The Scout”, we will remain fans of Albert Brooks.
Read more...

Annie Savoy

“Oh My!”   Annie Savoy’s “Church of Baseball” and her version of “Spring Training” is one that every red blooded American wanted to attend. Sarandon may have been middle aged, but she was super sexy and at her sultry best. Regardless of the fact that this is a sports film (and a brilliant one at that), it is difficult to come up with any female in a love triangle film that was as captivating as Sarandon. This may not be her most famous role, but for most men it was her signature one.   The Bullet Points: Movie Appeared: Bull Durham (1988)…
Read more...

Arliss Michaels

This HBO show was constantly railed by critics, but it lasted a long time as it filled a void in sports related dramatic programming. We would agree with the critics in that the show was not great, the acting was lame, and the premises often ridiculous but this show gave us countless athletic cameos which for a lot of us were often worth the view. Because of this, was Arliss Michaels really that bad? The Bullet Points: TV Show Appeared: Arliss (1996-2002) Actor: Robert Wuhl Role Portrayed: Sports Agent Why you should vote for him: How about just for the…
Read more...

B. A. Strother

Intended to be one of the most unlikable coaches in sports film history, the corporate minded, business first, B.A. Strother accomplishes this task. He was wooden, stoic and made it clear that his player’s health was not top of mind…even under his Landryesque hat.
Read more...

Barbara Jane Bookman

This isn’t exactly a sports movie, though it the primary characters are football players. Maybe that is why we liked the character of Barbara Jane Bookman in Semi Tough, as usually girlfriends in sports flicks are depicted as one dimensional bimbos (though they often are in real life). This was a woman we could actually believe was being fought over (albeit in a very passive way) by two gridiron stars. But again, we raise our initial point; just how much of a sports film was this? The Bullet Points: Movie Appeared: Semi-Tough (1978) Actor: Jill Clayburgh Role Portrayed: Roommate/Girlfriend/Fiancée Why…
Read more...

Ben Edwards

We’ll admit that the only reason this is on the ballot is because Nipsey Russell was one of our favorite black comedians of the 70’s and for reasons that still remain unclear to us, his signature elongated “right” during Wildcats, where he was the principal at Central High, seemed to make us laugh every time. Maybe it was our precursor to “Sheeee-it” from Clay Davis, or we really do love peanut brittle. Damn it, now we are trying to figure out how to nominate Davis. The Bullet Points: Movie Appeared: Wildcats (1986) Actor: Nipsey Russell Role Portrayed: Principal of Central…
Read more...

Ben Wrightman

There is something about the super fan that is a little scary. We love sports (as evidenced by this site), but to the extent that Jimmy Fallon does in Fever Pitch?   We can’t say that we do. At the end of the day, the whole sad sack of the point of the movie (which was to put sports fandom in perspective) seemed to be ruined when the Red Sox cast of the shackles of lovable losers and actually won the World Series in 2004, which forced the ending of the movie to be redone. That renewed finish had Fallon and…
Read more...

Billy Heywood

We were about to go into a diatribe about the idiocy of a twelve year old suddenly becoming an owner (and manager) of a Major League Baseball team, but come to think of it, Frank McCourt owning the Los Angeles Dodgers and the scenario behind that transpiring is far more ludicrous. The Bullet Points: Movie Appeared: Little Big League (1994) Actor: Luke Edwards Role Portrayed: Owner and Manager of the Minnesota Twins Why you should vote for him: Well, the Twins did get better after he took over. Why you should not vote for him: The same team was legitimately…
Read more...

Birdie

The film may have been average, but in his supporting role Tupac Shakur did what he always did; steal the show. As the neighborhood gangster, “Birdie”, Tupac creates the moral dilemma for the film’s protagonist, but does his limited role offer enough for the Hall? Considering that when one often looks at the brief but powerful legacy of Tupac Shakur, “Above the Rim” is not usually among the top ten things thought of, we don’t think it looks good. The Bullet Points: Movie Appeared: Above the Rim (1994) Actor: Tupac Shakur Role Portrayed: Gangster Why you should vote for him:…
Read more...

Bobby Finstock

We almost completely forgot of the sage like advice of Coach Bobby Finstock. Actually, it is the advice you have to cling to if you want to vote for him, as for a Basketball Coach, he did not seem to offer anything to motivate his players, had no problem with forfeiting a game, and was probably more content to pick his nose than execute a pick and roll. He did however off this nugget of advice that everyone should live by: “There are three rules that I live by: never get less than twelve hours sleep; never play cards with…
Read more...

Buck Weston

Although we thought “Kicking and Screaming” was average at best, we have to admit that there were moments where we enjoyed Robert Duvall as Buck Weston, the hypercompetitive father of Phil Weston (Will Farrell) and verbal sparring partner of Mike Ditka. We aren’t sure that is enough to make the original Major Frank Burns a serious contender for the Hall though.   The Bullet Points: Movie Appeared: Kicking and Screaming (2005) Actor: Robert Duvall Role Portrayed: Coach of the Gladiators Why you should vote for him: Same as what we said about Farrell, It was not Duvall’s fault that the…
Read more...

Bud Kilmer

Okay, we know that Bud Kilmer was supposed to be the bad guy here, but was he really that different from a lot of Texas High School coaches? Consider that the film portrayed his coaching record as impeccable, winning multiple championships at a pace whereby the stadium was named after him and a bronze statue of him was outside of the aforementioned facility. However……. He showed himself to be arrogant and a tad racist, and put the game ahead of his player’s well-being. He did rule with an iron fist, but a player’s mutiny took place under his watch. Actually,…
Read more...

Cameron Tucker

We never really thought about it but is Cameron Tucker’s ascension to High School Football Coach a pivotal movement for gay acceptance in sports? Ok, maybe we are going a little far here, but whatever the sexual orientation of Cameron, he is a great character in a great show, and he was a winning coach to boot!          The Bullet Points: TV Show Appeared: Modern Family (2009-) Actor: Eric Stonestreet Role Portrayed: High School Football Coach Why You Should Vote For Him: Well, this is groundbreaking when you think about it. Why You Should Not Vote For Him: Football in…
Read more...

Caretaker

We think every time we discuss any character in the Longest Yard, we will open a debate as to which version is better: especially when we are talking about the same character in both of the films. For the record, we prefer the original, but respect the remake, and will leave it at that. With that said, although James Hampton did not have the comedic timing of Chris Rock, he did have the social conscious of the film in his portrayal and his subtleties that helped to make the goodness of others shine. As such, when he passed away in…
Read more...

Caretaker

Chris Rock as a leading man always seems to fail. However, Chris Rock in a complimentary comedic role rarely misses. Rock played “Caretaker” in the 2005 Adam Sandler remake of the Longest Yard, and he played it with full comedic effect; in a complete 180 from the original Caretaker. Rock was not an athlete, but his job was to provide the laughs, which he certainly did. The issue we may have had is that in the scene where he died, the empathy we had for the character wasn’t there, as other than his jokes, we did not learn that much…
Read more...

Casey McCall

Sports Night had a loyal and devoted audience, and had it aired a few years later, or appeared on a smaller channel, we would bet that this acclaimed program would have found a longer life. Still, our favorite was Casey McCall, one of the co-anchors of the SportsCenter doppelganger; Sports Night. We would have loved to have known where his career and personal story arc would have gone to; though with Aaron Sorkin’s dialogue, we know it would have gotten there in rapid fashion. We can’t say the cancellation was a total loss, as we got to see Peter Krause…
Read more...

Cassidy

Normally we don’t want to see middle aged strippers, but we are making an exception for Cassidy (Marisa Tomei), whose life mimicked that of her biggest fan, Randy “The Ram” Robinson, in its own way. Tomei erroneously won the Academy Award for the Best Supporting Actress for “My Cousin Vinny”, but had she won for her role as the depressed stripper (and she was nominated) would there have been an uproar? We don’t think so. The Bullet Points: Movies Appeared: The Wrestler (2008) Actor: Marisa Tomei Role Portrayed: Stripper Why you should vote for her: Her acting was great, and…
Read more...

Charlie Kenton

Another film we almost forgot, “Real Steel” is the story of a former boxer who programs a robot boxer (in the future, apparently robots replace humans in boxing) with his skills and knowledge. The movie is absurd in many ways, but when you have Hugh Jackman in it, and excellent production, it is easier than you think to lose yourself in the plot. The Bullet Points: Movie Appeared: Real Steel (2011) Actor: Hugh Jackman Role Portrayed: Trainer/Programmer of Robot Boxers Why you should vote for him: Residue from Wolverine. Why you should not vote for him: The featured athlete is….a…
Read more...

Christine Pagniacci

As much as Cameron Diaz was super-hot, her role as the annoying and clueless owner of the Miami Sharks, Christine Pagniacci just seemed to rub us the wrong way. Perhaps it was her condescending berating of the Coach D’Amato on the how the game should be played with the use of clichés and nonsense that bothered us; but wasn’t that the point? If she was a semi-likable owner, we would find a reason to cheer for her, but this was a Jerry Jones in a skirt, and symbolic of what was wrong with some of the owners in the big…
Read more...
Subscribe to this RSS feed