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SALT LAKE CITY -- As Dennis Rodman highlights streamed across ESPN and the Internet surrounding his Hall of Fame induction, I couldn’t help but think of him as one of the craziest, weirdest, most off-the-wall characters in sports history. He was truly as close to a fictional sports movie character as reality has ever seen. That got me thinking, just who are the best fictional sports movie characters ever? Here’s our top 15.
15. Morris Buttermaker. We’re going with the original coach of the "Bad News Bears" played by Walter Matthau. An alcoholic former minor-leaguer is asked to coach a listless little league team and, despite all of his seemingly negative qualities, he somehow teaches his team that keeping your values is much more important than winning. He makes cussing out his players, calling them names and throwing beer at them hilarious -- and through it all, he actually teaches them something of value.
14. Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez. Converse had a spokesperson for life in Benny “The Jet” after he outraced “The Beast,” a dog with mythical, mutant-like powers in "The Sandlot." Every kid who ever played backyard baseball wanted Chuck Taylors after watching Benny “The Jet” unleash their superpowers. Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez was the heart and soul of the sandlot, inspiring the boys to play underneath the scorching hot summer sun and the Fourth of July fireworks.
13. Normal Dale. To this day, basketball coaches still carry measuring tape out to the floor before big games to prove to their team that the big-time stage is the “same ... as our gym.” In "Hoosiers," Norman Dale and Jimmy Chitwood captured the passion that is basketball in Indiana like Eric Taylor and Tim Riggins captured the passion of high school football in Texas.
12. Billy Chapel. He no-hit the Yankees, enough said. Anyone who can do that deserves an automatic spot in the pantheon of pitching greatness. In the midst of doing so, his love story plays out in his mind for everyone to see, making even the toughest guys enjoy the chick flick "For the Love of the Game."
11. Ray Kinsella. Out “talkin’ to the corn,” Ray Kinsella caught the vision to build a picturesque baseball field in his cornfield in Iowa in "Field of Dreams." His undaunted hope in the face of his family’s financial ruins inspired by the ghosts of baseball heaven make this one of the best Kevin Costner performances in his many great sports movie roles.
10. Roy Hobbs. Bordering on cheesy throughout most of the movie, "The Natural" gives us the inestimable Roy Hobbs. Kids growing up across the backwoods are searching high and low for a split-open tree that they can carve into a magical wood bat that can hit baseballs out of stadiums and into light towers.
9. Gordon Bombay. Sports enthusiasts love comeback stories more than anybody, and Bombay gives that to the fans of "The Mighty Ducks." Sentenced to community service and ordered to coach a disorganized little league hockey team, Bombay suppresses his supposed hatred for the game and helps the peewee team become the Mighty Ducks and beat the elite Hawks, Bombay’s former team.
8. Shooter McGavin. The pompous, arrogant golfer is the antagonist we all love to hate. Christopher McDonald may always be known as Shooter McGavin from "Happy Gilmore" due to his perfect playing of the obnoxiously cocky pro golfer who is Happy Gilmore’s biggest competition on the tour.
7. Happy Gilmore. Speak of the devil. Who hasn’t tried (unsuccessfully) to “Happy Gilmore it” on the tee? Unless you’re the Judge Smails of your country club, you know you’ve tried it. The hockey-dropout-turned-unorthodox (to say the least) professional golfer plays the lovable underdog in the movie named after him.
6. Hamilton “Ham” Porter. “You’re killin’ me, Smalls!” Yeah, that famous phrase comes from the trash-talking catcher in "The Sandlot." Ham had zero tolerance for the new kid on the lot, especially when it came to not knowing who “The Great Bambino” was. Oh hey, “Is that your sister out there in left field?”
5. Ricky Vaughn. In the lean years, the Indians probably wondered if they could get Ricky Vaughn out of retirement. “The Wild Thing” became the star pitcher in "Major League" after getting out of prison. Charlie Sheen, who admitted to taking steroids for two months to prepare for the film, played Vaughn. Sheen played high school baseball and, at the time of the filming of the movie, had a fastball that topped out at 85 miles per hour.
4. “Crash” Davis. We could make a Top 10 list of Kevin Costner’s best sports movie performances, and if we di,d this would be No. 1. Davis is the veteran catcher in "Bull Durham" who is brought in to mentor the off-the-rails rookie flame thrower, “Nuke” Laloosh. Between telling opposing hitters what pitch was coming and mound meetings full of yelling, “Crash” got the job done.
3. Jimmy Dugan. Dugan, played by Tom Hanks, coined quite possibly the best sports movie quote of all-time. “There’s no crying in baseball!” His ornery demeanor and snide comments helped shape the Rockford Peaches into contenders in "A League of Their Own." And Let’s face it, who else could have managed Madonna, Geena Davis and Rosie O’Donnell all on the same team?
2. Rocky Balboa. This role somehow landed Sylvester Stallone in the Boxing Hall of Fame. The "Rocky" movies became larger than life and spread over the course of four decades. The “Italian Stallion” went from underdog to Heavyweight Champion of the World. Rocky is quite possibly the only sports movie star with his own statue.
1. Carl Spackler. Or, as most of you probably know him, the groundskeeper from "Caddyshack." It’s a mystery how Spackler was able to keep the course in good condition at Bushwood Country Club between his efforts to blow up gophers and daydreaming of becoming a pro while teeing off on the flowers and golfing with the Dalai Lama. What makes Bill Murray’s performance so great is that all of his lines were unscripted.
Honorable Mention:Chubbs Peterson from "Happy Gilmore"; Mickey Goldmill, trainer from "Rocky"; Roy McAvoy from "Tin Cup"; Apollo Creed from "Rocky"; Nuke LaLoosh from "Bull Durham"; Michael “Squints” Palledorous from "The Sondlot"; Scott Smalls from "The Sandlot"; Bobby Boucher from "Waterboy"; Ricky Bobby from "Talladega Nights"; Peter La Fleur from "Dodgeball"; Rod Tidwell from "Jerry McGuire"; Jerry McGuire from "Jerry McGuire."
How do you think we did? Tell us your lists on our comment boards and Facebook page.
Trevor Amicone is the Sports Director at 88.1 Weber FM "Ogden's Radio Station" and host of the Sports Talk Radio Show, "Fully Loaded Sports with Trevor Amicone". To check out more blogs, go to justsayinsports.tumblr.com or weberfm.org.
