Two of the greatest ever on Turner Classic today:

3:00 PM "The Pride Of The Yankees" (1942)
Baseball legend Lou Gehrig faces a crippling disease at the height of his success. Cast: Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright, Walter Brennan. Dir: Sam Wood. BW-128 mins

5:15 PM "Fear Strikes Out" (1957)
Major League star Jimmy Piersall fights to save his sanity. Cast: Anthony Perkins, Karl Malden, Norma Moore. Dir: Robert Mulligan. BW-100 mins

(Blurbs above from TCM)

"Pride" is a bit dated, but still very highly regarded, and was the recipient of eleven Academy Award nominations, including Best Actor (Gary Cooper) and Best Actress (Theresa Wirght), and a win for Best Editing.

Watch for an old and fat Babe Ruth, playing himself.

"Fear" is much more than a baseball story, and possibly Tony Perkins best role, altho he's much better known as the young proprietor of the Bates Motel in Hitchcock's "Psycho".

I remember some of Piersall's later "antics" (as a member of the 1963 - I think - NY Mets, he once ran the bases backwards after hitting a home run) which were attributed mostly to "flakiness", even five years after this film came out and told the story of his battle against mental illness.

Anyway, these two should be a must for those combination baseball and film fans.

Yep. That was after he hit his 100th career home run. Casey Stengel was managing the team then and Casey was known to have done a thing or two like that as well.

Anyway, two great baseball movies. The Lou Gehrig one is somewhat fictionalized but its also one of the best tearjerkers ever made.

I saw Jimmy Piersall coach third base in an old timers game in Scranton about ten years ago. He screamed at a costumed mascot carrying a water gun, and told him where he'd stick the gun if the mascot came near him.

Fear struck out again.