Bass: Sports movies are back. Which are your all-time favorites?

I am into movies. You can see my name in a popular one.

I was Molly Ringwald’s classmate in “Sixteen Candles.”

The movie was filmed at my former high school, and one scene showed a familiar yearbook page that now included Ringwald as Samantha Baskin. My name is listed right below hers. It was an alphabetical thing. My picture was change, but all of ours were.

You can see the real me interviewed in the fantasy football documentary “10 Yards,” and I am listed in the end credits.

This all feels very cool to me. I am not just a sports fan. I am a movie fan. I enjoy crossing the streams and ranking sports movies, because ranking is what fans do.

And I have a history of trying to pull off this one.

One of the first staff projects I tried as a sports editor was picking our top 100, something I had never seen to this scare. It was 1998, just before the American Film Institute revealed its top 100 American movies. Perfect timing.

Why not? The debate is part of the fun of sports. We argue about the best players of all time, the best lineups, the best teams. The more we identify with a choice, the more personal it feels. Sports movie debates can be more civil, if they do not involve OUR team or players. Then again, if we relate to the subjects or characters, find meaning or an escape in the stories, associate movies with certain times in our lives, our connection deepens.

Why not now? The time is right. The Academy Awards show will air Sunday. Whether “Nyad” nominees Annette Bening (best actress) and Jodi Foster (supporting actress) win or not, Time and Uproxx already declared 2023 the year sports movies made a comeback.

What would your list of top sports movies look like today?

How much have mine changed?

How much have I changed?

Everyone can define “best” or “top” differently

In 1998, some of the submissions surprised me.

In hindsight, none of them do.

Everyone can define “best” or “top” differently. All of these “best” lists face the same challenges: Do you include only what or whom you saw? Should you equally weigh candidates before and during your lifetime? Are you choosing from the head or the heart? Now I am curious.

We have different experiences and tastes. I appreciate that more every day. My experiences and tastes have changed. What I liked in my 30s is not exactly the same now. Some movies did not age well and would drop down or off my list today. Other movies resonate more now – some on our list then, some released since then.

Analytics can drive sports into the cold today, but a sports movie can attach a face and a story. Which is why I loved “Moneyball.” Sports is about people, whether you watch or play. Sports movies are people stories in a backdrop of drama and emotion and inspiration and unpredictability and absurdity. Sports movies became part of our vernacular. And us.

In 2021, The Ringer asked, “Where Have All the Sports Movies Gone?” A fragmented sports market and trite storylines and the superhero craze did not help, but the pandemic oases of “The Last Dance” and “The Queen’s Gambit” and “Ted Lasso” did. Ted talked, and we quoted.

In 2022, Will Smith won best actor for “King Richard.” In 2023 came “Air” and “Creed 3” and “80 for Brady” and “Gran Turismo” and “Nyad” and “The Saint of Second Chances” and more reasons to proclaim a comeback. Would any of those make your “best” list?

Or mine?

This is only one man's opinion

In 1998, my list of top sports movies melded into our staff’s. Today, I am in this alone.

I limited myself to feature-length movies and documentaries. Otherwise, I went with my gut and cut off the list at 20:

1) “Rocky” (1976) – The classic underdog tale that spawned countless others was our No. 1 in 1998, too.

2) “Field of Dreams” (1989) – If you show it, I will come ... including once from a ship’s deck.

3) “Hoosiers” (1986) – The Milan Miracle inspired the movie that inspired the rest of us.

4) “Brian’s Song” (1971) ­– I cried the first time. I cry every time.

5) “The Natural” (1984) – One of the best there ever was.

6) “Raging Bull” (1980) – Brutal and powerful in a theatre, I don’t think I can watch it again.

7) “Hoop Dreams” (1994) – I just started watching this doc again, and it still engrosses me.

8) “The Karate Kid” (1984) – Wax on. Wax off. I’m hooked.

9) “Creed” (2015) – The franchise is reborn, Unc.

10) “Moneyball” (2011) – The best baseball movie I saw in decades.

11) “Bull Durham” ­(1988) ­– Kevin Costner and baseball and Susan Sarandon are worth the show.

12) “Miracle” (2004) – I played the “It’s your time” speech to help kick-start a class, and I posed with the Herb Brooks statue in St. Paul.

13) “Million Dollar Baby” (2004) – One of the few sports movies to win the best-picture Oscar.

14) “When We Were Kings” (1996) – A captivating doc on Muhammad Ali and the George Foreman fight.

15) “The Sandlot” (1993) – An ode to the days when childhood was pickup games with your pals.

16) “Murderball” (2005) – Want something unexpected? Try this doc on wheelchair rugby.

17) “Remember the Titans” (2000) – Ain’t no mountain high enough to keep me away from watching this again.

18) “Seabiscuit” (2003) – I would have picked this for best picture over the “Lord of the Rings” sequel.

19) “The Pride of the Yankees” (1942) – It is schmaltzy, but it was my first sports-movie love as a kid.

20) “Caddyshack” (1980) – Once an all-time favorite, now cringeworthy at times, but still worth the list.

These choices work for me. How do my choices compare to yours? Feel free to email me at mbass@mikebasscoaching.com.

Meanwhile, enjoy the Oscars. And look for me in “Sixteen Candles.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Bass: Sports movies are back. Which are your all-time favorites?