Hello Sports Fans and Movie Fans alike.

Here's this month’s compendium of Sports Movies for you to vote on, many with a summer theme. And one little added twist.

Just a short time ago a young fellow employee at the video store put in "Rocky II" to play in our store. ("Oh no," I thought, "Rocky II?") By the end of the movie, I was standing in front of one the TV screens to watch the final battle. They're all like that, aren't they; little guilty pleasures that you can't take your eyes off of. So I had an idea: What's Your Favorite "Rocky" sequel? As we have four months left in the poll, and four "Rocky" sequels, now seems to be the perfect time to add one of each sequel to the list each month.

At the end of the year, we will not only tally your Favorite Sports Movie from the list, but will report your Favorite "Rocky" Sequel as well. Who knows, maybe one of the sequels will end up challenging the original "Rocky."

As always, vote for your Favorite Sport Movie of the Month, and vote again in the Top 10 Competition in November and December, for your Sports Lore Favorite Sports Movie of the Year.

Don’t Forget to Rewind!

Your Pal, Hal

THE SANDLOT (1993) – The tale of a group of "best-buddies-in-the-whole-world", who play an endless baseball game in the summer of 1963.

Newcomer, and Major Dweeb, Scotty is accepted into this sandlot game. Soon enough, they need a ball, so Scotty brings a ball from home that his stepfather was saving in a glass case. He doesn't know much about the ball, except it was signed by some Babe named Ruth.

When the ball gets hit into a yard protected by the legendary junkyard dog, "The Beast", the kids band together to retrieve it before step-dad finds out it's missing.

A perennial family favorite, "The Sandlot" is nostalgic without being sappy, and has a great 60's soundtrack. (PG)
TOM GUIRY, MIKE VITAR, PATRICK RENNA, KAREN ALLEN, JAMES EARL JONES

Le MANS (1971) – Purportedly one of the best Racing Movies ever, this movie stars real-life Actor/Racer Steve McQueen.

Perhaps the most difficult and grueling endurance race, Le Mans takes place over a 24-hour period on cordoned-off country roads in France. McQueen, who did his own driving, plays a man who is shaken up by the fact that he caused an accident in last year's race in which a friend was killed.

If the movie has the look of a documentary, it's because the producers actually entered a car in the '71 Le Mans with a camera in it; no CG special effects, actual racing, by actual racers. A one of a kind experience. (G)
STEVE McQUEEN, ELGA ANDERSEN, RONALD LEIGH-HUNT, LUC MERENDA

HAPPY GILMORE (1996) – Slapshot Meets Caddyshack.

Failed hockey player, Gillmore lays it all on the line when he discovers his slapshot techniques translate into 300 yard drives on the golf course. He's got to win enough money to save his Grandma's house, but the snobbery of the golf pros, disapproving of his 'hockey mentality' stand in the way.

The scene where Bob Barker, in a Celebrity Pro Event, slaps Gillmore silly is a classic, and always makes me laugh. (PG-13)
ADAM SANDLER, CHRISTOPHER McDONALD, CARL WEATHER, FRANCIS BEY

LONG GONE (1987) – This has always been one of my favorite baseball movies. I haven't seen it in years and wish I could see it again. It's hard to find; try your local library. If you love Baseball, you owe it to yourself to see this movie.

Set in the Deep South in the mid-fifties, a traveling minor-league team, the "Tampico Stogies" is headed up by player/coach Stud Cantrell. The team is owned by penny pinching, Department Store owning, Father and Son, played brilliantly by Henry Gibson and mime-magician Teller of "Penn and Teller." (Teller's only lines are whispered into Gibson's ear, which Gibson then repeats.)

Cantrell is given a shot at the Minor League pennant, when the cheapskate owners agree to take on a Black player that Cantrell scouts out, but only as long as he agrees to hire another rookie of their choosing, at no extra cost. They have to pass off the Black dude as Cuban to avoid racial repercussions in the Klan-influenced south. Add to the mix, Dixie Lee Boxx, a dynamite looking baseball groupie which Cantrell is falling for, who keeps showing up on the road at every game.

When the Stogies manage to reach the final game of the minor-league Pennant Race, the opposing team's owner offers Stud the chance at the Majors that he has always been yearning for. But at what price?

William Peterson, who now has a hit show on TV (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation), plays Cantrell. The soundtrack is rife with many songs by country balladeer Hank Williams, Sr., which fit the time, place and title perfectly. ("Long Gone" is one of Hank's most famous titles.) This was a made for cable movie, so it's not rated, but has some nudity.
WILLIAM PETERSON, VIRGINIA MADSON, DERMOT MULRONEY, LARRY RILEY, HENRY GIBSON, TELLER

ALI (2001) – Will Smith is brilliant in his portrayal of Mohammed Ali; a fine performance that won him a well-deserved Academy Award Nomination for Best Actor. Jon Voight's performance of Howard Cosell must be noted, as well.

The film opens with Cassius Clay beginning his professional career and follows the Champ, through the turmoil of the 60's: His conversion to Islam, (and subsequent name-change,) the "draft-dodging" trial and other political, religious and personal conflicts.

Forbidden to fight in America, because of his conviction of the Viet Nam War draft-dodging case, we end on his trip to Africa and his triumph in the Rumble-in-the-Jungle. The fight scenes, what few there are of them, are excellent.

In the end, this is more of a political biography of a conscionable man who stands his ground and keeps his faith under extreme pressure in a world that wanted to exploit him. (R)
WILL SMITH, JAMIE FOSS, JON VOIGHT, MARIO VAN PEBLES, RON SILVER

SPACE JAM (1996) – When the Looney Tunes are about to be kidnapped by aliens, Bugs Bunny proposes a challenge: beat us in a basketball game and we'll go with you; you lose and we stay.

What the Looney's don't know about is the cartoon aliens' ability to suck the talent out of real-life pro ballers to improve their chances. (Cameos by Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Larry Johnson, and Shawn Bradley.)

The Looney tunes only defense? Convince Michael Jordan to come play for the team.

This live action/animated movie is kinda silly, but good for family viewing. (PG)
MICHAEL JORDAN, BILL MURRAY, MICHAEL KNIGHT, BUGS BUNNY, DAFFY DUCK

61* (2001) – In 1961, two Yankee teammates Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle, were both vying to break Babe Ruth's record of 60 home runs in a single season.

The two players couldn't have been more un-alike. Mantle basks in the spotlight; the press and fans alike love his personality. Maris, soft-spoken and quiet, just wants to do his job to the best of his ability and go home, much to the reporter's and fan's dismay.

As each face the mounting pressure of breaking the Babe's record, another curve is thrown at them. Ruth's record stands, unless it is broken in the old school's schedule of 154 games in a season, not the new 162 game schedule, and if either one of them do make it, the asterisk is added. (N/R)
BARRY PEPPER, THOMAS JANE, RICHARD MASUR

ENDLESS SUMMER (1966) – Classic surfing documentary.

This film follows two surfers around the world in search for the perfect wave. The brilliant and beautiful photography is marred by the yammering of the narration, which must have been hip in the 60's, but now just gets in the way.

From West Africa to Australia and Tahiti, "Endless Summer" captures some of the most wonderful travelogue scenery and surfing scenes of all time, but the feel of it is old.

"Endless Summer" is beautiful to watch, but I was hoping for more 60's surfing music to go along for the ride. (N/R)
MIKE HYNSON, ROBERT AUGUST

THE BEST OF TIMES (1986) – Can the receiver who missed an almost perfect pass, losing the high-school game against the arch enemy town bring together the same players to replay the game 13 years ago and redeem himself in the eyes of the whole town?

Nebbish Williams somehow convinces all of the old players to recreate the football game where he dropped that winning pass, plunging the town into the shadow of it's neighboring community. Funny and dramatic, with good performances by Williams and Russell. (PG-13)
ROBIN WILLIAMS, KURT RUSSELL, M. EMMET WALSH, PAMELA REED, DONALD MOFFAT

ROCKY II (1979) – Unknown amateur pug from Philly, Rocky Balboa, was seen as a winner in his Title Fight against Apollo Creed, even though the match was a draw.

Rocky is unable to capitalize on his newfound fame by doing commercials, and his fight money is running dangerously thin. Rocky is forced to work menial jobs to support his newlywed Adrian and their newly expected child. Even Adrian is forced back to work at the pet shop to make ends meet, as an embarrassed Rocky cleans up the spit-buckets in the very gym that made him famous.

Creed, on the other hand, is now eager to propose a rematch against the Italian Stallion, which he was so vehemently opposed to in the first film. Word on the street is that the fight was so close, there must have been a fix in. Creed's ego will have none of that, and he goads Rocky into a second bout to prove that Rocky's performance in the first one was just a fluke.

Everyone in Rocky's corner is against it, but Rocky, desperate for cash and honor agrees to fight Apollo one more time, and this time he is determined to win. (PG)
SYLVESTER STALLONE, TALIA SHIRE, BURT YOUNG, BURGESS MERIDETH, CARL WEATHERS