Ballplayers in Movies and Television

Posted By on August 26, 2023

I was watching “The Pride of the Yankees the other day. Outside of the star, Gary Cooper, there were small parts in the movie played by the real ballplayers themselves. Of course, the most recognizable player was Babe Ruth. Babe had several scenes with Cooper in the movie. Maybe the most memorable was when teammates egged Gehrig on to take a bite out of the Babes’ new hat. Babe was outraged and went after the kid. Now, Cooper was not a ballplayer, and he was right-handed. So, for many of his scenes, the negatives were reversed.

But also appearing in the movie were former Yankees, Bob Meusel, Mark Koenig, and Hall of Fame catcher Bill Dickey. So, I got to thinking about films I have seen where MLB players appear or TV shows. I remember some cameos in the 60’s on TV. On of the more memorable ones was Leo Durocher appearing on an episode of “The Munster’s”. Leo gets hit in the head by a ball hit at a park several blocks away. Of course, Herman was the one who hit the ball. The tryout did not go well as they figured out it would cost them $50,000 dollars to repair Dodger Stadium every time Herman played.

But when I was young, I remember seeing a couple of movies where Dodger players made an appearance. In the movie Whistling in Brooklyn, a Red Skelton comedy, his character is pitching for the House of David. Red is, of course, wearing a fake beard. But several Dodgers make cameos in the movie. Among them, are Dolph Camilli, Leo Durocher, Billy Herman, and Alex Campanis, under his real name, Kampouris, Max Macon, Ducky Medwick, Mickey Owen, Bobo Newsom. and Arky Vaughn. Also appearing in the movie were Happy Felton and Hilda Chester. If you ever watch the movie, the ball game part is very well done.

In 1958, Jerry Lewis released a movie titled, “The Geshia Boy”. In it, he plays a magician who is not very good, sent on a USO tour to the Far East, Japan, and Korea to entertain the troops. A Geshia girl and a young boy befriend him. They go to a game featuring a Japanese baseball team and the newly transplanted Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Japanese pitcher is huge and looks more like a sumo wrestler than a ball player. One of the funnier scenes is when Gil Hodges fouls a pitch back the goes right into Lewis’s mouth. But several Dodgers are seen in the movie along with Gil including Gino Cimoli, Carl Furillo, Gilliam, Erskine, Neal, Alston, Pee Wee, Roseboro, and Duke Snider. I was very into Jerry Lewis movies at the time. His comedies were really funny to me back then.

During the 60’s, players would occasionally make cameo appearances on television. Al Ferrara and Jim Lefebvre on Gilligan’s Island, where they played cannibals. Big D appeared on the Brady Bunch. But he also appeared in a couple of films and on many other shows including, “The Greatest American Hero, The Rifleman, Leave it to Beaver, Donna Reed Show, Our Man Higgins, Cowboy in Africa, The Flying Nun, Then Came Bronson, Lucas Tanner, and a movie, Gypsy Angels. One of the more active MLB players in the entertainment industry.

Wes Parker pursued an acting career after he retired from baseball. He started by appearing as himself in an episode of The Brady Bunch. He also appeared in McMillian and Wife, Police Woman, Emergency, The FBI, and Matt Helm. There was also Police Story. Six Million Dollar Man, Joe Forrester, and Days of Our Lives. He was a voice on four video games: Scarface, The World Is Yours, End War, Saints Row, and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. He was also in the TV Miniseries Once an Eagle with Sam Elliot.

Bob Uecker, the Brewers broadcaster, has an extensive movie and TV list of credits. Most fans love his turn as Harry Doyle in the Major League movies. His “just a bit outside.” call is classic. But he was also featured in a few Miller beer commercials where his seat is way up in the nosebleed section. He also appeared in the TV series Mr. Belvedere.

One of my favorites of course, was The Naked Gun. Reggie Jackson, Jay Johnstone, and several baseball announcers appeared in the movie. Jackson had the largest role as the assassin who was programmed to kill the Queen. Cowboy Joe West was also in the movie as one of the umpires.

The movie Major League had two former MLB players with major parts. Steve Yeager was one of the Indians’ coaches, and Pete Vukovich played the Yankees slugger Haywood. In the sequels, Yeager was in Major League II. In the third film, Uecker had a small part, and Yeager was only seen in a cameo.

In Mr. Baseball, the only MLB player making an appearance is Frank Thomas, and he is shown only in the opening scene hitting ball after ball out of the spring training stadium. In for love of the game, Vin Scully and Steve Lyons played themselves. Dave Eiland, a former pitcher, was Costner’s body double. Several other people involved in MLB had cameo roles. Mike Buddie, Scott Pose, Jim Colborn and Ricky Ledee were also in the film. Augie Garrido, the LSU coach, played the Yankee manager.

One of the best baseball movies, in my opinion, was 42. One of the reasons was that the acting in the movie was excellent. The other is that it was a compelling and well-written script about a time in history that was so very important. I have seen the original Jackie Robinson Story several times. The only player besides Jackie in the film was Dick Williams. But 42 had excellent performances by all.

Well, these are some of my favorites. I am sure everyone out there has a favorite baseball film. My top five would be 42, Field of Dreams, Bull Durham, Major League, and Eight Men Out.

This article has 40 Comments

  1. I did not realize how many ballplayers were in shows and movies over the years.

    Jonny DeLuca returned and played CF for OKC last night.

    Miguel Vargas DH’ed and walked twice, scoring both times.

    Dalton Rushing (playing 1B) hit a 3-run HR (his 10th) for Great Lakes.

    Ronan Kopp is being used exclusively in relief (2.98 ERA).

    Josue De Paula was 1-4 last night, but it was a Grand Salami!

  2. Fun to get the updates from the farm system. Rushing had been struggling so the HR is especially good news.

    When Drysdale was on The Rifleman, he would have been acting with Chuck Conners, who had played pro ball in the late ’40s and ’50s with both the Dodgers, Cubs and Celtics. My sportswriter buddy who covered the Dodgers for a few years (starting with Fernandomania) told me that Conners used to hang out a bit with the team during the Lasorda years.

    1. Connors played very little in the majors, 67 total games. He played a total of 53 games in the NBA with the Celtics. His two big league homers came with the Cubs. In 1949 he hit .319 at Montreal. He had 20 homers and 108 RBI’s. His next best season was in 1951 for the Angels in the PCL. He hit .321, had 22 homers and drove in 77 runs. After the 1952 season, he left to pursue his acting career. Charlie Pride tried to be a ballplayer before he became a country music star. Kurt Russell had always planned on playing baseball professionally. An injury while he was at AA El Paso in the Angels system ended that dream. Rushing has been battling concussion symptoms.

  3. Thanks Jorge I saw your reply in the last post. I appreciate the information for future reference.

    1. Yep, and Koufax and Drysdale were set to make a movie if their holdout because of their contracts had not been settled. Mantle and Maris appeared as themselves in a movie called. “Safe at Home.” Lou Gehrig appeared in the 1938 western, “Rawhide.” It was his only movie appearance. Outside of ” The Pride of the Yankees,” Ruth appeared in Speedy in 1928, a short-called Home Run on the Keys and another short, Slide Babe Slide. Koufax also appeared in 77 Sunset Strip, Mr. Ed, Michael Shayne, Bourbon Street Beat, Colt 45 and Shotgun Slade.

  5. Outside of the movie, Safe at Home, Mantle did a little TV work in the 80’s. He appeared on Remington Steele, The White Shadow and It’s My Turn. Maris was also on Its My Turn, and he did a turn on Perry Como’s Kraft Music Hall. I did a little checking and Maury Wills had some acting credits on his resume. He was the coach in the movie, The Sandlot, he also appeared in a movie called, The Black 6. His TV credits include Get Smart and Shazam. I was really surprised to see that Duke Snider had a few credits himself. He was in the Elvis movie, The Trouble With Girls, and had TV appearances in The Rifleman, and Father Knows Best. He also appeared in a movie called Pastime.

  6. Greetings Bear, hope all is well.

    Great post.

    Another name for Major League II: lefty reliever Kevin Hickey (RIP).

    Along with the aforementioned Mantle, Sparky Anderson appeared on an episode of The White Shadow.

    Several from Seinfeld, notably Keith Hernandez, who also appeared in The Scout (1994); Bret Saberhagen, Steve Garvey, Ozzie Smith and Bob Tewksbury also make cameos in this Albert Brooks vehicle.

    Mr October also showed up in an episode of Diff’rent Strokes.

    Rookie of the Year (1993): protagonist and fireballing wunderkind Henry Rowengartner strikes out a 185-pound Barry Bonds; Bobby Bonilla and Pedro Guerrero also appear.

    Griffey Jr. made several cameos, including an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Little Big League (1994) and at the end of one of the worst baseball movies of all time , Summer Catch (2001).

    In an early 90s tv movie about Babe Ruth, Pete Rose appeared as Ty Cobb.

    Hank Aaron showed up on an episode of MacGyver in the 80s.

    In recent times, Clayton Kershaw made a cameo on the Fox show The New Girl.

    1. Roger Clemens appeared in the movie Cobb with Tommy Lee Jones. I am sure I missed a bunch of them. Durocher also showed up on Mr. Ed, The Donna Reed Show, and George Gobel. I think the worst baseball movie I have ever seen was The Babe. Almost entirely fiction. Goodman has no athletic skills. Ruth was big, but Goodman was simply fat. No real athletes in the whole thing. Babe was a good athlete.

  8. Good article Bear!
    I am old enough to remember the Dodgers on the Munsters and Beverly Hillbillies. Classic TV!
    Another gritty comeback win from the Dodgers! Nice reception for Mookie and a little bittersweet to see Justin Turner in Red Sox gear. An article in the LA Times seems to indicate JT really wanted to stay in LA and did not expect to leave the Dodgers. He says he is still not sure why he ended up elsewhere.
    Justin is having a great year with the Red Sox hitting 285 with 20 HR, OPS of 843 and WAR of 2.3
    JDM is also having a great year with 256 BA, 25 HR, 856 OPS and 1.2 WAR.
    The Dodgers were able to sign JDM for 1 yr $10 million, while JT is guaranteed 2yr, $22 million, and can opt out for 1 yr $15 million after this year. The luxury tax hit for JT this year is about $11 million. My guess is JT was trying to negotiate a second year with the Dodgers, and the Dodgers offered both JDM and JT a 1yr/$10 million deal to the first one who agreed.
    The Dodgers made a smart business move to sign JDM and he has had a positive influence on the team off the field as well. Too bad he has been injured lately and ironically, Justin Turner while older, has been healthier this year so far. Hopefully, JDM can return soon and be a force in the playoffs! And who knows, maybe JDM gets a big contract elsewhere, and JT returns for another year in LA in 2024.

    1. I love JT always have. But he has not been playing 3rd base and that is where his value to LA was. He has played 7 games there this season for Boston. His only other appearances have been at first and as the DH. I doubt very seriously that the Dodgers bring him back. MLBTR has listed the top free agents this winter. Ohtani is number one naturally. Bellinger is number two. Both can be given qualifying offers. You know the Angels will definitely make an offer to Ohtani and pretty sure the Cubs will do the same with Cody, who I believe is the shoo in for the Comeback Player of the Year Award, MLBTR also posted that there is a mutual interest between the Rockies and Charlie Blackmon for a new contract.

      1. Why would JT play third base when the Red Sox have Rafael Devers?

        Pretty sure JT could play third better than Muncy. I haven’t looked it up but I think JT has played second for Boston this year also.
        Not saying, the Dodgers made a mistake by not signing him, but he is more versatile than JDM

        1. Easy to say now. But how would JT have held up if he had to play more in the field. So JDM had great contribution in beginning of year when we needed him. Made AS team. So even if he is done for year, and JT finishes strong and bats .300, we were better off with JDM

          1. I looked it up. Back in May 2022, Roberts explained that JT would be a primary DH and Max would be the primary 3B.
            The Dodgers’ staff, with their own analytics, concluded that Max > JT at 3B. And let’s not forget that Max is about 4-5 years younger than JT.
            And although Vargas played 3B in OKC, the Dodgers decided to have him play 2B. Max had experience at 2B too, so it seems that Dodgers braintrust had more faith in Max at 3B.
            I remember a report from a few years back when Max played 1B. One of the analytic outfits rated him among the top first baseman in terms of range. He’s a burly guy but deceptively quick. We now understand that Freddie is a 1B god–and Max a real trooper who took on a new challenge to help the team and succeeded.

  9. Someone should make a baseball movie called baseball’s greatest cheaters! It could star bonds, Clemons, Assrod ,Pete Rose as Charlie Hustler, Sammy Sosa as the. Head, Mcquire and Canseco as the Stash brothers, AJ Hinch as Oscar the grouch in his oversized trash can , and Alex Cora as the throw em under the bus driver. What a cast! Bregman , altuve, Correa, and Springer will have cameo appearances throughout the movie. Rob Manfred will be producer and director! Go Dodgers!

    1. Eight Men Out did a pretty decent job on the Black Sox. I still feel bad for Shoeless Joe. He was basically used by his teammates and the guy was illiterate.

      1. While I enjoyed Eight Men Out as a movie. It was highly inaccurate. The film and the book it was adapted from were very much written to spin a good story. The historical accuracy of both has been called into question in many books and articles in the last 20 years.

        As typical, people like stories where there are clear heroes and villeins. And there has always been a narrative about an evil owner taking advantage of players who driven to cheat because they were underpaid. As well as the narrative that Joe Jackson was some illiterate idiot when didn’t know what he was involved in. Unfortunately, neither are true.

        While all players in that era were terrible under paid, the White Sox had some of the highest paid players in the league. All there Star players were in the top 5 in terms of salary for their position in all of baseball. And Joe Jackson admitted under oath that he didn’t hesitate to agree to the conspiracy and accept money. He stated very clearly in his grand jury testimony that he backed out of the fix when he didn’t receive a second payment that was promised after the first game. He believed Chick Grandal kept the money for himself and scammed the other players out of their cut. Blaming the gamblers for the lack of payment.

        I still enjoy watching the movie, as it was well made and very effectively depicts baseball in that era (most of the actors could actually play baseball). But unfortunately, the movie has perpetuated a lot of myth and falsehoods. Largely for the sake of making it a better story.

        The one thing they did get right was Buck Weaver. He did get screwed in all this. His only crime was not ratting out his friends. He was a massive competitor and didn’t want the WS canceled because of the conspiracy. He held out hope that the team would come around and still win the series. Right until the end. And that got him a permanent ban. I have zero sympathy for Shoeless Joe.

        I also enjoyed Cobb. But just like Eight Men Out, over the last 20 years it has been all but proven to be a total fabrication. The author of the book has been totally discredited. And after he died it was discovered he has spend years forging Cobb’s autograph and passing off all verity of “artifacts” as having belonged to Cobb when there is proof they never did. He basically financed his retirement off his very short relationship with Cobb that gave him credibility enough to basically become a professional scam artist. Just look up Al Stump. There has been some very good books and articles written to correct all the fabrications he peddled.

        Here is Jackson’s grand jury testimony.

        https://www.baseball-almanac.com/articles/joejackson.shtml

          1. Has anybody mentioned “Bang the Drum Slowly”?
            A really fine baseball movie, with a young Robert DeNiro in one of his earliest starring roles.
            This was a modest production, not slick lile the Costner films or “42.”
            My favorite baseball flick is “Bull Durham” (but of course), which masterfully combined comedy and drama. Great screenplay. I’ve heard a sequel is in the works, with Crash as a manager.
            At any rate, I’d put “Bang the Drum” high on my list. And I’d give a salute to terrific musical “Damn Yankees.” (I watched it every day for a week on the old “Million Dollar Movie” series on Channel 9.)
            I wouldn’t sell my soul to the devil to star for the Dodgers…. but Lola would be hard to resist.

  10. I found that. He cut 2 songs. I had forgotten all about the Joey Bishop bit. I also found a video of Reuss, Yeager, Johnstone and Rick Monday singing Queens, We Are the Champions. Awful voices but fun to watch. Barry Gibb introduced them. Cey also cut a record that was sold at Dodger Stadium for a while.

    1. Yeah, I think it was called playing third base bag
      I’m sure he cringes every time he thinks about it today ha ha

  11. Great stroll down TV memory lane, Bear. I thought they gave up on Herman Munster too early. He was rough around the edges but had 80 power. Had the DH been around in those days and some player development, he could been a contender.
    I played in the minors against Kurt Russell. Good guy and a nice second baseman. The shortstop before me in high school went to college and signed the same year I did and he played the middle with Kurt. We played golf some, on the road for me. One day, after a round of golf they dropped me off at the hotel. Before we headed to the ballpark, I flipped on the TV and there was an episode of “Then Came Bronson” on. For the younger crowd here, Bronson, played by Michael Parks drifts from town to town on his motorcycle and each episode deals with what he encountered.
    The episode playing on my hotel TV was a rerun called “The Spitball Kid”. Bronson mentors the young pitcher.
    Well that pitcher was Kurt Russell. I got half the team in my room to check out the episode. It was long ago but I think he was called “Billy” or “Buzzy” in the show.
    As you can imagine, we just pounded Kurt with the “Billy” references for the next 3 games. It was really fun and he was a great sport about it.
    I pretty sure Drysdale was in that same episode.
    Thanks Bear. Lots of great memories brought to the surface for me.

  12. Gavin Stone is with the team in Boston, will be added to the roster for tomorrow’s game and will pitch either as the starter or sometime during the game.

  13. With no outs, either Taylor or Rojas should’ve bunted Outman over to 2nd. Small-ball was in order in that situation. Mookie’s hit then could’ve scored Outman for the 5th run.

  15. Bear, this is a first rate article, but I have to say that I am shocked and dismayed that you omitted perhaps the best former baseball player to successfully make the transition to the entertainment business on television.

    Randy Macho Man Savage was drafted out of high school as a catcher and spent several years in the minor league systems of the Reds and Cardinals. He even was the originator of the conditioning technique of swinging a bat against a hanging tire to develop wrist strength.

    This was all before the steroids and blow.

    He would later metamorph into the greatest pro wrestler promo interview giver in history, transforming a formality into performance art.

    RIP Macho Man.

    https://youtu.be/8C4lK41SX-Q?si=0uctTmXC6NKRQbsy

  17. HP umpire was horrible but Max watched strikes one and two down the middle and looked at strike three which was a ball but he takes way too damn many pitches.

    Try to freaking ambush the first pitch by Chris Martin who is never wild but no he looks at strike one which was the. Eat pitch of the entire AB. Frustrating.

    1. Boy, you’ve got that right Norcal.
      I’m a big Muncy fan but that at bat made me crazy.
      I agree with everything you said here.
      That first pitch was just begging to be hit out of the park and he just lets it sail by. I’ll bet he hits with more 2 strike counts than anyone else in baseball. Umps don’t do a good job on balls and strikes so you can’t let yourself get into a situation where they’re going to take your at bat away from you.
      It’s not like he’s never seen an ump blow a call before. They do it all the time and this ump was doing it all game long.

  23. If there’s ever movie on Koufax, I hope it includes this scene described in an occasional historical feature on TrueBlueLA:
    “On Sunday against Milwaukee, the Dodgers led 1-0 and Koufax was one out away from his 11th shutout, but it was spoiled by doubles from Eddie Mathews and Gene Oliver to tie the game. Then the boos came for manager Walt Alston when he pulled Koufax with two outs in the inning. Even Koufax was mad. George Lederer in the Long Beach Press-Telegram wrote, “Koufax made no effort to hide his anger, bowing majestically to Alston then stomped around on the mound while [Bob] Miller was summoned from the bullpen.”

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