SI writers pick their Top 5 flicks

SI.com asked seven Sports Illustrated experts to reveal their choices for best representation of their respective sports on the silver screen. Here are their selections.

Rick Reilly's Top 5 Worst Sports Movies of All Time

While my own special Irving G. Thalberg award goes to Field of Dreams, which is perhaps the most overrated sports movie ever (Shoeless Joe batting from the wrong side, Kevin Costner coming out of the Wooden Post acting school, etc.), here are, without doubt, no more arguments, the worst sports movies ever made:

Amazing Grace and Chuck (1987): I actually went to the premiere. I would've left, but they blocked the exits. Alex English, as the Boston Celtics' "Amazing Grace" Smith, gives perhaps the worst performance in movie history. The man is dull in real life, let alone with a camera in front of him. Anyway, he decides to give up his basketball career in support of a schoolkid who is protesting nuclear weaponry. God, it was bad. How they got Gregory Peck to act in it for scale I'll never know. One-third of the way into the movie, you were praying for somebody to hit the red button.
# See the trailer
Caddyshack II (1988): May Jackie Mason spend eternity five-putting in hell for this.
# See the trailer
Ladybugs (1992): A film in which a star male soccer player disguises himself as a girl in order to play on a girls' team. If that isn't disgusting enough, Rodney Dangerfield wears shorts.
# See the trailer
Air Bud: Golden Receiver (1998): A golden retriever who also happens to be a high school basketball superstar changes sports and becomes a high school football star. Somewhere, a struggling screenwriter weeps.
# See the trailer
The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000): The holes in this bomb were big enough for Casey Martin to drive a Peterbilt through. If Matt Damon was a stud golfer, why did he swing like George Bush? If Will Smith was heaven-sent, how come he was such an annoying idiot with a 23-handicapper's swing? Tell me again, why did the legendary Bobby Jones, probably the greatest sports hero of his day, decide to retire after a pointless exhibition match? And why would Walter Hagen offer to take a total nobody on tour with him? And since when are you allowed to have two caddies on every hole? And what kind of caddy quits on 17? If Hollywood does this to the TV adaptation of my book Missing Links I'll return with a 2-iron.
# See the trailer

Tom Verducci's Top 5 Baseball Movies

(With apologies for not including The Munsters episode in which Herman tries out for the Dodgers. Still can't believe it wasn't made into a major motion picture.)

The Natural (1984): The cinematography is gorgeous and Robert Redford is athletically convincing, but what makes the movie are the best grizzled manager and bench coach ever to hit the screen. Not even Joe Torre and Don Zimmer were this good.
# Read the SI review
# See the trailer
Bang the Drum Slowly (1973): A young Robert DeNiro as a journeyman catcher who's dying. Enough said.
Bull Durham (1988): Funny, authentic, well acted and superbly written.
# Read the SI review
# See the trailer
Pride of the Yankees (1942): A golden era of Hollywood and baseball captured by one legend (Gary Cooper) portraying another (Lou Gehrig).
Major League (1989): Like a movie-screen-sized box of Junior Mints. Empty calories, but fun.
# Read the SI review
# See the trailer
Alexander Wolff's Top 5 Basketball Movies

Hoop Dreams (1994): See this documentary, and Arthur Agee, William Gates and their families will forever seem a part of your own life.
# Read the SI review
Drive, He Said (1971): A gem about authority and the academy, set at Ohio U. during the height of the '60s. Jack Nicholson is at his demented best, and Bruce Dern has an unforgettable role as a college coach.
Go, Man, Go (1954): A black-and-white classic about the Harlem Globetrotters, from back when people took the 'Trotters seriously. The film helped further the integration of pro ball.
Cornbread, Earl and Me (1975): Think blaxploitation flix were all shoot-'em-ups scored by Isaac Hayes? This '70s period piece offered a jaunty theme song, a star turn for Jamaal Wilkes and the inspiration for Cedric Maxwell's nickname.
The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (1979): OK, Cahiers du Cinema won't be including it on any of its Top 10 lists. But this kitschy bit of celluloid, with such diverse characters as Jonathan Winters and Julius Erving in its cast, would do Bill Maher's booker proud. And has there ever been a better title?
# Read the SI review

Peter King's Top 5 Football Movies

The Longest Yard (1974): I know it's strange that I have this movie ranked so high. But Eddie Albert is the perfect warden, and Burt Reynolds is the perfect ballplayer.
# Read the SI review
Jerry Maguire (1996): Peter King career highlight: Meeting Cuba Gooding Jr. right after he won the Oscar for this movie and telling him how great he was in it. "I really appreciate that," the man named after a country said.
# Read the SI review
# See the trailer
Brian's Song (1971): Wow. Emotionville. James Caan's better here than in The Godfather.
Any Given Sunday (1999): Shocking news for you: Lawrence Taylor can act.
# Read the SI review
# See the trailer
TIE: Rudy (1993): OK, I'm a cornball. But I rooted for Rudy.
# Read the SI review
# See the trailer

Diner (1982): I've never seen a more realistic movie about a city in my life. Baltimore is portrayed perfectly by Barry Levinson.
# See the trailer

Alan Shipnuck's Top 5 Golf Movies

Caddyshack (1980): Is there any doubt?
# See the trailer
Follow the Sun (1951): Equal parts schmaltz and inspiration, a priceless historical document on the life -- and, especially, comeback -- of Ben Hogan.
Happy Gilmore (1996): Inspired idiocy.
# Read the SI review
# See the trailer
Tin Cup (1996): If for no other reason than the line about Lee Janzen, chili peppers and a certain hard-working part of the human anatomy.
# Read the SI review
# See the trailer
Tie: Something About Mary (1998) and Goldfinger (1964): Of all the many cameos the game makes in mainstream movies, these are my two favorites: Sean Connery, as 007, hustling Auric Goldfinger out of £5,000 with his smooth, natural swing, and Cameron Diaz belting balls at the driving range, because, well, she's Cameron Diaz.
# See the Mary trailer
# See the Goldfinger trailer

Kostya Kennedy's Top 5 Hockey Movies

Slap Shot (1977): The classic and still the best, with such immortal dialogue as: "What hit you?" "An object. In the face." Rent it tonight. It's the only Hall of Famer in the bunch.
# Read the SI review
# See the trailer
Mystery, Alaska (1999): Formulaic in a Rocky sort of way, but a nice film nonetheless. Russell Crowe acts well, and you get a good sense of life in a small, cold, hockey-crazy town.
# See the trailer
Strange Brew (1983): There's a lot of beer in this movie, and Rick Moranis is funny when he's not annoying. Hockey serves as a metaphor for both good and evil ... why, of course!
The Mighty Ducks (1992): A bunch of cute little guys (including Emilio Estevez) on skates.
# Read the SI review
# See the trailer
Happy Gilmore (1996). A bit of a reach, perhaps, but Adam Sandler is a hockey player before he rips up the links.
# Read the SI review
# See the trailer

Jon Wertheim's Top 5 Tennis Movies

While basketball has Hoosiers, football has North Dallas Forty, baseball has Costner and even friggin' bike racing has Breaking Away, tennis has yet to be championed on the silver screen (Anna Kournikova's forgettable cameo in the forgettable Me, Myself and Irene notwithstanding). In fact, when it comes to celluloid, the sport is usually (mis)portrayed as an earmark of a rich stuffed shirt whom we are supposed to regard with scorn and contempt. (See: Ned Underhill in the 1985 cinematic triumph Fletch.) Still, a few movies have given tennis the props it deserves:

Pat and Mike (1952): A Katharine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy comedy. Hepburn plays a professional golf and tennis star, and Tracy is her manager. Don Budge, Alice Marble and Gussie Moran play themselves.
# See the trailer
Strangers on a Train (1951): Alfred Hitchcock's thriller stars Farley Granger as a nationally ranked tennis player entangled in a murderous web.
Spring Fever (1982): Starring Carling Bassett as well as Indiana's Shawn Foltz. The epitome of straight-to-video, but the premise is brilliant.
Trading Places (1983): If only for the semi-classic line uttered by one of Dan Ackroyd's turncoat partners: "... And she stepped on the balls."
# See the trailer
The Christian Licorice Store (1971): Beau Bridges as a confused tennis pro. Don't ask.