Listeners Weigh In

Among the listeners responding to a conversation in last week's program about the eligibility of Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds for election to The Baseball Hall of Fame was Bill Hewins.

"Sportswriters!" he wrote, "be ashamed if you let drug abusers in the Hall and keep Pete Rose out!"

Our story about the induction of those responsible for the movie "Hoosiers" into the Indiana Sports Hall of Fame inspired David Ross, who hears "Only A Game" on WCBE in Columbus, Ohio, to watch the movie…something he says his daughter has been urging him to do for a couple of years.

"The film gives a superior understanding of 50's and 60's Indiana small town sports," he wrote. "It also makes me understand why Mr. Bob Knight was such a good fit at I.U. for so long."

Last week we invited you to submit your favorite sports-related movies for our consideration, and the responses were varied and plentiful. Lisa Munyan of Middletown, Maryland voted for National Velvet, which she calls "an amazing movie with great actors that stands the test of time." Ms. Munyan points out that Elizabeth Taylor "did much of the riding and jumping and falling" in the movie, which resulted in back injuries that outlasted the film's run.

Frank Lingo began his e-mail by contending as follows: "Basketball is the one true sport." Curiously, he concluded by writing that his favorite sports-related movie is North Dallas Forty, which is set in football, and that his runner-up is Bull Durham, which is set in baseball.

Listeners posting their choices on our Facebook page supported Bull Durham in large numbers. Thomas Repko of Mentor, Ohio was alone among the Facebook visitors in mentioning the 1949 baseball film, It Happens Every Spring. "Geeky chemist ends up with the pretty girl," he wrote. "Life does on occasion imitate art."

Will Goodwin, who hears the program on Vermont Public Radio, came up with the most unexpected list. "The greatest sports movies of all time are all in Hindi," he wrote. He is apparently especially fond of cricket musicals and a film titled Chak De India, which he describes as "a women's field hockey Bad News Bears type of movie."

We hope you'll keep submitting your opinions regarding the best sports-related movie of all time, although the whole exercise is a bag job, since here at Only A Game, we've already decided which movie merits that distinction.  We'll be celebrating the greatest of all movies set in sports next week for anniversary-related reasons.

But send your nomination anyway by visiting us on Facebook, or tweet it to us.