Air Bud. Any of them.
<incredulity> Dogs can’t play basketball!/football!/baseball!/volleyball!/soccer! </incredulity>
The thing I’ve always found most unlikely about that movie is that Crash is in the minors at all. I mean, if a catcher can hit that well, and for power (Annie mentions at the end that he broke the minor league HR record) and still call a decent game (he was there specifically to mentor Nuke, right?) then he’d have had a career in the majors, at least as a backup.
No. In fact the movie includes cameos from a couple of modern (1993) players, including Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonilla- when they were big stars with the Pirates, no less. It’s just an error and I have a vague memory of it bothering me when I saw the movie.
No, it’s not unlikely. Just look at Val Pascucci – almost 200 minor league home runs, OPS of .882, and all he’s had was a cup of coffee.
Remember, too, that the writer/director Ron Shelton played minor league baseball.
Second best scene in the movie! (Best was LOLLYGAGGERS!)
Let alone how the Cubs had enough firepower to win the series when they lost their TWO best pitchers, when they were only good because of their resurgent pitching staff. After seeing this film with a friend, a HUGE Cubs fan, I pointed out this flaw. His response? “DON’T RUIN THIS MOMENT FOR ME! IT’S ALL I GOT!”
Maybe that’s what it was. I read it in a Roger Ebert “Answer Man” column many years ago…
Someone has to be the greatest guy who never really made it. He may have peaked late in the minors and accumulated his stats once he was deemed past consideration.
Bull Durham is my favorite sports movie ever. I think I started a thread some years back about how Bull Durham was the only movie Kevin Costner ever made that you couldn’t improve or keep at the same quality by replacing him with Mel Gibson or Kurt Russell.
So I tend to gloss over any sins it may have!
While criticizing a surreal movie for insufficient reality is probably pointless, two things that stuck out in The Natural for me were 1) a batted ball going over the right fielder’s head and hitting the wall, in such a way that it was obvious that someone off camera had thrown the ball. The trajectory was all wrong. 2) Pittsburgh, if the manager had any sense whatsoever, would have walked Robert Redford in the 9th rather than allowing him the chance to hit a game-winning homer.
Of course, the movie made considerably more sense than the book, in which a ball hit between the legs of the shortstop winds up going over the left field wall for a home run.
IIRC, the car he chases loses about six hubcaps throught that scene as well.
How the heck can you accomplish that?
Through the legs…no. But I recall a Sports Illustrated story about Bo Jackson (or was it Canseco, pre-steroids?) that described a ball he hit: the radio announcer’s call went something like “line drive to shortstop…it’s going up the gap! … it’s gone!!”
There are plenty of guys who can pound minor-league fastballs, and look great only because any pitcher with command of breaking stuff goes right to the majors. Crash Davis was just a fictional Steve Balboni or Roger Freed, except he wasn’t as good as them.
The bat was magic. The lightning bolt that killed the tree Wonderboy was made from gave it special powers, including making Robert Redford 20 years younger. “The Natural” was the plot of “Tannhauser”, that’s all.
It would be easier to list realistic stuff from sports movies, but I’ll throw in “Lagaan” - the British officer’s sister learns Hindi literally overnight, and learns enough about cricket from watching the regiment’s pickup games to coach the villagers to a win.
I think it’s more Arthurian (Roy Hobbs plays for the New York Knights, after all, and has a Wound That Does Not Heal, like the Fisher King), but yeah. Magic.
In addition, as Davis aged, it was less likely he would get called up. Teams don’t bring up 33 year old career minor leaguers.
I know it was meant to be, but the football game in Horse Feathers fits the OP. Harpo scores multiple touchdowns by carrying multiple footballs across the goal line, for instance. There are probably a few implausible moments in the race in A Day at the Races.
On any given sunday (pun intended)…or Art imitates Life…
The Miracle Mets?
The 1980 US Hockey Team?
The 2009 New Orleans Saints?
To say nothing of the fact that they bring him on as a closer in the critical game, when he clearly is not a closer and would not have been warming up. I know, all pitchers should be and must be available for whatever duty the manager tells them to do, but “Hey! today he’s our closer!” makes zero sense. OTOH, Jose Mesa. 
Milan (“Hickory”) HS winning the Indiana high school basketball championship. 
Oh, wait - Wonderboy broke on the previous pitch. He used the crap thing the batboy made in Cub Scouts for that homer.
This happens, though. I still have great memories of Randy Johnson, with the Mariners at the time, coming in to close out game five against the Yankees in the ALDS. Came in w/ the game tied 4-4 in the 9th and pitched the 9th, 10th, and 11th innings before the M’s ended up with the win, completing the comeback from being down 0-2 to start the series.
The premise of Rocky would never happen in real life. The undisputed heavyweight champion of the world decides to fight a club fighter in an exhibition fight as a publicity stunt? No way.
It’s possible I’m being whooshed, but I’ll chance it.
This DID happen, sort of. Rocky was based on Chuck “the Bayonne Bleeder” Wepner, a liquor store manager and club fighter from New Jersey who was given a title shot by Muhammad Ali. Wepner went 14 rounds with Ali, and even knocked him down once.*
The premise of “Rocky 2,” however, was absurd. Ali didn’t train hard for Wepner, and showed up overweight. Wepner gave it his best shot on Ali’s worst night ever, and STILL couldn’t beat Ali. In other words, if Apollo Creed had trained seriously and given it his best shot, he’d have KILLED Rocky Balboa.
- Ali claimed that he wasn’t really knocked down- that Wepner pushed him on a slippery section of canvas, and he fell. I’ve never seen footage of the fight, but most observers agreed with Ali’s account.
This is TV, not a movie, but the absurdity still rankles me.
On “Coach,” Craig T. Nelson has his starting quarterback sitting in a wheelchair pretending to be injured in the national championship game. Only on the very last play of the game does Nelson reveal that his quarterback is 100% fine and dandy. The QB jumps out of the wheelchair in full uniform, takes the field, and wins the game at the last second.
WHAT???
Even if this were legal (it wouldn’t be- a coach who faked an injury would face serious NCAA disciplinary action), what kind of idiot would leave his best player on the sidelines for the whole game? If the player is THAT good, why didn’t you start him? You wouldn’t have NEEDED a last second miracle, you’d have whipped the opponent handily!