Spring is a special season for us types in the Northeast – the days get longer, the weather gets warmer and the flowers begin to bloom – however it is the arrival of the Major League Baseball (MLB) that makes it extra special.

Sports are inherently rife with what make a great story – there are winners and losers, heroes and villains, and of course elation and heartache. Most sports movies follow this popular narrative, the underdog overcoming overwhelming odds to become the victor, or at least attain the goal they set out for themselves – see Rocky 1.

I will forego the obvious choices here, Field of Dreams, Moneyball, and Hoosiers to name a mere few but focus on lesser known, maybe even forgotten movies of the genre.

So now I present to you 3 films that I think have been long overlooked in the landscape of fine sports movies, and why should put down your phone, put away your iPad and laptop and imbibe yourself with a little of good old fashioned visual storytelling.

Breaking Away was a film directed by Peter Yates from a fine script by Steve Tesich who took home the Oscar for his efforts. The film was released in 1979 and starring Dennis Christopher, Dennis Quaid, Jackie Earl Harley Jr., Daniel Stern, Paul Dooley, and Barbara Barrie who received an Oscar nomination for her role as Evelyn Stohler, a caring and sympathetic but not meek middle American mom.

The plot is that unique combination of simple and complex, simple in the through line – young man wants to be a world class cyclist while being stuck in his home town, and complex in the perfectly orchestrated arc by screenwriter Steve Tesich and the setting by where the story is taking place.

The complexity of the film is its backdrop, the college town of Bloomington Indiana, home to Indiana University (IU). This backdrop exposes our young protagonist and his three local yocal friends against a world of young and well heeled IU students who seem to have the entire world at their fingertips, money, education, advantages only relevant to those with their privileged upbringings set against the local working class boys, and their families. This is the infamous bar scene in Good Will Hunting (How do you like them apples?) laid out for the entirety of the film, spoken and unspoken. You can not help but root for the Cutters – a term laid upon them by the aforementioned IU students seemingly from their lack of enrollment at IU.

This film is multi layered with a touching and unique love story, a young man confronted in the form of fallen heroes, young men’s angst and disillusionment, and a common family dynamic presented with earnestness and honesty.

But it’s the culmination of the film in the form of the Little 500, an annual bike race for the Indiana University fraternities that allows the Cutters to participate and in what could be a film itself but with all we’ve witnessed we have never rooted for a team more, and they don’t disappoint and neither does the film in taking us there.

You can watch Breaking Away on both Amazon and Apple for about 4 bucks! It will be money well spent.

One on One is a movie directed by Lamont Johnson from a script by the star of the movie Robby Benson, and his father Jerry Segal. It was released in 1977 and stars along with Benson are Annette O’Toole, and GD Spradin.

One on One is in contrast of my aforementioned pick Breaking Away. In One on One, the protagonist is an all world high school basketball recruit who has interest from every major basketball college in America, who ultimately takes his talent to Western University in Los Angeles, which is a thinly disguised homage to the UCLA Bruins who at the time of the films’ release were a legitimate dynasty.

Herein is the reverse arc of the character, starting at the top of the world and with the attitude to match but is soon humbled by his equally talented teammates and his sloppy play that draws the ire of his head coach. This arc takes him to the end of the bench to ultimately an attempt for him to quit the team and renege his scholarship by the coach played sternly by Mr. Spradin.

Intertwined with the action on the court is a well constructed romantic interest off the court. The amazing Annette O’Toole – who should have been more famous, sorry – plays a smart and modern student who acts as a tutor for the athletes. She becomes his only port in the storm, encouraging to keep up the good fight despite the obstacles placed in his way. Their relationship is very evolved for the time of the movie, and shows a strong female character in a male dominated story.

One on One gives us a great ending, a redemptive story with a healthy amount of spite from a protagonist who has been through hell and back but sees a bright future beyond this tumultuous period of his life.

You can watch One on One on both Amazon and Apple for about 3 bucks! You will not regret it, I promise!

All the Right Moves is a movie directed by Michael Chapman from a script by Michael Kane and Pat Jordan. It stars Tom Cruise, Lea Thompson, Christopher Penn, and Craig T. Nelson and was released in 1983.

The film is set in a fictional town in a non-fictional state called Ampipe, Pennsylvania. As one would imagine Ampipe is a rough and tumble blue collar town in steel country where the majority of its citizens make a good but hard living at the local mill.

Leaning into its immigrant element, Stefen “Stef” Djordjevic is played by Tom Cruise. He is the grandson, son, and brother of a long line of steel workers but is dead set on getting out of Ampipe through his football acumen and B average.

Playing against their rival Walnut Heights, Stef commits a costly pass interference call (non football folks please ask someone what this means) that in a roundabout way costs the team the game. A confrontation after the game between the head coach played deftly by Craig T. Nelson leads to a series of events that both gets Stef booted from the team, and blackballed by many colleges at the behest of his now former coach. Stef goes from a local kid with promise to another kid whose future who looks at bleak at the polluted skies hanging over this western Pennsylvania town.

There’s a tidy little love story between Stef and Lisa (Lea Thompson) that follows a pretty standard narrative, and an ending that is a bit cliched but the acting chops and star power of Cruise makes you root for this not so perfect hero.

You can catch All the Right Moves on Apple for $4! Trust me it’s a touchdown!