‘The Pride of the Yankees’ and Other Sports Films on TCM’s 31 Days of Oscar

Each day, Remind will direct you to at least one (often several) notable classic movies worth tuning in to on TV for a given day.

Turner Classic Movies continues to celebrate this month’s Academy Awards (airing March 12 on ABC) with its 31 Days of Oscar programming event, offering a lineup of Oscar-winning and -nominated films from throughout cinema history all month long (it began March 1 and continues through early April 1). This year, titles are grouped into themed genre blocks, with one or two themes spotlighted each day.

Babe Ruth as himself alongside Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig in The Pride of the Yankees (youtube.com/@warnerarchive)

On the evening of Thursday, March 9, following a morning and afternoon lineup devoted to movies with a spy theme, 31 Days of Oscar turns its attention toward Oscar-nominated and -winning sports movies, with a murderers’ row lineup of classics beginning at 8pm ET that features:

The Pride of the Yankees (1942): earned 11 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Actor (Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig) and Actress (Teresa Wright as Eleanor Gehrig), and took home one win, for Daniel Mandell’s editing.

Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956): the biopic of boxer Rocky Graziano (played by Paul Newman) received three nominations, and had two wins (for its cinematography and set decoration)

This Sporting Life (1963): two nominations, for Best Actor (Richard Harris) and Actress (Rachel Roberts)

Hoop Dreams (1994): the acclaimed documentary received one nomination, for its editing

The Stratton Story (1949): this biopic of MLB pitcher Monty Stratton (played by James Stewart) won its only nomination: Best Writing, Motion Picture Story (Douglas Morrow)

Pat and Mike (1952): the Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn romantic comedy received one nomination: Best Screenplay (Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin)