Sports fans always dream of a virtual reality where the greatest players of different eras could square off against one another while each is in their prime. But as much as we may wish, we will never get to see LeBron James-Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali-Mike Tyson, Pele-Messi, or Tiger Woods-Jack Nicklaus. Instead, we are left to our opinions, imaginations, and computer simulations to try and predict who would emerge victorious.
The same issue arises when comparing teams found in sports movies. If anything, making predictions about movies is even more difficult with only 90-120 minutes of data to draw our argument upon. Athletes have thousands of hours of footage and statistics that can more accurately predict how they might fare against other competition, while movies are simply products of the filmmaker. Despite the lack of data, let’s compare two famous baseball teams, The Bad News Bears (1976) and The Sandlot (1993), to see who would win a head-to-head matchup. The following is a position-by-position breakdown to determine the superior team.
