Baseball, Oscars: Let early spring’s games begin

By Joe Brown, Ron Kantowski

Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Aside from William Bendix’s forgettable performance as the Sultan of Swat in 1948’s “The Babe Ruth Story,” baseball and Hollywood have gotten along mostly like peanuts and Cracker Jack.

One could even argue that were it not for baseball, Kevin Costner’s career would have been demoted to Triple-A years ago. And if that wasn’t acting when Sammy Sosa feigned surprise upon being caught with a corked bat, then John Barrymore couldn’t play Hamlet.

Within the span of 24 hours last week, the Hollywood writers ended their strike, and pitchers and catchers reported — meaning that two American rites of early spring, the Oscars and spring training, will go on as scheduled (although Roger Clemens will be missed by someone).

The stars will come out Sunday, and Jon Stewart is prepping to host the 80th annual ceremony, broadcast live at 5 p.m. on ABC. By now, every movie critic (and blogger and beautician and bookie) has already taken a swing at predicting who will win/who should win.

So to celebrate the return of two great American pastimes, we thought we’d take a left-field look at handicapping the Oscars, Joe Torre-style. We’ve got speed at the top of the order, some heavy hitters in the middle of the lineup and a couple of flamethrowers warming up in the bullpen. (To fill out our lineup cards, we combined two categories to give us 10 “players” for each “team” — the perfect number for an American League lineup.)

But if it’s OK with you, we’re gonna leave William Bendix swinging a leaded bat in the on-deck circle.

Best picture and director

1. “Juno” — SS

2. Paul Thomas Anderson for “There Will Be Blood” — 3B

3. “No Country for Old Men” — CF

4. “Atonement” — DH

5. “There Will Be Blood” — 1B

6. “Michael Clayton” — LF

7. Jason Reitman for “Juno” — 2B

8. Tony Gilroy for “Michael Clayton” — RF

9. Julian Schnabel for “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” — C

10. Joel and Ethan Coen for “No Country for Old Men” — P

Best actor and actress

1. Ellen Page for “Juno” — 2B

2. Johnny Depp for “Sweeney Todd” — LF

3. Daniel Day Lewis for “There Will Be Blood" — CF

4. Julie Christie for “Away From Her” — RF

5. Viggo Mortensen for “Eastern Promises” — C

6. George Clooney for “Michael Clayton” — SS

7. Laura Linney for “The Savages” — 3B

8. Cate Blanchett for “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” — 1B

9. Marion Cotillardfor “La Vie en Rose” — DH

10. Tommy Lee Jones for “In the Valley of Elah” — P

Best supporting actor and actress

1. Cate Blanchett for “I’m Not There” — SS

2. Amy Ryan for “Gone Baby Gone” — 2B

3 Javier Bardem for “No Country for Old Men” — CF

4. Philip Seymour Hoffman for “Charlie Wilson’s War” — 1B

5. Ruby Dee for “American Gangster” — DH

6. Saoirse Ronan for “Atonement” — 3B

7. Tilda Swinton for “Michael Clayton” — LF

8. Tom Wilkinson for “Michael Clayton” — C

9. Casey Affleck for “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” — RF

10. Hal Holbrook for “Into the Wild” — P