There is a good chance the Guerrero MLB family will get a little bigger in the future. Vladimir’s son, 15-year old Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is considered a better prospect than his dad was at that age.

As you can see from the video below, taken from a workout in the Dominican Republic, the 6-foot 2 inch 220 pound youngster is anything but light-hitting.

Notice the lack of batting gloves.  Dad would be proud. Junior is also using a wooden bat, which makes those home runs he’s hitting all the more sweet. The video is reminding a lot of folks of footage of Bryce Harper at that age, however Harper was using an aluminum bat back when he was hitting his eye-opening bombs.

Scouts are predicting that Vlad The Second could be in the big leagues before his 20th birthday, like Harper was. In the video, he is being watched by scouts from the Yankees, Blue Jays and Angels.

Guerrero Jr. is eligible to sign with a MLB team next summer. Maybe one day the Guerrero’s will challenge Bobby and Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr. and Sr. for the best father-son combo of all-time.

He played as hard as his nickname of Nails suggested, and always with a heaping wad of chewing tobacco in his mouth. Tobacco was far from his only vice, and the world learned of Dykstra’s wild off-the-field lifestyle in 1991 when he crashed his car drunk on the way back from John Kruk‘s bachelor party, breaking his ribs, cheekbone and collarbone and also injuring teammate Darren Daulton.

Dykstra, who’s also an admitted steroid and recreational drug user’s, life got even more crazy after he retired. He was lauded for his business acumen after starting up a seemingly successful chain of car washes and was also an investment columnist for The Street. The website’s founder, TV personality Jim Cramer, was Dykstra’s biggest fan and pumped him by calling him “one of the great ones in this business” and among only “four or five” people in the world he would take stock picks from.

But it turned out his stock picking, like everything Dykstra did in the business world, was based on fraud and flimflam. Beginning in 2009 Dykstra was hit by an almost endless parade of criminal and civil charges, ranging from non-payment of debts to grand theft auto to possession of narcotics to sexual harassment to even indecent exposure. He ended up serving about six months in federal prison on the grand theft auto and filing a false financial statement. It wasn’t long after he was released in 2013 that he got into an altercation with ex-teammate Mitch Williams at an autograph event, suggesting jail hadn’t mellowed him much.

Now the crazy life and times of Lenny Dykstra is slated for a theater near you. The untitled movie will be directed by John Lee Hancock, who helmed big-budget sports flicks “The Blindside” and “The Rookie.” “Blindside” producer Gil Netter apparently purchased the rights to Dykstra’s story when he was released from prison. Given the big names behind the project, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that a A-list star like Matt Damon or Mark Walhberg will end up playing Dykstra. (It was actually Dykstra who suggested those names. Nobody ever said he lacked from confidence and self-regard.)

If baseball biopics are going to be a thing now, here are some other players who we would like to see get the big screen treatment.

Yasiel Puig
Most of the current crop of Cuban players, Aroldis Chapman and Jose Fernandez especially, had interesting and sometimes harrowing journeys to the United States. But none of the them match Puig’s for drama. His defection tale includes a march through through a crocodile-infested jungle by a human trafficking syndicate, contentious negations between groups of drug running middlemen in which machetes were used to threaten Puig’s limbs, and a daring late night rescue of Puig by one group from another. The Dodgers sensation still faces threats of both the legal and illegal variety from those who feel they are owned money for escape. Maybe he could defry some of his legal costs by selling the rights to his amazing tale.

Josh Hamilton
Everybody loves a good redemption story, and Josh Hamilton has one of the best. The slugger was the top prospect in baseball coming out of high school. He performed well in his early minor league career, but also began experimenting with narcotics which led to multiple failed drugs tests and three years out of baseball entirely. He eventually cleaned up and made a humbling return to the sport, which included mopping bathrooms and sleeping on the floor of a baseball academy. He would eventually regain most of his skills, and would win the 2010 American League MVP with his heavily tatted arms evidence of his past struggles. Now if only he could provide a happy ending for Angels fans too …

Pete Rose
Of all the baseball shenanigans that have gone on over the last few decades, Pete Rose in the only player to be permanently banned from baseball. One of the game’s most dominant players in the sixties and seventies — his Hall of Fame ex-teammates turned broadcasters Mike Schmidt and Joe Morgan are always quick rave about his skills and competitiveness — the eighties saw Rose as an aging singles hitter chasing baseball’s all-time hit record, and later a player/manager who copped to betting on his own team. (Albeit to win.) Rose now cuts a tragic figure; hustling autographs and personal appearances. But Charlie Hustle has had one of sports more interesting journeys.

Manny Ramirez
It would be a screwball comedy. Somehow Pedro Martinez’s lucky midget would be involved. And there would be crime fighting. Definitely crime fighting.

The first African American baseball player in Major League baseball history was Jackie Robinson who joined the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. Larry Doby became the first African American baseball player to join the American League when he suited up for the Cleveland Indians on July 5, 1947. On July 17 of that year Major League Baseball would get its third African American Ppayer and second in the American League when Hank Thompson enter a game for the St.Louis Browns.

On July 8 1949 MLB had their fourth and fifth African American players when Monte Irvin and Hank Thompson joined the New York Giants. By the mid-50s most big league teams had at least one black player. There were, however, some hold outs. The New York Yankees didn’t have an African American player until catcher Elston Howard made the team for the 1955 season. Although the iconic club had had other candidates to integrate the team in the past, the story goes that ownership was waiting for a player that they believed had the right personality to be the ground breaker. It wasn’t until 1957 that the Philadelphia Phillies had their first African American Baseball player, John Kennedy (obviously no relation to the-then Massachusetts Senator), and the Detroit Tigers didn’t integrate until Ozzie Virgil Sr. joined the team in 1958.

The last team to have an African American Baseball player were the Boston Red Sox, who waited until July 21, 1959 to suit up their first black player, infielder Pumpsie Green. To this day the Red Sox‘s reluctance to field an African American Baseball player is used as an example when it is argued that Boston is a “racist” city.

Some historians cite Fleet Walker, not Jackie Robinson, as the first African American Baseball player. Walker, who had played varsity baseball at the University of Michigan in the 1880s, was on the roster of of the Toledo Blue Stockings as a backup catcher during the 1884 season. The American Association, the league in which the Blue Stockings played, ceased to exist in 1891. But at the time it may have been considered Major League baseball — although there wasn’t as strict a delineation between the major and minor leagues back then.

In the late 1880’s all major and minor league baseball organization entered into a gentleman’s agreement not to sign black players. This “color line” existed almost 60 years with black players eventually forced in to Negro Leagues so they could participate in the sport professionally.

It would be Jackie Robinson who would finally break this color line. Robinson was suburb athlete, having been the first person to ever letter in four sports — football, basketball, baseball and track — at UCLA.

In fact, baseball was by far his weakest of sports. At UCLA, Robinson hit a paltry .097 in his only season of varsity ball. (He did, however, show early signs of his flair for the dramatic by stealing home twice.)

It seemed Robinson was headed for a career in football, joining up with the Los Angeles Bulldogs of the Pacific Coast Football year after he graduated from college in 1941. But World War 2 interrupted his nascent football experiment as he was drafted into the army in 1942.
When he left the military in 1945, Robinson joined up with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro League for a hefty contract of $400 a month ($5000 a month in today’s money.) There his baseball skills started to shine as he hit .387 and played a sterling shortstop.

In the mid-40s Branch Rickey, the president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, had been looking for an African American who would integrate both the Dodgers and Major League Baseball. He chose Robinson because he believed the thick skinned speedster had “enough guts not to fight back” from the racial abuse he believed Robinson would suffer from those who wanted to keep big league baseball white.

After signing Robinson, Rickey sent him to the Montreal Royals, Brooklyn’s Triple-A affiliate. Robinson would hit .349 for the Royals during the 1946 season. The Royals would also go onto break most minor league attendance records that year. Love him or hate him, there was no doubt Jackie Robinson was a draw.

Robinson would be called up to the big club in 1947, finally breaking baseball’s color barrier. The 28 year old would hit. 297 and steal a league high 29 bases on the way to winning Rookie of The Year. His best season would come in 1949 when he hit .342 stole 37 bases drove in 126 runs and won his league’s Most Valuable Player.

Robinson retired in 1956, having made seven All-Star teams, mostly as a second baseman, and having led the Dodgers to five World Series. (Although the team only won one.)

He was elected to the Hall of Fame on his first ballot in 1962. Because his counting statistics don’t match up to most Hall of Famers, even when you account for his late start, it may have seemed his enshrinement had as much to do with his status as a pioneer than his play on the field. However more modern sabermetric oriented ways of evaluating player performance suggests Robinson was one of the most dominant players of his time, and would probably deserve to make the Hall of Fame just on the merits of his baseball performance.

But, of course, the off the field stuff matters to. The integration of baseball wasn’t just a big deal for the sport — or for sports in general. It stands as a watershed moment in American history.

For this reason on April 15, 1997, the fiftieth anniversary of Robinson breaking the color line, Robinson’s jersey number of 42 was retired throughout all of baseball.

However there was a grandfather clause for players who were already wearing the number. So Robinson’s uniform digits weren’t completely retired until the end of the 2013 season when legendary closer and longtime wearer of number 42 Mariano Rivera stepped away from the game.

As testament to the lingering significance of Jackie Robinson and his story, the 2013 Robinson biopic “42” made $ 27.3 million during its opening weekend, the most ever by a baseball-themed movie.

There has long been a love affair between Hollywood and baseball with many a great movie taking place on the diamond. Check out the ten best baseball movies of all-time below.

Number 10: Bang The Drum Slowly
When it comes to sports movies that’ll make a grown man weep like a little child the gold standard is the football melodrama “Brian’s Song.” But if you already been through that and would like to exercise your tear ducts some more you should check out ‘Bang The Drum Slowly.’

The movie stars Michael Moriarty (Law & Order) as Henry Wiggen, an ace major league pitcher who befriends the team’s dimwitted catcher Bruce Pearson (Robert De Niro.) Due to his lack of skill and intellect, Pearson is the butt of many his teammates’ jokes. But when Wiggen discovers that Pearson is dying of cancer he adjusts his contract so that Pearson will be his personal catcher, saving him from being cut from the team.

‘Bang The Drum Slowly” was one of De Niro’s first big roles and helped establish him as the premier actor of his generation. Vincent Gardenia, who plays the team’s manager Dutch, was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his work in the film.

Number 10 (Tie): *61
*61 director Billy Crystal was 12-years old in the summer of 1961 when New York Yankee teammates and good friends Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris both went after Babe Ruth’s single-season record of 60 home runs.

As any baseball fan knows, it was Maris who passed Ruth, only to have baseball commissioner Ford Frick decree there would have to be an asterisk after his total of 61 in the record books because his homers came in a 162 game season whereas Ruth only had 154.

In *61, clearly a labor of love for Crystal, a huge Yankee fan who followed Mantle and Maris as a kid.  He takes you behind the chase, dramatizing the pressure both men were under — Maris started losing clumps of his hair, and Mantle’s famous boozing and womanizing got more out of control as the summer went on. The film garnered solid reviews with particular praise for Barry Pepper and Thomas Jane, who played Maris and Mantle respectively.

Number 9: Sandlot
If the line “You’re killin’ me, Smalls” pops into your head every time you’re dealing with somebody who is being clueless or dense, that means you are a fan of the 1993 coming-of-age comedy ‘Sandlot.’

In ‘Sandlot’ the new kid in town (the aforementioned Smalls) joins up with a ragtag band of sandlot baseball players who have to teach him the game because he’s not very good. Most of them resent him at first.  However, they eventually bond over their shared experience, including adventures with killer dogs, pretty lifeguards, and carnival rides.

The film features child actors Tom Guiry, Patrick Renna and Chauncey Leopardi with James Earl Jones, Karen Allen and Dennis Leary in the adult roles. Its sugary, nostalgic look back at early 60s America was praised by critics and it has been compared favorably to ‘A Christmas Story.” ‘Sandlot’ spawned two sequels. Neither are very good.

Number 8: Pride of The Yankees
If you are done crying over Bang The Drum Slowly and want to get shaken up by baseball movie based on a true story, may we present Pride of The Yankees.

The 1942 film covered the life and career of legendary Yankee Lou Gehrig, including his complicated relationships with his mother, who didn’t want him to be a baseball player, and teammate Babe Ruth, who was standoffish when Gehrig first joined the Yankees but came to accept him as an equal.

Of course, things get all weepy when Gehrig catches an incurable and mysterious disease, begins to quickly waste away, and makes a humble and dramatic speech in front of a sold-out Yankee Stadium crowd in which he declares himself “The luckiest man on the face of the earth.”

The film came out only a year after Gehrig’s death and many of his Yankee teammates, including Ruth, play themselves. Gary Cooper was Gehrig.  Despite being conspicuously right handed (Gehrig was left handed) the iconic actor snagged one of the movies 11 Academy Award nominations.

Number 7: Eight Men Out
The Black Scandal — in which members of the Chicago White Sox conspired with gamblers to throw the 1919 World Series — is probably the darkest chapter in Major League Baseball history.

Although the eight players accused of taking the bribes were acquitted in a court of law, baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis believed there was enough evidence to throw the players out of baseball for life, hence the movie title “Eight Men Out.”

The film explores the motivations of the eight players in questions– some of whom most certainly took the bribes, some of whom may not have, and poor Shoeless Joe Jackson, who may have been too dimwitted to understand what was going on. It also delves into the other colorful characters of the scandal, including the sportswriters who uncovered it and the gangsters who initiated it.

The 1988 film features a great young cast, led by John Cusack, D.B Sweeney, and Charlie Sheen.

Number 6: Field of Dreams
“If you build it, they will come.” That’s the voice novice farmer Ray Kinsella, played by Kevin Costner, hears when he is working in his cornfield and then sees an image of a baseball diamond.

So he builds a baseball diamond, in part because the farming thing wasn’t working out that well. Soon after he does Shoeless Joe Jackson and the seven other banned Black Sox appear and begin to play ball. But only Ray can see them. And nobody else comes. This sets Kinsella off on a mystical journey that involves a reclusive author and a major league ballplayer who never got a chance at bat.

Will the others see the players? Will the people come? Watch Field of Dreams and find out!

Number 5: Major League
The catcher on his last legs. The speedy center fielder who can’t hit. The prima donna third baseman who’d rather be checking his stocks. The slugger who can’t handle the curve. The crafty veteran pitcher with his Vaseline and emery board. The fireballing closer with no control. The grizzled manager.

Major League, a fictional account of a Cleveland Indians’ season, trots out just about every baseball stereotype there is. Then it has them play for an evil owner hellbent on fielding a loser so she can move the team. It couldn’t be more formulaic. But it’s also really fun.

The movie gets solid acting from all-star cast, including Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, Wesley Snipes and Rene Russo. Also highly enjoyable is Bob Uecker, who portrays the Indians’ play-by-play announcer and is also the film’s de facto moderator.

1982 Cy Young Award winner Pete Vuckovich is among the former players who have cameos in the movie. In Vuckovich’s case, he goes against baseball type as Yankee slugger Clu Haywood.

Number 4: Bull Durham
“I believe in the soul, the cock, the pussy, the small of a woman’s back, the hanging curve ball, high fiber, good scotch, long foreplay, show tunes, and that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap. I believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, I believe that there oughtta be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astro-turf and the designated hitter, I believe in the ‘sweet spot,’ voting every election, soft core pornography, chocolate chip cookies, opening your presents on Christmas morning rather than Christmas eve, and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last for seven days.”

That was the mantra of Crash Davis, the all-time minor league home run record chasing catcher who mentors hotshot young pitcher “Nuke” LaLoosh (Tim Robbins) while they both pursue the same baseball groupie Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon) in the 1988 Comedy Bull Durham.

The film was based on writer/director Ron Shelton’s experiences as a minor league player and starred Kevin Costner, who makes a habit of appearing in baseball flicks. And who really does have a nice swing.

Number 3: The Bad News Bears
Throughout the first 50 or so years of movie history kids were always cute and cuddly and precocious. Even if they acted like rascals, they were still well-groomed and talented. That started to change in the 70s, with the 1976 comedy Bad News Bears leading the charge.

The Bears were a Little League team made up of the worst players in the league — only allowed to play by a court decree aimed at more inclusion. They were fat and slow, and they cursed and spit. Their coach Morris Butterman, played by Walter Matthau, was just as rough around the edges and was the town drunk to boot.

However, with the help a couple ringers — a juvenile delinquent slugger and an acid-tongued girl pitcher — they gain respectability. The Bears didn’t win in the end. But they played well enough that their coach let them at his cooler full of beer. The film was followed up by two sequels and a 2005 remake.

Number 2: Moneyball
Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane has quite a reputation for being able to build winning teams despite limited resources. Which is a nice reputation to have. He was also played by Brad Pitt in an Academy Award-nominated film. Which is just nice in general.

Billy Beane’s early adoption of a sabermetric approach toward analyzing and scouting players was subject of the 2003 Michael Lewis book Moneyball. That became the 2011 movie Moneyball.

While a movie about baseball statistics could be a tough sell, something about Moneyball clicked and it made over 100 million at the box office and scored six Academy Award nominations.

In the movie former Major Leaguer Royce Clayton plays Oakland shortstop Miguel Tejada and former Major Leaguer Stephen Bishop plays Oakland outfielder David Justice — who was actually a teammate of his during the 90s.

Number 1: The Natural
Based on the 1952 Bernard Malamud novel, The Natural tells the tale of a farm boy with a lightning forged bat who is about to take the baseball world by storm when he is shot by a deranged woman, derailing his career.

Fifteen years later Roy Hobbs, who is played by Robert Redford, reemerges as a 35-year old rookie with seemingly no past, still wielding his special bat, Wonderboy. He quickly becomes the best hitter in baseball. However, there will be twists and turns and more dangerous temptresses before Hobbs can ride into the sunset…

The Natural co-stars Robert Duvall, Kim Basinger, Barbara Hershey, Glenn Close, Wilford Brimley and Michael Madsen. Malamud’s original story is somewhat based on the tale of Eddie Waitkus, who has an all-star first baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies before being shot by deranged stalker Ruth Ann Steinhagen. Waitkus almost died but was able to come back the next year and post solid numbers. Waitkus’ nickname as a young ballplayer was “The Natural.”

The Los Angels Dodgers were established in Brooklyn, New York in 1883. They are currently in the National League’s West Division and have played their games at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles since 1962. Their colors are white and Dodger blue.

The Dodgers joined the National League in 1890, but weren’t officially named the Dodgers (which has long been their nickname) until 1932.

Led by Hall of Famer’s Rube Marquard and Zack Wheat, Brooklyn won their first pennants in 1916 and 1920, but lost both times in the World Series. They struggled throughout the twenties and thirties, but improved under manager Leo Durocher in the fourties. The Dodger’s broke the color barrier in 1947 with Jackie Robinson, and reaped the benefits of intergration by making the World Series that year. With Robinson and Pee Wee Reese eventually joined by young stars Duke Snider, Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges and Don Newcombe, the Dodgers became perennial World Series contenders. They finally broke through with their franchise’s first title in 1955, defeating the Yankees, who had tormented the Dodgers by defeating them five times in the Fall Classic between 1941 and 1953.

The team moved to Los Angeles in 1958 and quickly knocked off three more world titles — 1959, 1963 and 1965 — behind the pitching of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale and not a whole lot of offense.

The seventies brought in another Dodgers mini-dynasty — this one lead by the infield of Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Bill Russell and Ron Cey and pitcher Don Sutton. However, the Tommy Lasorda managed teams didn’t win a World Series in three chances — losing two more to the Yankees — and finished in second place six times during the frustrating decade.

Lasorada would finally get his title in the strike shortened 1981 season, thanks in a large part to Mexican rookie sensation Fernando Valenzuela. The Dodgers would win the division three more times in the eighties and in 1988 Lasorda snagged another World Series win with the help of Kirk Gibson’s one-handed heroics and Oral Hershisher’s all-around brilliance..

The Dodgers have been up and down ever since, making the playoffs seven times since ‘88, but never advancing to a World Series, and generally lacking any season-to-season consistency. They entered the 2013 playoffs as the World Series favorite, however they went down to the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Championship series. As of 2013, the Dodgers feature a very aggressive ownership group and the biggest TV contract and largest payroll in all of baseball, suggesting they should be contenders for years to come.

Key Dodger Players: Zack Wheat, Rube Marquard, Babe Herman, Dazzy Vance, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Ralph Branca, Gil Hodges, Carl Furillo, Preacher Rowe, Don Newcombe, Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax, Maury Wills, Steve Garvey, Ron Cey, Bill Russell, Davey Lopes, Don Sutton, Tommy John, Bob Welch, Pedro Guerrero, Steve Sax, Mike Scioscia, Fernando Valenzuela, Kirk Gibson, Orel Hershiser, Mike Piazza, Matt Kemp, Clayton Kershaw, Andre Ethier, Hanley Ramirez, Yusiel Puig.

Key managers: Wilbert Robinson, Leo Durocher, Walter Alston, Tommy Lasorda.

Division titles: 2013, 2009, 2008, 2004, 1995, 1988, 1985, 1983, 1981, 1978, 1977, 1974.

League pennants: 1988, 1981, 1978, 1977, 1974, 1966, 1965, 1963, 1959, 1956, 1955, 1953, 1952, 1949, 1947, 1941, 1921, 1916, 1900, 1899, 1890.

World Series titles: 1988, 1981, 1965, 1963, 1959, 1955.

All-time record: 10395 and 9424.