VIDEOTHEQUE Team Players

TOGETHER WE ACCOMPLISH WHAT WE cannot accomplish alone. The team -through some ancient and mysterious alchemy-turns who we are into what we can be. Runts walk tall. Quitters stay in the game.

The reason fans get religious about team sports has to do with the hope that they will be there for the next harmonic convergence of team, turf and lucky breaks- when every player finds his stride and the team is hitting on ail cylinders. It is to be at one with the universe.

Real life should have it so good: every player with a valuable contribution to make, and behind every endeavor, an impenetrable line of 280-pound, like-minded emissaries.

But if your moon is hung up in klutz, huddle up with a sports movie. You may need the pep talk. Look for these edifying titles at your neighborhood video store.

When a guy like Gene Hackman blows into a town like Hickory, Indiana to coach high school hoops, you’ve gotta figure “he’s either running away or he has no place else to go.” HOOSIERS ( 1986) is a swell little movie with a lot to say about long shots and second chances. Dennis Hopper steals the show as the town drunk who rebounds.

PAPER LION (1968) chronicles the misadventures of writer George Plimpton {Alan Aida), who infiltrates the Detroit Lions on assignment for Sports Illustrated. This high-calorie tale of wish fulfillment is satisfying, but appearances by Vince Lombardi, Alex Karras and a circa ’68 Lions club made me feet ancient.

For as long as RUDY ( 1993 ) can remember, he’s dreamed of playing football for Notre Dame. But he’s “five feet nuthin’,” and his grades won’t come out of the basement. Rudy has fire, though: watch him make toast out of obstacles. Sean Astin and Ned Beatty star.

An angry young miner (Richard Harris) sees professional rugby as his ticket out of working class squalor in the worthwhile British film, THIS SPORTING LIFE (1963). But still there’s a hole in his clumsy, aching heart. A heavy dose of social realism won’t suit all tastes. Like the bumper sticker says: “Give blood. Play Rugby.”

Face it: sometimes, fans endure more than players. When middle-aged baseball fanatic Joe Boyd screeches at his television, “I’d sell my soul for one long-ball hitter!”-the Devil (Ray Walston) sees his opportunity. He turns the old coot into a strapping Tab Hunter who can bat those DAMN YANKEES (1958) right out of the park. This exuberant musical tribute to the great American pastime is also a lesson in desire and regret.

Money being the collateral national obsession, it was bound to muck up the field. “If you don’t play the angles, you’re a sap,” Chickie says, trying to convince fellow White Sox that 10 grand is worth throwing the Series for in 1919. John Cusack, Charlie Sheen and David Strat-hairn lead an able cast in EIGHT MEN OUT ( 1988), the compelling story of what happens to a team when the players can no longer look each other in the eye.

Make this a doubleheader with FIELD OF DREAMS (1989), and find consolation in Kevin Costner’s magical scheme to get the “Black Sox” of 1919 back in the game.