With COVID-19 taking away just about every major American sport, there’s a lot of free time on our hands. But, the good news is that there are plenty of baseball movies to satiate any fan’s appetite. If your interest is real-life stories about players or teams, there’s something here for you. If you’d rather a fiction tale, be it serious or light-hearted, there’s a movie for you too. MLB may be on hiatus, but there certainly isn’t a lack of baseball entertainment. So, grab a snack and a beverage. Here’s a list of the top ten baseball movies to fill the void from now until Opening Day.
The Top Ten Baseball Movies
10. Bull Durham
Starring Kevin Costner, Tim Robbins, and Susan Sarandon, Bull Durham is not only one of the best baseball comedies, but one of the funniest movies period. ”Crash” Davis is a career minor league catcher and is brought in to mentor a young, up and coming pitcher named Ebby Calvin ”Nuke” LaLoosh. Playing for the Single-A Durham Bulls, Davis must teach LaLoosh the ropes of becoming a big-league pitcher and does so in his own unique way. With some of the most quotable lines in movie history, Bull Durham is a must for any baseball fan.
9. 42
The story of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in MLB is very well known. 42 does an excellent job of highlighting all of the finer details of what it took to get Robinson in the league. This movie sports a stellar cast including Chadwick Boseman and Harrison Ford.
Despite a few historic inaccuracies, 42 makes sure that it honors Robinson in a way he deserves. A class act who became beloved by teammates, opponents and fans alike, Jackie Robinson goes down as one of not just the greatest players in baseball history, but one of the greatest people in history as well. His number 42 is retired by all MLB teams.
8. 61*
Directed by lifelong New York Yankees fan Billy Crystal, 61* tells the story of the season-long battle between Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris as they attempt to surpass Babe Ruth‘s single-season home run record of 60. The movie opens with Roger Maris’s widow Pat watching a game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs. This particular game is the one in which Mark McGwire hits his 62nd home run of the season surpassing Maris’ record of 61.
Throughout the film, we see how beloved Mantle was and how unaccepted Maris was. Despite playing for the same team and going after the same record, baseball fans only had room in their hearts for one hero. Mantle, the charismatic face of the Yankees versus the unassuming, quiet Maris defines the 1961 season. As Maris fails to surpass 60 home runs in 154 games as Ruth did, MLB commissioner Ford Frick decided there would be separate records kept for those surpassed after 154 games. The movie becomes more about the general attitude towards Maris by writers and fans and the presumption that he is an unworthy baseball hero.
7. Major League
Another comedy on the list, Major League follows the exploits of fictionalized Cleveland Indians players. The movie stars Tom Berenger as a washed-up catcher, Charlie Sheen as a pitcher that can’t find the plate, Wesley Snipes as a Willie Mays wannabe, Dennis Haysbert as a power hitter that has trouble with the curve and the always hilarious and Hall-Of-Famer Bob Uecker as the Indians play-by-play man.
When the new owner inherits the team from her deceased husband, she hopes to move the team to Miami. To aid in that effort, she signs the cheapest and worst players money can buy. Of course, when the team finds out about her plot, they go on an improbable run that sees them face off in the season finale against the New York Yankees to determine the division winner. There are so many memorable characters in this movie that it is impossible to pick only one as a favorite.
6. The Sandlot
Set in the summer of 1962, The Sandlot follows a group fifth and sixth graders who spend their days playing ball in a sandlot across town. Led by Benny ”The Jet” Rodriguez, the group befriends a boy named Smalls who has neither baseball skill nor any idea who The Great Bambino is. Along the way, there are plenty of funny moments including ”Squints” putting the moves on his crush Wendy Peffercorn and a nauseating carnival ride while chewing tobacco. The story culminates with Benny playing ”pickle” with a gigantic dog nicknamed ”The Beast” in order to get a Babe Ruth autographed baseball back.
This is perhaps the second most nostalgic movie on the top baseball movies list as it brings back plenty of memories of playing ball from sun up to sun down.
5. A League of Their Own
A League of Their Own is a fictionalized story about the real All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. When WWII threatens to shut down Major League Baseball, MLB owners get together to form an all-girls baseball league. The story revolves around two sisters: one who wants to be in the league, the other who doesn’t. The story comes to a head when the two meet on the field in the World Series with the younger sister hoping to come out from behind her older sister’s shadow. A brilliant performance from Tom Hanks gives us one of the most quotable lines ever: ”There’s no crying in baseball.”
4. The Natural
Roy Hobbs was going to be the next MLB sensation. At only 19 years old, the young man from Nebraska has earned a tryout with the Chicago Cubs. Unfortunately, Hobbs is shot by a crazed fan and spends the next 16 years of his life in baseball obscurity. He reemerges as a 35-year-old rookie with the fictional New York Knights. Hobbs literally does it all from smacking home runs with his homemade bat to literally knocking the cover off the ball.
This movie’s finale will have every kid dreaming about hitting the game-winning home run and busting out the lights.
3. The Pride of the Yankees
Released only one year after Lou Gehrig died, The Pride of the Yankees is an homage to one of baseball’s greatest legends. What’s most amazing about this movie is the amount of actual players who are in the film. Babe Ruth, Bill Dickey, Bob Meusel, and Mark Koenig all play themselves. Perhaps the story of Gehrig visiting a crippled boy and promising to hit two home runs in a World Series game isn’t true. But, it certainly adds to Gehrig’s legend and takes nothing away from the man and player he was. This is a must-see for all baseball fans and not just Yankee fans.
2. Moneyball
Based on the nonfiction book by the same name, Moneyball is a biography detailing Billy Beane‘s attempt to find an equalizer for his small-market team. As the general manager of the Oakland Athletics, Beane, played amazingly by Brad Pitt, using sabermetrics, relies heavily on OBP in order to find players that traditional scouting overlooks. Bucking conventional methods, Beane is able to field a team that ultimately goes on a 20-game win streak in route to the AL West title.
Unfortunately, Oakland loses in the divisional round of the playoffs and many of Beane’s decisions are questioned and deemed unconventional. Moneyball and the sabermetric system have gone on to have a huge impact on the game today. Many teams use sabermetrics and analytics and Beane has become somewhat of a folk character in the history of MLB.
1. Field of Dreams
”If you build it, he will come.” The story is very simple: a boy’s father is an avid baseball fan. Boy becomes an avid baseball fan. Boy has troubled relationship with his father. Father dies before the relationship is reconciled.
While walking through his Iowa cornfield one night, Ray Kinsella, played by Kevin Costner, hears a voice. Kinsella believes that voice wants him to build a baseball field so Shoeless Joe Jackson will have a place to play. Ray continues to hear the voice and it takes him on a cross-country journey where Kinsella attempts to aid a radical and jaded writer and picks up a young hitch-hiker.
When Ray learns that the voice was actually one that was inside him all along, all of his efforts come to fruition. The finale is perhaps one of the most memorable in any sports movie and breaks baseball down to its simplest roots: a father and son playing catch.
Conclusion
There’s the list of the top ten baseball movies of all-time. In the future, there’s certainly bound to be more as baseball continues to grow and more stories and superstars emerge. Whether fact or fiction, baseball has and will forever have a hold on the pop culture of America.
Alternates
Eight Men Out
The story of the 1919 Chicago White Sox and the World Series scandal that rocked baseball.
Fever Pitch
An avid Boston Red Sox fan begins dating a baseball newbie and they both experience the thrill of the Red Sox 2004 World Series victory.
Bad News Bears
A washed-up minor leaguer and full-time drunk becomes the head coach of a little league team filled with players no other team wants.
Little Big League
12 year-old boy becomes the owner/manager of the Minnesota Twins after his grandfather leaves the team to him in his will.
Rookie of the Year
A broken arm leaves a young boy with the ability to throw 100mph fastballs. He is signed by the Chicago Cubs and leads them on a improbable World Series run.
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