The 9 Greatest Baseball Movies Of All Time

Last summer I got on a big baseball movie kick and set out to watch all of them, some for the first time. There's a fair amount of good baseball movies, which is not surprising as the sport has a long, proud history, populated by players with character and heart that seem destined for the big screen. It's a sport with innate narrative potential. It's also so emotional—sports are so emotional—that movies about it tend to sink into overwrought sentimentality. But as long as you can take the saccharine with a grain of salt, you've got plenty of damn fine baseball movies to get you through the season. (Below are only the ones that revolve around the Majors, or Minor League hopefuls, but of course we'd also recommend The Sandlot and Bad News Bears, amongst others.) You will cry during at least one of these...

The Natural

This is probably every human's favorite baseball movie: it's got a young Robert Redford playing Roy Hobbs, a natural talent, but alas not signed until age 35. This makes him The Ultimate Baseball Movie Protagonist: a "middle age" rookie grasping a sentimental totem from his past, a wooden bat he made named Wonderboy. The viewer watches Hobbs endure decades of vicissitudes, eventually ending up in that wheat field that becomes the iconic image for the film. The only problem is the ending... which includes an overly dramatic lights-shattering climax, followed immediately by the wheat field scene, which lasts all of two seconds and just seems sort of like an afterthought.

42

There's a lot of pressure in making a good movie about Jackie Robinson, and 2013's 42 did a pretty good job. It tells the historically significant story of Robinson's entry into the Major Leagues, and the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers season. If you can get over Harrison Ford's old timey accent (he plays Branch Rickey), then you're in for a rich biopic covering not only Robinson's life, but his relationship with Rickey, the racism faced surrounding the move to bring African Americans into the Majors... and you'll even get a Hollywood version of the story behind that Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson statue in Brooklyn.

61*

A sports commentator in the movie declares: "This is a fantastic story: two Yankees playing in the House That Ruth Built both going after his record. It's great for baseball." And that pretty much sums it up—the Billy Crystal-directed movie (which was made for HBO) starts with Mark McGwire swinging for the fences in 1998, but focuses on the M&M Boys. The story is set during the 1961 season, as Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle race to break Babe Ruth's 1927 single-season home run record. It's got all the ingredients for a perfect baseball flick—emotive, funny-at-times, based on a true story—and delivers.

Pride of the Yankees

Trying to get your 10-year-old son/nephew/little brother into baseball and simultaneously watch him cry? Queue up this 1942 tale of Lou Gehrig and behold the waterfall of salty Cracker Jack tears that follow about 110 minutes later. Besides the poignant nature of witnessing one of the game's all time greats rise from playing stickball in Morningside Heights alleys, to sadly withering away from a muscle-destroying disease that since has been named for him, there is also the lesson of not taking a day off with a little headache lest you end up like Wally Pipp... — Josh Steele

The Rookie

I was going to pass on watching this 2002 Disney movie, until I spotted those magic words: based on a true story. In the trailer above you'll hear the most trailery trailer voice tell you that it's "one of the most amazing stories in baseball history"! And it's a story many aren't familiar with, centered around a protagonist you can't help but be a cheerleader for: Jim Morris. Morris was the son of a Navy man and moved around a lot as a young boy, but always played baseball no matter where he was. For many reasons, including injuries later on down the road, Morris was unable to achieve his dream of playing in the Majors and settles on a career as a high school science teacher. But one day he realizes he's still got his fierce fastball.

Did I mention Dennis Quaid plays Morris? That is just perfect. There are a handful of actors who can play a perfect middle-age rookie, and Dennis Quaid is one of them. Dennis Quaid is especially the perfect actor for a Disney middle-age rookie.

Anyway, as you may have expected, Morris gets a moment on a major league mound, and becomes the oldest MLB rookie in over 40 years.

Eight Men Out

Usually baseball movies use the game as a mirror for the rest of the world—while the world is complicated, life on the diamond is a place where tortured men find peace. Eight Men Out turns this on its head—the workings of Major League Baseball are revealed to be morally ambiguous at best. It's one of John Sayles's early and most complete works, and if the plot itself is unsophisticated, it's not wrong: those in power (the commissioner of baseball, baseball owners, mobsters and gamblers) take advantage of those who aren't (the players and their families). The movie is carried by an ensemble cast of character actors (D. B. Sweeney and David Straitham especially shine).

Fever Pitch

This is your Baseball Rom Com, starring Drew Barrymore, Jimmy Fallon, and the 2004 Red Sox. It's based on a Nick Hornby novel, and revolves a couple trying to grow their relationship throughout the baseball season. While the movie isn't focused on the players, the team is a huge part of the landscape, as Fallon's character grew up going to games at Fenway, and is attached to the sport, the players, the team, and his bleacher-mates in the ballpark. Sure, it's just a cute movie, but it does capture that innocent excitement of being a fan in the stands.

Major League

To make one thing abundantly clear, Major League is more than just a baseball movie. Its one of those quotable films that makes us want to tell annoying people on the phone that we "got a guy on the other line asking about some whitewalls" and that "Jobu needs a refill" when our glasses are empty. Yet the real beauty of Major League lies in the fact that just about everybody can find a character that says something to them about their life in the film... at certain points of time we might be the brash relief pitcher who just needs a little refining to be successful and at others we are the aging catcher looking for just "one more good year in the sun." And if like me you grew up in Northeast Ohio, it provided hope that one day good things could happen in Cleveland. When that will be, I can't say but every time I finish watching Major League I can picture that Tribe or Browns championship parade. — Josh Steele

A League Of Their Own

While the story isn't a true one, this movie is based around the real life All American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Directed by Penny Marshall, the ensemble cast features Tom Hanks ("There's no crying in baseball!"), Geena Davis, Rosie O'Donnell, Madonna, Lori Petty, Jon Lovitz, and many more. While it's mostly a lighthearted flick, it does have its dramatic moments, and just two years ago was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

At this point you may be asking yourself, "Where are all the Kevin Costner movies?" He is the undisputed King of the Baseball Movie, but none of them are really that good, you guys. Have you rewatched Field of Dreams lately? But here they are, ranked:

Bull Durham

This is one of the stronger Costner baseball movies, and features some of the more enjoyably comedic moments between teammates—Costner (Crash Davis) and Tim Robbins (Ebby Calvin "Nuke" LaLoosh) have a relationship that swings back and forth from contempt to something resembling respect. But of course it's Susan Sarandon who steals the show from the sidelines, as the nurturing groupie-teacher, Annie Savoy, who believes only in the Church of Baseball.

For The Love Of The Game

Oh man this movie is terrible, but also so good! Here we see Costner as the aging, washed up baseball player, who off-the-mound has fallen in love with Kelly Preston. There's drama! There's an injury! There's the hope of pitching a perfect game! There's solitude, depression, and some ups amongst a bunch of downs. And again, the game's announcer acts as a great narrator, poetically declaring during his final game: "Tonight he's pitching against time, he's pitching against the future, against age, against ending."

Field Of Dreams

In this movie Kevin Costner plays a down-on-his-luck farmer who has a magic baseball field where ghosts play. When they are done playing they drift back into the tall fields of corn, which represent Heaven? Also James Earl Jones is there and keeps saying "people will come" in his very important, distinguished voice, adding to the Feeling Of Importance in what is just a very silly movie, albeit the fifth highest grossing baseball movie of all time.

Honorable mention goes out to Moneyball and Rookie of the Year, as well as The Sandlot, Bad News Bears, and Sugar.