best baseball movies

The Bottom Line Baseball is the American National Past-time, and film has helped immortalize the game in our collective consciousness.
Baseball has been around since before the turn of the century, and since then has been an important part of the film industry. Many, many movies have been made about baseball, or involving baseball, and have created many fans that have learned how to appreciate the game. There are great films that have been centered around baseball, but at the same time there have been some pretty terrible ones too. What I have created here is a list of what I found to be the greatest baseball movies of all time.
Being a huge baseball enthusiast, I have seen nearly every baseball movie that has been made. I say nearly, because though I have seen just about every one that I have ever heard of, I am sure there are obscure films out there that I have missed. Baseball is after all a game though, and what makes some of these movies great is not the game itself, but the characters, and the story-lines that help to show the psyche of the men who play this sport. Baseball movies will always captivate the attention of a fan, but it is those truly great baseball movies that can grab the attention of someone who is not a fan. What I have concocted here is a list of what I feel to be the best baseball movies of all time, but I have not stopped there. I also have a few sub-categories with which I placed some of these films.
I hope that you enjoy my list, and find some great films in it that you have yet to see.
Best Baseball Documentary
Baseball by Ken Burns -- 1994
Ken Burns put his heart and soul into creating the best documentary that I have ever seen. He uses old-time photographs and illustrations to depict the games early years, while using newsreels and video clips to highlight the more recent developments. Players, broadcasters, fans, and he all contribute to show the different perspectives of the game from everyone involved in it. It is a great showing of the History of baseball, and what has made the game into the product that we see today. This is a walk through everything that makes baseball great, and is a must-see for anyone that has ever been a fan of the game.
Best Baseball Musical
Damn Yankees (1958) -- Starring Tab Hunter and Gwen Verdon
This is a musical starring a Broadway cast, in an adaptation of the famous novel "The Year The Yankees Won The Pennant." In it, a fan sells his soul to become the best baseball player of all time, and help his team win the championship. It is a story about what a person will go through to get what they want, and the limits that a person can cope with to make themselves happy. It deals with a lot of issues that were new to sports movies of the time, including the temptations of becoming great while at the same time giving up what you hold dear. It is a fun movie at times, and at others is quite serious. The main drawback for me was too much song and dance, but the movie is still quite good.
Now on to the best feature-length baseball films of all time:
17. Hardball (2001) -- Starring Keanu Reeves and Diane Lane
Keanu Reeves plays Conor O'Neill, a man with an extreme gambling problem who is down on his luck in life. In order to pay of the money he owes, he takes on a position as the coach of a little league baseball team in the projects. Right away he can see that the team needs a lot of work, and he must show them how to play the game the right way. Diane Lane stars as their teacher, who wants them to succeed in life, and enjoy baseball as an escape from the rough lives that they leave. This is a good story about over-coming the odds, and it stresses that the most important thing in life is to just show up.
16. The Sandlot (1993) -- Starring James Earl Jones
Scotty Smalls is a young kid moving into a strange new neighborhood. It is during the summertime, and his only real aspiration is to learn how to play baseball. While watching a pick-up-game he gets his chance, and the local baseball stud takes a liking to him and tries to teach him everything he knows. What transpires is a summer filled with baseball with a small group of friends, and the stories surrounding that fabulous summer. This is a really good story, which shows how much fun this "game" can be if you just let yourself enjoy it. While it is a kids film, it is great for adults, because we can watch, and think back to the summers we had playing baseball for the fun of it, and never caring who won.
15. The Bad News Bears (1976) -- Starring Walter Matthau
In A California Little League, Walter Matthau stars as former minor league player Morris Buttermaker. He is a lazy man, who doesn't care about anything but getting his next beer. This is the worst team ever to take the field, and anything that a player can do wrong happens to this team. Not only that, but their luck is so rotten that they cannot do anything right. Getting tired of losing, Buttermaker decides to let a girl take over as the starting pitcher of the team. She is the best player around, and soon this team turns from the worst of the worst, into a team that actually has hopes of winning games. Matthau is great in his role, and the chemistry between him and the kids in the film is what makes it so great to watch.
14. Angels In The Outfield (1994) -- Starring Danny Glover, Tony Danza, and Christopher Lloyd
A miserable California Angels team receives divine intervention when a young fan prays for them to win the championship. Christopher Lloyd stars as the angel in charge of helping this wish come true, and the team suddenly becomes blessed with the ability to do nothing wrong on the diamond. Danny Glover is great in the role of the manager who has seen better days, and can't stand losing anymore. Only Roger and his friend J.P. are able to see these angels, and we as the audience are able to see how they are helping the Angels win. This is a great story about wishes coming true, and in typical Disney fashion, it is a great family movie. I liked it a lot, because it stuck to the reality of the game, but showed what heart can get you in the end.
13. The Rookie (2002) -- Starring Dennis Quaid
In the true story of how Jim Morris made it to the major leagues, Quaid plays the title role of a kid who has lost his chance at the major leagues because of a shoulder injury. 12 years later, he is the coach of a high-school team, and he makes a deal with them that if they with the district championship that he will try out for a major league team. The team makes a dramatic turn-around under is coaching, and Jim ends up having to try out for a team. He proves that he is good enough to do it, and in a heart-warming story, we see him get the chance-of-a-lifetime to play baseball in the major leagues. This is a great movie based on real events, and with Quaid putting in a commanding acting job, the movie soars.
12. For Love of The Game (1999) -- Starring Kevin Costner and Kelly Preston
Kevin Costner stars as an aging pitcher who is facing tough decisions in his life. He is risking losing the woman that he loves if he keeps playing the game, and the game may have given him all that it can as he turns 40. The movie takes place in flashbacks, as he pitches the last game of the season for the Detroit Tigers. The only thing is, each batter he faces goes down, and slowly the realization sets in with him, and the audience, that he could be becoming part of baseball history in the hot sun. This is a great movie that shows exactly what ball-players have to give up to dedicate their time and effort to a game that they love, and the risks that they run with their personal lives as a result. This is the 3rd baseball movie that Costner did, and he shows why he will be remembered for these roles.
11. The Babe (1992) -- Starring John Goodman and Kelly McGillis
There will only ever be one Babe Ruth, and this movie shows why people consider him to be one of the greatest baseball players of all time. Goodman plays the leading role, as a ball-player who struggles to find himself in a mist that has become his career. His talent over-shadows anything that his personality lacks, and as a result he becomes larger than life. The only problem, is that he always hurts those closest to him, and this shows the darker side of the player. Rather than a film playing up to the legend of a ball-player, this film tries to be as honest as it can in showing both the good and the bad aspects of Babe Ruth's career. This was a role that Goodman was born to play, and we get lost in the story as it takes us through the days of Ruth.
10. Major League (1989) -- Starring Charlie Sheen, Wesley Snipes, Tom Berenger, and Rene Russo
Major League is one of the funniest sports movies that you will find. It centers around a former exotic dancer who takes over as the new owner of the Cleveland Indians. Her goal is for the team to do so badly, that she will be able to move them out of Cleveland, and into the warmer climate of Florida. To do this, she does not sign any free-agents, and instead holds open try-outs for anyone who wants to play for the team. What takes place, is that the Indians form a team of new players that have fallen through the cracks of baseball for one reason or another. Most of them have major character flaws that led to them not catching on elsewhere, and others are just too old to be on other franchises. Together they become a team that must overcome the odds and play together towards a common goal.
9. Bang The Drum Slowly (1973) -- Starring Michael Moriarty and Robert DeNiro
This was a remake of an earlier version of a movie by the same title. It follows a New York Pro baseball team, and two of its players as they go through a long season. The main characters Are Henry Wigged who is a star pitcher, and a catcher named Bruce Pearson who is the teammate that everyone likes. Though short on talent, Pearson is big on heart, and it shows as he enters into his last season for the team. Pearson finds out he is very sick, and the team then tries to make his last days in baseball memorable ones. This is a really touching story about the power of friendship, and how even the most average of ball players can touch everyone else deep inside.
8. Angels In The Outfield (1951) -- Starring Aloysius McGovern and Jennifer Paige
We have all seen the Disney version of this movie, but back in 1951, the story was done to perfection. Janet Leigh stars as a reporter who claims that the Pittsburgh Pirates can't win as a result of their mean manager. He has a very bad temper and it comes out all of the time. One day, the manager hears what turns out to be an angel who promises to help the team if he shapes up. As he starts to do so, the team starts improving, but nobody knows why. Nobody except a little orphan girl who can see angels helping the team on the field. The best part: even the audience can’t see these angels. Instead it is up to the imagination, and the audience is forced to believe. The story was good enough to warrant a remake, and had a great message about playing the game.
7. Bull Durham (1988) -- Starring Kevin Costner, Tim Robbins, and Susan Sarandon
A minor league pitcher is coming up through the leagues, and needs someone to guide him through the tough times of being a paid ball-player. This pitcher is played by Tim Robbins, and the guy assigned to look out for him is Crash Davis, played by Kevin Costner. Costner is an experienced catcher who has spent most of his career catching in the minor leagues. Now he faces his biggest challenge as he has to teach a "green" kid how to love the game, and be great at it. Susan Surandan plays a supporter of the team, who turns into the girlfriend, and is very good in this role. The movie has a lot of funny parts, and helps show why people work so hard, even if they don't have a shot to make it back to the "show." Go Bulls!
6. Eight Men Out (1988) -- Starring John Cusack, Charlie Sheen, and D.B. Sweeney
The darkest days of baseball are shown in this dramatic movie about the 1919 post-season, and the Chicago White Sox. An all-star cast shows just what went wrong with baseball that year, and what led to widespread rules against gambling in professional baseball. The drama tries to stay as close to the truth as it can, but at times strays a little bit in trying to provide an exciting movie for audiences. The cast is top-notch with the likes of John Cusack and D.B. Sweeney. In addition, the cinematography is so well done that you think you are actually watching live baseball from back then. For those people unaware of this tragedy, this is a good movie to see some of the history of baseball.

5. A League of Their Own (1992) -- Starring Geena Davis, Tom Hanks, and Madonna
When World War 2 broke out, many men went to fight the war, and baseball started to take a slight dip in the number of players. So, Charles Comiskey thought it would be a great idea to try out a Women's Baseball League while the men were away. Geena Davis plays one of two sisters who set out to play the game that they have always loved, and Tom Hanks plays the manager of the team that they are a part of: The Peaches. The movie shows what it was like during those years for the women to play baseball, and that it was just as interesting to watch them play as it was to watch the women. This is a great movie that is about more than just baseball, and shows how great of an actor Tom Hanks really is. For the part he had to put on a lot of weight, and filled out the role perfectly.
4. Pride of the Yankees (1942) -- Starring Gary Cooper and Teresa Wright
This movie is a Biopic that traces the life of Lou Gehrig, a famous New York Yankee baseball player who played in 2130 consecutive games before dieing at age 37 from a deadly nerve disease, which now bears his name. Cooper plays the lead role of one of the all-time greats in the best way that he knows how : full force. The movie follows Gehrig is from his childhood in New York until his famous 'Luckiest Man' speech during the last few days he was around. He was considered the Iron Man for a long time, because he held the record for the most consecutive games played, and it was tragic how his career came to an end. The movie is very touching, and is as true to life as it could be, with starring roles by Babe Ruth himself thrown in for the realistic touch. This is a must see if you consider yourself a fan of baseball.
3. Bingo Long and the Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976) -- Starring Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones, and Richard Pryor
Having grown tired of the slave-like treatment of his team's owner, a charismatic star Negro League pitcher by the name of Bingo Long takes to the road with a band of barnstormers through the small towns of the Midwest in the 1930's. With him he pulls the greatest players from the Negro leagues in an attempt to show just what they have to offer the baseball world. This movie is wonderfully casted, and shows some of the hardships behind the history of the Negro Leagues, and depicts all of the racism, and problems that these players had to deal with. It is another great story based on fact, and the actors cast to play it are among the best of the time. Not only is it dramatic in its appeal, but it is hilarious in parts where Jones and Williams talk it up to each other. This is a great testament to players that were never given the chance to show their true talents in the major leagues, and shows what the rest of us missed from them not being in baseball.
2. Field of Dreams (1989) -- Starring James Earl Jones, Kevin Costner, and Ray Liotta
Costner and Jones strike again in their 3rd movie each on my list of greatest baseball movies. Costner plays an Iowa farmer by the name of Ray Kinsella, who hears a voice in his cornfield tell him, "If you build it, he will come." He interprets this message as an instruction to build a baseball field on his farm, upon which appear the ghosts of Shoeless Joe Jackson and the other seven Chicago White Sox players banned from the game for throwing the 1919 World Series. The only problem is that only believers can see, and those from the beginning, people don't believe what Costner can see. This is a great movie about second-chances, and what we are willing to give up for others in our lives. The movie is deep on so many levels that even watching it 2 times is not enough to grasp everything that the movie has to offer. This is Costner's best movie as an actor, and deservedly one of the best baseball movies of all time.
1. The Natural (1984) -- Starring Robert Redford, Glenn Close, and Robert Duvall
Robert Redford plays Roy Hobbs, a player with no past, who suddenly appears and starts hitting home-runs for the New York Knights. The mystery that surrounds him is something that proves too much for a sports reporter played by Robert Duvall, and he seeks out to destroy the myth that Hobbs is becoming. Having come up as a pitcher in baseball years before, he now has a swing that seems handed down by the Gods. With the help of a bat created from a tree hit by lightning, it seems that nobody can stop him. Seemingly a man possessing super-human talents at baseball, he is surrounded by people that want to see him fail. The movie stands alone as the greatest baseball movie of all time, because it does not give you clear-cut answers to the story being told. There are questions that go unanswered, and mysteries that are never solved when it comes to the characters, and the audience is left in awe of the story being told. This is a must-see for any fan of cinema, and what I have found to be a movie that I can watch over and over again, and never tire of seeing it.