The Best Baseball Movies Of All Time
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The movies can capture moments in time that can stir an audience to excitement or fear. A well made movie can make an audience laugh or cry. This is no more apparent than in the way the movies can capture the feel of a baseball game.
From the roar of a crowd to the sound of a ball hitting the bat, movies about baseball are almost as good as the game itself. The following is a list of the best baseball movies of all time.
Major League
Starring Charlie Sheen, Wesley Snipes and Tom Beringer, Major League was released in 1989 and tells the story of the Cleveland Indians, a major league franchise that hadn’t seen the playoffs in decades and its new owners’ attempt to field a team so bad that she can move the team to Florida. Of course, the team finds out about the plan and bond together to win to keep the owner from getting her wish.
Major League is a funny movie but it is also a great baseball movie. The characters are similar to what you would find on any baseball team from the Veteran Catcher in the twilight of his career to the punk rookies who must learn what it means to be a big league ball player. The game sequences are realistic and the final game brings a moment of excitement rarely seen in movies.
The Bad News Bears
Released in 1976, the Bad News Bears takes a look at baseball from the standpoint that is most familiar to those who actually played baseball; the Little League Team. Bad News Bears stars Walter Matthua who is the cranky rude manager of a gang of misfits who all ended up on the baseball team. Tatum O’Neal played the star pitcher who also happened to be female.
The Bad News Bears is simply a fun movie about baseball. It shows with some reality what playing little league baseball was actually like but most importantly, the Bad News Bears shows what baseball is supposed to be; Fun.
Eight Men Out
Released in 1988, Eight Men Out tells the story of the 1919 Black Sox scandal. The Black Sox was the name given to the Chicago White and the eight players who conspired with gamblers to throw the World Series. Eight Men Out stars John Cusack, Charlie Sheen and Christopher Lloyd.
Eight Men Out tells a story about the dark days of baseball. The Black Sox were considered one of the best teams ever put together. But the movie is an eloquent look at the players and the game. The baseball scenes are very realistic and is perhaps the most realistic of all baseball movies. It is well acted and stays to the truth. There is very little good that can be taken from the story of the Black Sox, but at least it produced a great movie.
Bull Durham
Starring Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon, Bull Durham was released in 1988 and tells the story of the Durham Bulls. The Bulls are a triple A minor league baseball team and Costner’s character, Crash Davis, is a veteran of the minor league circuit and is brought in to teach a young hot shot pitcher how to be a major leaguer.
Bull Durham does not depict the glamour of major league baseball, but rather the hardship and charm of the minor leagues. The players are not gods, but regular guys who appear that they could actually be baseball players. Of course, the best scene is the meeting on the mound and the discussion about what makes the best wedding gifts.
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I liked them all except Bull Durham, I just can't Sarandon and her husband. But good choice on the others!
bgpappa I cannot argue with you on these choices , all of them were excellent and I enjoyed every movie here. If I may I would like to humbly submit " Field of Dreams " with Kevin Costner too ! Good stuff though my friend !
Good List. I like The Natural too. And a guilty pleasure baseball movie of mine is The Sandlot.
Can't go wrong with Majore League and Bad News Bears leading off your list.
bgpappa, I subjectively found *Eight Men Out* a terribly painful movie to watch, as I knew the history of the events and considered the whole episode damnable in its every aspect, including not only the White Sox players but also their owner, the journalists reporting on the story, the gamblers who implemented the "fix," and especially Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the despite of whom I seem to have absorbed in my mother's milk.
That you should not mention *The Pride of the Yankees* and *Rhubarb* and *The Natural* is a bit puzzling. The first is widely recognized as a classic, the second is one of the overlooked goodies (made from H. Allen Smith's comic novel of the same title), and the last is one of the few films which are, in my opinion, more satisfying than the originating sources from which they're drawn.
How about "A League of Their Own"? I also very much enjoyed "Little Big League" and "Rookie of the Year" very much (as silly as they may have been.) But, I just can't believe you didn't even mention "The Sandlot"!! Your killing me smalls!! And where is "The Natural" on this list?
All great pic's and you're right, to talk about all of them would probably be impossible. However, in case you haven't seen it, check out 61* I'm super critical of baseball movies, especially Yankee ones, but Billy Crystal nailed it.


















greatAmerican 2 years ago
I am old, I like old, and so I have to say when it comes to baseball movies, I like the Joe E Brown baseball classics, Alibi Ike and Elmer the Great. Just fun and frolic with little regard for accuracy.. Elmer the great,
ended with a night game in Wrigley field. In truth the actual film was done in Wrigley Field in LA maybe that explains the lights. Seems I read somewhere that in the first years of Night Games banks of lights were not permanent and moved from one field to another as needed