To be completely honest, this was a list that had a ton of movies to choose from, and it was extremely difficult to rank a top 10. I literally had to shift these movies around multiple times before finally coming up with a list I like.
So, if you are in the mood for a good baseball flick, here are the top 10 to check out.
10. For the Love of the Game
There is something about watching a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers throw a perfect game that forced us to pry this movie into the top 10. Kevin Costner plays a 40-year-old Billy Chapel who playing in his final season. In the final game of his career, Chapel pitched a gem and rode off into the sunset.
9. Eight Men Out
John Cusack and Charlie Sheen were among the stars in this flick that took a look back at the Chicago White Sox betting scandal of 1919. When players on the team are offered money to start tanking games, all hell breaks loose.
8. A League of Their Own
A League of Their Own came out in 1992 and stars Tom Hanks, Gina Davis, and Madonna. As one of the best baseball movies ever made, it made over $132 million at the box office.
“There’s no crying in baseball!”
7. The Bad News Bears
When I was a kid this was one of my favorite movies ever! Walter Matthau plays Morris Buttermaker (best name ever) who is recruited to coach a Southern California Little League team which is made up of some of the worst players around. The movie came out in 1976 and made over $42 million at the box office.
6. Money Ball
I have to admit, after first hearing that a baseball movie was coming out starring Brad Pitt, I was not sold. After seeing the preview, they had my attention. After sitting through the movie in the theater I was thrilled! Pitt plays Billy Beane, who is the GM of the Oakland Athletics and is faced with the task of trying to put together a winning team with a very limited budget. Beane stumbles across Peter Brand (played by Jonah Hill), almost by chance, and the two team up to build a winner in Oakland.
5. The Natural
Robert Redford plays Roy Hobbs in one of the greatest baseball movies ever made. After his father suffers a heart attack and dies, Hobbs takes a tree that was struck by lightning and shapes it into a baseball bat which he calls, “Wonderboy”. Not surprisingly, this one comes down to the 9th inning with Hobbs up to bat. You will have to watch to see what happens!
4. Bull Durham
This baseball flick stars Kevin Costner, who plays “Crash Davis” a veteran catcher brought in to help out a young pitcher on the Durham Bulls minor league team. This movie is so good that Sports Illustrated once called it the greatest sports movie of all time. It will have to settle for the No. 4 spot on this list.
3. Field of Dreams
“If you build it, he will come.”
If you say that phrase, it is almost a guarantee that any baseball fan will know exactly what you are talking about. Kevin Costner (again) plays the role of Ray Kinsella, who is a huge baseball fan. After hearing a voice in the cornfields, Costner is inclined to build a baseball field that ends up being magical.
2. Major League
First of all, this movie easily could have been No. 1 on this list. After going back and forth, it came in No. 2 and that is where it will remain! If you are a baseball fan and have not seen Major League, you have to stop what you are doing and watch it right now. Charlie Sheen plays the role of Ricky Vaughn, a convict who is asked to try out for Cleveland Indians. Vaughn makes the team, along with a few other “characters” and they go on a journey to bring a winning team to Cleveland.
1. The Sandlot
When Scotty Smalls moves to a town in the San Fernando Valley and meets up with a group of boys on the Sandlot, his life is changed forever. One day Smalls decides to take one of his father’s prized baseballs to use in a game and when he loses it over the fence, the real adventure begins.
“You’re killing me, Smalls!”
