The 12 Best Baseball Movies of All Time

The best baseball movies are ones that provide a unique perspective on the game. Some of them can be serious dramas while others can be hilarious comedies.

These movies are appreciated by all baseball fans are ones that can constantly remind fans about their love for the game. Baseball movies have the ability to bring the game back even during a long winter.

Each one of these baseball movies is worth watching. There are many other great movies that did not make this list but also are must-sees.

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12) Sugar

This is likely the least seen movie on the list, which is a shame because Sugar is an outstanding film. People often forget or do not think about what foreign players experience when they are trying to make the MLB.

Sugar follows a young impoverished Dominican baseball player, Miguel "Sugar" Santos, who dreams of making the MLB. He is invited to spring training by the fictional Kansas City Knights and he makes their Single-A team.

The movie follows Santos as he adjust to life in the United States in Bridgetown, Iowa. Not only does Santos have to adjust to American culture, but he is also trying to reach the major leagues.

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11) Angels in the Outfield

What many people may not know about Angels in the Outfield is that it is a remake of a 1951 film that featured the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The movie stars with two young children going to a California Angels game. During the game, there are a series of shocking plays. The children, Roger and J.P. can see actual angels helping the team. The Angels manager, George Knox notices Roger and decides to keep him around as a good luck charm.

This movie was a childhood favorite of many kids who grew up in the '80's and '90's and it is still fairly popular today.

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10) A League of Their Own

The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League started when the United States was involved in World War II as a way to keep baseball very prevalent in America. 

A League of Their Own tells a fictionalized story of this unique baseball league. The movie follows the Rockford Peaches and their star player Dottie Hanson along with their alcoholic manager Jimmy Dugan. Through out the movie, the women are trying to prove that they belong on a baseball field.

As the Dugan is yelling at one of the Peaches, he utters one of the more famous lines in baseball movie history when he says, "There's no crying in baseball".

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9) Bad News Bears

The original Bad News Bears, which was released in 1976 was remade in 2005. The 1976 edition was a better and funnier film.

Walter Matthau stars a Morris Buttermaker, an alcoholic ex-major leaguer who is asked to coach a team with the worst players in the Southern California Little League. Buttermaker recruits some players to joint the team.

The ragtag group of Little Leaguers manages to make the World Series.

Much of what makes Bad News Bears so great is the raunchy humor that still entertains viewers regardless of if it is the first time or 10th time that they have seen the film.

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8) The Sandlot

The Sandlot is a film that both children and their parents could enjoy together. When Scotty Smalls moves to a new neighborhood he wants to fit in. He has trouble making friends after the move.

When he sees a group of boys playing a game of baseball, he reluctantly joins in. Smalls struggles and the kids make fun of him. Benny Rodriguez, the neighborhood's best player stands up for him and offers him advice.

The movie continues to tell the story about how Smalls became friends with everyone in the group.

The classic line, "You're killing me Smalls" comes from The Sandlot and has been uttered by many from the younger generation when someone makes a mistake.

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7) Eight Men Out

The Chicago Black Sox Scandal was one of the biggest black marks in MLB history. Eight Men Out provides a dramatization of this dark part of baseball's history.

Many of the Chicago White Sox stars are temped by gamblers and end up throwing the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds.

Eight of the White Sox players including stars such as Shoeless Joe Jackson and Chick Gandil are brought to trial and are eventually banned from the MLB.

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6) Major League

The struggling Cleveland Indians are acquired by the conniving Rachel Harris from her deceased husband. She wants to move the team to Miami, but needs the attendance to drop. Harris does everything she can to make sure this occurs.

After a long season, the Indians manage to play well enough to keep the team in Cleveland and Harris' plans are foiled.

One of the stars in Major League is Charlie Sheen, who plays Rick "Wild Thing" Vaughn. Sheen even took steroids to prepare for his role in the movie because he wanted to be able to throw harder. Some of the movie's memorable moments include Pedro Cerrano praying to Jobu to help him hit the curve.

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5) The Pride of the Yankees

Lou Gehrig had an outstanding career with the New York Yankees, but it was tragically cut short as a result of ALS, an illness that is now also referred to as Lou Gehrig's Disease.

The Pride of the Yankees is a biopic about Gehrig. The film follows Gehrig all the way from his days at Columbia University. Gehrig's streak which earned him the nickname the "Iron Horse" also plays a role in the movie.

One of the more poignant moments in the movie occurs when the movie reenacts Gehrig's farewell speech at Yankee Stadium, during which he announces that he is the "luckiest man on the face of the Earth".

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4) The Natural

The Natural is based on a novel of the same name by Bernard Malamud and is said that it draws some inspiration from the life of Eddie Waitkus.

Robert Redford stars as Roy Hobbs, a baseball player with a mysterious past. As a 19-year-old, Hobbs goes to a carnival event and strikes out the world's greatest hitter. This draws the sinister Harriet Byrd towards him.

Byrd eventually draws Hobbs to a hotel room where she shoots him. Hobbs survives the incident. The movie than moves 16 years into the future. A 35-year-old Hobbs, an unknown, is signed to the New York Knights.

After dealing with a difficult manager, Hobbs is finally able to show off his hitting ability. He impressive everyone on the Knights.

Hobbs hits the game winning home run to give the Knights the pennant in one of the best moments in baseball movie history. The bomb hits the lights in the outfield and causes them to shatter.

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3) Bang the Drum Slowly

Bang the Drum Slowly is a movie that is more than just a baseball film. The movie shows the power of friendship.

Henry Wiggen is a star for the New York Mammoths while Bruce Pearson is a catcher with limited skills. However, the two are great friends. They learn that Pearson is terminally ill in the middle of the season.

The team does not know anything about the illness and are prepared to bench or cut Pearson. Wiggen then demands that he is caught by Pearson. Wiggen accidentally lets the secret out to the other players after they insult Pearson. The team's moral changes and it helps the team perform better.

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2) Field of Dreams

Field of Dreams is not only a must see movie for baseball fans, but it is a movie that should be watched by everyone.

After hearing the famous line, "If you build it, they will come", farmer Ray Kinsella decides to cut down part of his cornfield and build a baseball field. After nothing happens, Kinsella is facing financial ruin.

Then, one day, a man appears on the field. It is Ray's father's idol, the deceased Shoeless Joe Jackson. He asks if he can bring the others to come play with him. He goes back into the cornfield and brings out the other seven players who were banned during the Black Sox Scandal.

Eventually more players come to the field to play and Ray hears the voices once again. He looks for Moonlight Graham, a player who appeared in one game and never got an at-bat, in Minnesota. He cannot find him but when he is driving back to Iowa, he picks up a hitch-hiker named Archie Graham.

The movie closes with a touching moment when the catcher at the baseball field takes of his mask. It turns out that he is Kinsella's father. The two had never been able to play catch since Ray ran away at age 14. Ray then asks his dad to play catch and they start tossing the ball around.

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1) Bull Durham

Kevin Costner appears in both of the top two baseball movies. He started as Ray Kinsella in The Field of Dreams and he is also a star as Crash Davis in Bull Durham.

Davis is a veteran catcher whose job is to teach the young pitching prospect Nuke LaLoosh the game in anticipation of him reaching the major leagues.

Initially the two do not get along and LaLoosh struggles. As LaLoosh begins to listen to Davis, his pitching improves. Davis talks about how he wants to get back to the majors and how the brief experience was the best time of his life.

When LaLoosh reaches the majors, Davis is cut. He is eventually signed by a team in Ashville and the career minor leaguer sets the minor league record for career home runs.

The movie has a great mix of humor and drama and is constantly considered to not only be one of the best baseball movies ever, but to be one of the best sports movies of all time.

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