10 Best Baseball Movies

There are plenty of films that celebrate one of America’s most beloved pastimes, but only the best baseball movies capture the magic of the sport while also providing some great entertainment. Out of all the sports movies, baseball stands above many others as one of the games that Hollywood loves to tell stories of. With the modern version of the sport having origins going back to the 19th century, there are endless facets of baseball for movies to explore and the versatility of the subgenre is highlighted in the best baseball movies.

Some of the biggest stars in Hollywood have found themselves on the field or in the dugout in some stand-out baseball movies, with the likes of Kevin Costner, Tom Hanks, and Brad Pitt. The best baseball movies have told some of the most compelling true stories in the sport’s history, while others are pure fiction with a fantasy twist. Some of these movies are laugh-out-loud comedies while others will bring a tear to the eye of nearly any viewer. However, all the best baseball movies excel at depicting the love of the game.

10 The Sandlot (1993)

Kids In The 1960s Plays Their Summer Playing Neighborhood Baseball

For anyone who grew up playing baseball with friends, The Sandlot’s story is a touching bit of nostalgia that captures the thrill of stepping onto a baseball field with childhood friends. The Sandlot is set in the 1960s and follows a young unathletic boy named Scott Smalls who moves to a new neighborhood and struggles to make new friends. However, when he is taken in by a group of baseball-loving youngsters, he discovers the love of the game while also encountering a monstrous secret in the town.

While The Sandlot is not a true story, it does draw from baseball legend with the legacy of Babe Ruth playing a big role in the story. It is a charming and funny coming-of-age movie that even non-baseball fans can enjoy for its look back on the summer days of youth. However, the film is a love letter to those days spent in dusty fields with best friends and playing a game they all love.

9 Everybody Wants Some!! (2016)

College Baseball Players Party Before School Starts

While The Sandlot explored the carefree approach to baseball through the perspective of young kids, Everybody Wants Some!! feels like a movie about those same kinds of kids when they grow a little older. From Richard Linklater, Everybody Wants Some!! follows a young baseball player who arrives for his first year at college and gets to know his new teammates on the school team. In the days leading up to the start of classes, the young men party and meet girls as they start this exciting new chapter of their lives.

Everybody Wants Some!! is a spiritual sequel to Dazed and Confused, following a similarly loose plot that is little more than spending time with these young and fun characters as they make the most of their youth. However, it is also a specific look at this culture of baseball with the lead character coming to terms with not being the star of the team anymore and wondering about life after baseball.

8 The Natural (1984)

A Mysterious Player Becomes A Hero Of The Sport

Based on the novel of the same name, The Natural is a sports-drama film that retells the life and career of Roy Hobbs, a baseball prodigy who rises to fame at a young age. After Hobbs meets a legendary ballplayer named “The Whammer,” Hobbs his life is changed as he enters the world of Baseball. Sixteen years after this event, Hobbs returns to the sport and signs with the New York Knights, hoping to turn around the fortunes of the failing team while beginning to build his legacy.

Director

Barry Levinson

Release Date

May 11, 1984

Runtime

138 Minutes

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The Natural is a movie that wonderfully communicates the way that some people see baseball as something truly magical and more than just a sport. Robert Redford stars in the movie as Roy Hobbs, a middle-aged man with a mysterious past who comes along to play for a struggling team in the 1930s, becoming the unexpected secret to their success.

Baseball movies seem especially fitting for underdog stories and The Natural is a perfect example of that. Roy’s inability to stay away from the game he loves helps him become a hero to fans everywhere. He takes on an almost mythic quality as he gains fame in the sport, especially with his legendary bat that was carved from a tree that was struck by lightning. While not going into fantasy territory like some other great baseball movies, The Natural certainly has a magic quality to it.

7 The Bad News Bears (1976)

A Washed-Up Ball Player Coaches A Misfit Little League Team

The Bad News Bears is a sports comedy film released in 1976. It follows an aging ex-minor league baseball player who becomes the coach of a team of misfit kids in a highly competitive California little league, navigating challenges both on and off the field.

Director

Michael Ritchie

Release Date

April 6, 1976

Cast

Tatum O’Neal , Walter Matthau , Vic Morrow , Joyce Van Patten , Ben Piazza , Jackie Earle Haley , Alfred Lutter , Chris Barnes , Erin Blunt , Gary Lee Cavagnaro , Jaime Escobedo , Scott Firestone , George Gonzales , Brett Marx , David Pollock , Quinn Smith , David Stambaugh , Brandon Cruz , Timothy Blake , Bill Sorrells , Shari Summers , Joe Brooks , George Wyner , Charles Matthau , Maurice Marks

Runtime

102 minutes

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With the somewhat easygoing approach of the game and the big personalities that can be involved, there have been quite a few baseball comedy movies over the years. However, it’s hard to find one as good or as funny as The Bad News Bears. Walter Matthau gives one of his best performances as Morris Buttermaker, a former professional baseball player who has become a washed-up alcoholic who takes on the job of coaching a ragtag little league team purely for the money.

Seeing Matthau’s mumbling, drunken coach interacting with these wild and strange kids is a hilarious comedic ride with The Bad News Bears more than earning its R rating. The movie also has a lot of fun poking fun at the adults who take little league competitions more seriously than the young players, giving Buttermaker an endearing quality for not caring. The movie also includes some great performances from its child actors, like Jackie Earle Haley and Tatum O’Neal.

6 The Pride Of The Yankees (1942)

A Biopic Of Baseball Legend Lou Gehrig

The Pride of the Yankees is a biographical drama film about the life of Lou Gehrig, the legendary first baseman of the New York Yankees. Released in 1942 and starring Gary Cooper as Gehrig, the film chronicles his rise to baseball fame and his battle with the illness that would later bear his name. Teresa Wright stars as his devoted wife, Eleanor, in this heartfelt portrayal of an American sports icon.

Director

Sam Wood

Release Date

July 15, 1942

Cast

Gary Cooper , Teresa Wright , Babe Ruth , Walter Brennan , Dan Duryea , Elsa Janssen , Ludwig Stössel , Virginia Gilmore

Runtime

128 Minutes

Among the many biopics of some of baseball’s most famous and influential players, The Pride of the Yankees ranks as the best and the most moving. The movie is a biopic about the life of famed player Lou Gehrig, tracking his childhood in New York where he developed his love of baseball to his career where he played 2130 consecutive games in the major leagues to his retirement after being diagnosed with ALS.

Few actors are better suited to capture the movie’s heroic depiction of Gehrig than Gary Cooper. The film also features many real-life baseball players who played with Gehrig appearing as themselves in the movie, including Babe Ruth. However, the most iconic aspect of the movie is the climactic speech as Gehrig bids farewell to fans and the game he loves, declaring “Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.”

5 Eight Men Out (1988)

A Dramatization Of The “Black Sox” Controversy

Eight Men Out chronicles the 1919 scandal involving the Chicago White Sox, where underpaid players, including Buck Weaver and Hap Felsch, conspire with gamblers to fix the World Series. The film explores the resulting national controversy, as sports writers uncover the scheme amid the backdrop of America’s favorite pastime.

Director

John Sayles

Release Date

September 2, 1988

Cast

Clifton James , John Cusack , Michael Lerner , Christopher Lloyd , John Mahoney , Charlie Sheen , David Strathairn , D.B. Sweeney , Don Harvey , Michael Rooker , Perry Lang , James Read , Jace Alexander , Gordon Clapp , Richard Edson , Bill Irwin , Michael Mantell , Kevin Tighe , Studs Terkel , John Anderson , James Desmond , John Sayles , Eliot Asinof , Clyde Bassett , John D. Craig

Runtime

120 minutes

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While The Pride of the Yankees is a celebration of one of the heroes of the game, Eight Men Out is a look at one of the darker controversies in baseball history. From filmmaker John Sayles, Eight Men Out is the story of the so-called “Black Sox,” eight members of the Chicago White Sox who conspired with criminal gamblers to purposely lose the 1919 World Series. It is an event that caused baseball players to lose some of their mystique in the public.

While the players were made villains in the press at the time, the movie gives a much more nuanced look at the controversy, examining the financial realities of players at the time, the greed of the owners, and the men who were wrapped up in the scandal unfairly. Of course, it also holds accountable the men who shattered the illusion of baseball as a pure and good thing in American culture.

4 A League Of Their Own (1992)

The True Story Of A Women’s Professional League

A League of Their Own is a comedy sports drama directed by Penny Marshall that was released in 1992. As professional Major League Baseball’s player count dwindles following World War II, the Chicago Cubs owner helps build a women’s league to save the sport. Now, hoping to make it big, the women of the new team must face off against fellow rival all-female teams and prejudice against their gender.

Director

Penny Marshall

Release Date

July 1, 1992

Runtime

128 Minutes

A League of Their Own is another true baseball story that sheds light on an amazing period in the game’s history forgotten by many. The movie is another period piece as it tells the story of the movement in the major leagues during World War II when many of the male players were off fighting in the war and a women’s league was established to take their place. The story focuses on two sisters (Geena Davis and Lori Petty) who escape their small-town life by joining the team, coached by washed-up player Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks).

The film is a funny and lighthearted sports comedy that is further elevated by the charming ensemble, including Madonna and Rose O’Donnell in supporting roles. However, it is also a celebration of these women who made their mark on the game of baseball even if they didn’t always get the credit or respect they deserved.

3 Field Of Dreams (1989)

A Farmer Builds A Baseball Field In His Cornfield

Based on a novel by W. P. Kinsella, Field of Dreams stars Kevin Costner as Ray Kinsella, a farmer living in Iowa who one evening begins hearing a mysterious voice urging him to build a baseball diamond in his cornfield. An avid baseball fan, Ray takes on the project in hopes of honoring his late father. Amy Madigan, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta, and Burt Lancaster also star. 

Director

Phil Alden Robinson

Release Date

May 5, 1989

Runtime

107 minutes

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Field of Dreams is the movie that proves baseball stories can include fantasy elements while still feeling like grounded and emotional human stories. Kevin Costner stars in the movie as Ray Kinsella, a farmer in Iowa who begins hearing voices that lead him to build a baseball diamond in his cornfield. Miraculously, the spirits of the eight Black Sox players who were part of the infamous scandal appear to play.

That is just the beginning of the bizarre and magical story of Field of Dreams, which somehow takes all these seemingly outlandish elements and turns them into a beautiful story. It is a movie that speaks directly to the power of baseball in bringing people together and strikes a deeply emotional chord with the simple relatable feeling of a son having a game of catch with his father.

2 Moneyball (2011)

Statistics Are Used To Reinvent Baseball

Based on the book by Michael Lewis, Moneyball chronicles the Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane as he attempts to assemble a baseball team on a lean budget – by employing computer-generated analysis to acquire new players. Billy partners with a young and hungry economist, played by Jonah Hill, as they develop an unconventional team of players that will change the game of Baseball forever.

Director

Bennett Miller

Release Date

September 23, 2011

Runtime

133 minutes

Moneyball manages to be one of the best baseball movies despite the fact that it spends little time on the actual games and is more focused on the people behind the scenes of major league teams. Moneyball is based on the true story of Billy Beane’s radical new approach as manager of the Oakland A’s baseball team. Unable to compete financially with the bigger teams, Beane hires a young expert (Jonah Hill) to build a winning team based on statistics alone.

Brad Pitt is in full movie star mode, giving one of his best performances as Beane. It is a look at people who loved the game but took a new approach that made them enemies within the sport. Seeing Beane’s strategy go through its growing pains and gradually begin to come together is a hugely entertaining ride, but the film also surprises the audience with some emotional moments that highlight how special baseball can be.

1 Bull Durham (1988)

A Veteran Player And Young Rookie Compete For The Same Woman

Veteran catcher Crash Davis is brought to the minor league Durham Bulls to help their up and coming pitching prospect, “Nuke” Laloosh. Their relationship gets off to a rocky start and is further complicated when baseball groupie Annie Savoy sets her sights on the two men.

Director

Ron Shelton

Release Date

June 15, 1988

Cast

Kevin Costner , Susan Sarandon , Tim Robbins , Trey Wilson , Robert Wuhl , William O’Leary

Runtime

108 minutes

Kevin Costner has made several baseball movies in his career, but Bull Durham remains the best and is in the conversation for the best film of his career. The movie stars Costner as a catcher in a minor league team whose love of the game remains even though he is gradually getting pushed out. He is taken on to mentor a talented but inconsistent young player (Tim Robbins) only for both men to become intertwined with the same woman (Susan Sarandon), a seductive baseball fan.

Bull Durham pulls off the unlikely, combining a rom-com with a baseball movie. The film is hilarious and sexy with the trio of lead actors playing off each other expertly. However, it is Costner’s Crash Davis who makes for one of the best cinematic ball players of all time, a man whose time in the game is coming to an end and he cannot bear to leave it behind.