Sammy Awards Special: The Best Baseball Movies Of All Time!
Baseball films capture the charm, beauty, and magic of our national pastime, while keeping the little kid in all of us alive.
Baseball is perhaps our most nostalgic sport, which is why the game lends itself to such inspirational, mythological, and even supernatural storytelling in scores of films about our national pastime. Other sports have made their mark in cinema, but it’s movies about baseball that remind us what we loved so much about the game growing up, connect us (most often) to our dads, and keep the little kid inside us alive through adulthood. The best baseball films bring us to tears one moment and make us laugh out loud the next. They capture the sport’s larger-than-life moments for resilient individuals and triumphant teams that last forever in our collective consciousness.
As we prepare for Opening Day this week, I’d like to take this opportunity to offer my Sammy Awards for “The 10 Best Baseball Movies Of All Time.” Feel free to challenge my choices and nominate whichever films you thought were unfairly included or left out of the mix.
Play ball!
1). Field Of Dreams (1989): The ultimate baseball fairy tale. Kevin Costner saves his Iowa farm by clearing a large section of his cornfield for a pristine diamond, reviving the grateful ghosts of players past while giving Shoeless Joe Jackson a shot at redemption. Director Paul Alden Robinson built this sentimental masterpiece, and we all came! I’ll never forget seeing the film for the second time on a cross-country flight, when passengers were left sniffling and sobbing after Costner’s character reconnects with his deceased dad for a game of catch. It was also magical watching the real-life New York Yankees play the Chicago White Sox on that field of dreams in 2021, with Aaron Judge emerging from the cornfield during introductions and then driving a gargantuan homer into that same cinematic symbol of eternity a few innings later.
2). Bull Durham (1988): If “Field of Dreams” created heaven on Earth, “Bull Durham” takes us in the other direction, portraying the hellacious battle among minor leaguers desperate to make it up to “The Show.” Kevin Costner is once again the star, but this time he’s more devilish than angelic as lifelong baseball vagabond Crash Davis, a wizened catcher destined to help others with more talent get to the Major Leagues, yet like Moses doomed to never reach baseball’s Promised Land himself. A sweet, sassy, complicated love story with “Baseball Annie” Susan Sarandon is a bonus. This movie has pathos, humor, and romance galore, while remaining true to the sport’s authenticity. (I highly recommend reading “The Church of Baseball,” in which Ron Shelton recounts the insane obstacles he had to overcome to write, direct, and get his sports opus into theaters.)
3). 42 (2013): Jackie Robinson is my greatest baseball hero, and the late Chad Boseman brings him back to life in all his extraordinary glory. Boseman captures the fighting spirit of the courageous warrior who finally broke baseball’s shameful color barrier, changing the national pastime and the nation itself years before the civil rights movement was launched. I also appreciated how the film recognized those who stood up for Jackie and helped make his historic entry a success, including his steadfast spouse, Rachel; his trailblazing boss, Branch Rickey; and his supportive teammate, Pee Wee Reese—who defied his own mother and overcame his racist Kentucky upbringing to literally embrace a Black teammate on the field in an iconic moment captured in a statue outside the Coney Island ballpark of the Brooklyn Cyclones.
4). A League Of Their Own (1992): Although Tom Hanks’s character, manager Jimmy Dugan, insists, “There’s no crying in baseball,” I shed many a tear and laughed my head off watching this lighthearted portrayal of life in the American Girls Professional Baseball League, founded by chewing gum magnate Phil Wrigley during World War II. Rosie O’Donnell and Madonna provided comic relief, but my favorite character was Geena Davis as Dottie Hinson, a tough-as-nails catcher with the grimmest of game faces, coached for the film by Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk. Dottie’s rivalry with her little sister, Kit, drove the story right up to its dramatic collision at home plate with the championship on the line. This movie inspired me to write “Spikes,” a fictional account of the first woman to play Major League Baseball.
5). The Rookie (2002): Baseball is filled with highly unlikely success stories of those overcoming ridiculous odds. Yet few could top the amazing tale of high school baseball coach Jim Morris, played to perfection by Dennis Quaid, who recovered from an arm injury suffered in his early 20s and was signed by Tampa Bay at the age of 35, after throwing 98-miles-per-hour at an open tryout he attended on a dare by his student athletes. The scene where some of those kids come to see Morris make his Major League debut in Texas a few months later, awestruck by the enormity of the stadium compared with the patch of dirt they play on back home, is unforgettable. And kudos to Texas Rangers shortstop Royce Clayton, who was gracious enough to appear in the film and recreate the actual first at bat against Morris, in which (SPOILER ALERT!) he struck out on four pitches.
6). Fever Pitch (2005): The best film ever about baseball fandom, sugarcoated like Cracker Jacks with a delightful romcom theme. Jimmy Fallon plays a nerdy 10th grade math teacher courting Drew Barrymore, a corporate numbers cruncher way out of his league. All goes wonderfully during baseball’s winter offseason, but once spring training begins Jimmy’s character is off to spring training in Florida with his fellow face-painting fanatics, as his obsession with the Boston Red Sox emerges from hibernation! The scenes where Jimmy doles out coveted games from his season ticket plan to pleading pals in an apartment serving as his Red Sox shrine, as well as the marvelous baseball banter exchanged at Fenway Park, are by themselves worth the price of admission. But it’s the revelation that baseball helped Jimmy get past the loss of his dad as a kid that got to me personally.
7). Major League (1989): The big-league version of “Bull Durham,” capturing many of the charming quirks of baseball, its whacky characters, and dedicated fans retaining their irrational faith in the face of the longest odds. When the Indians’ new owner gathers a band of misfits to lose games and drive down attendance so she can break her stadium lease and move the team, the players band together and unite the entire city of Cleveland behind them with their inspired play. The all-star cast includes Charlie “Wild Thing” Sheen as a nearly blind, ex-con reliever throwing blazing heat, Dennis Haysbert as a superstitious Cuban slugger securing hits and victories with voodoo, and Wesley Snipes as Willie Mays Hayes, a walk-on with blazing speed and a sensational glove in centerfield. The motley crew’s leader is Tom Berenger, a Crash Davis-type catcher with bad knees seizing his final shot at baseball immortality.
8). Damn Yankees (1958): My love for Broadway is almost as strong as it is for baseball, so it’s only natural for me to give a standing ovation to the film version of this glorious stage musical. How many elderly fans would trade their souls to not only be young again, but also talented enough to lead their favorite team to a World Series championship—becoming rich and famous in the process? This theme resonates seven decades later, considering all the cheaters who sold their souls to the devil by taking steroids. A highlight is a locker room seduction number by Lola, the devil’s handmaiden, to keep a homesick Joe from returning to his old life with his beloved wife, thereby denying the devil his due. Ray Walston (of “My Favorite Martian” fame) did a fine job playing the devil, but I was blessed to see comic genius Jerry Lewis chew the scenery in a Broadway revival. As another classic song notes, “You Gotta Have Heart” to stick with the baseball team you love, no matter how well or poorly they play.
9). 61 (2001): This HBO film, directed by Yankee fanatic Billy Crystal, captures the thrill and heartache of Roger Maris’ epic 1961 quest to hit the most home runs in a season, topping the 60 smashed in 1927 by “The Bambino,” Babe Ruth. Maris was an unlikely record breaker and reluctant hero, playing in the shadow of his Hall of Fame bound teammate and fan favorite, Mickey Mantle. He’s overwhelmed by haters who heckle him and threaten his life, reporters who keep insisting he’s not worthy of such a feat, and a baseball commissioner who denigrates his historic achievement by slapping an asterisk against his record because his season was eight games longer than The Babe’s. Yet Maris courageously manages to overcome relentless pressure that gives him ulcers and causes his hair to fall out. (The only downside about this movie is showing the Maris family in 1998 celebrating with Mark McGwire when he broke Roger’s record with the help of performance enhancing drugs. It was much more satisfying to see another Yankee slugger, Aaron Judge, hit his 62nd legitimately in 2022.)
10). Moneyball (2011): I’m not a huge fan of how analytics and new statistical benchmarks such as OPS, WAR, spin rates, and launch angles have taken over baseball management. But I must admit it was fun watching Brad Pitt as Oakland A’s General Manager Billy Beane and Jonah Hill as his stat-head assistant turn baseball’s conventional wisdom on its head to put a competitive team on the field, overcoming severe financial constraints by using advanced sabermetrics to scout undervalued players and drive revolutionary in-game strategies.
Honorable Mentions:
--The Bingo Long Traveling All Stars and Motor Kings (1976): A lighthearted yet deadly series portrayal of the professional, personal, and financial challenges facing Negro League baseball players in the 1940s. The stellar cast (including James Earl Jones and Richard Pryor) is led by Billy Dee Williams as Bingo, a star pitcher and consummate entertainer (based on Satchel Paige) so fed up with being underpaid and abused by his team’s owner that he quits and recruits some of the league’s best players to join his barnstorming squad, competing against white local clubs and splitting the proceeds equally. While Bingo’s team is deadly serious about winning, they are so superior to their competition yet so fearful of angering white fans that they clown around like baseball’s version of the Harlem Globetrotters to lighten the mood, earn their keep, and avoid riling up the crowd—demeaning but necessary to survive in that segregated and viciously racist time. Co-produced by Motown’s Berry Gordy, the film features a catchy New Orleans jazz score capturing the team’s improvisational business model and style of play.
--The Pride of the Yankees (1942): Gary Cooper is perfectly cast as Lou Gehrig. Nicknamed “The Iron Horse” because of his amazing record of 2,130 consecutive games played, Gehrig ironically is forced to retire when the effects of ALS emerge, ending his Hall of Fame career at 36 and his all-too-short but amazing life at 38. A pretty corny movie overall, but still a classic if only because of its final scene, recreating Gehrig’s moving farewell speech before a packed Yankee Stadium, culminating in his iconic line: “People all say that I’ve had a bad break. But today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.”
--Sugar (2008): An eye-opening and heartbreaking look at the darker side of American baseball’s recruitment of Latin American players. Miguel “Sugar” Santos dreams of pitching his way out of poverty in the Dominican Republic. But after being signed by a major league team, he’s shipped off to Iowa, which is no field of dreams for a Black youngster who can’t speak English and has never been away from his impoverished village. He’s painfully lonely, struggles against higher competition, and eventually is injured before washing out in the low minor leagues. But rather than return home in disgrace, he overstays his visa and heads to New York, taking unskilled jobs off the books to survive. Yet he rediscovers his love for the game among fellow Latin Americans playing sandlot ball in The Bronx.
--The Hill (2023): The true story of Ricky Hill, a natural born slugger from a godforsaken town in the middle of nowhere who overcame incredible physical and psychological challenges to realize his dream of becoming a pro baseball player. A bit sappy and overly religious at times, but hey, Ricky was the son of a preacher (played by Dennis Quaid of “The Rookie” fame), and his accomplishments were nothing short of miraculous.
--It Ain’t Over (2023): Part of baseball’s appeal is its quirky players, and Yogi Berra takes the proverbial cake. Berra’s cartoonish looks, goofy persona, hilarious commercials, and twisted words of wisdom have unfortunately overshadowed his enormous achievements on and off the diamond. This documentary looks to set the record straight without diminishing his underlying charm. It showcases Yogi as a catcher (playing 117 complete doubleheaders), hitter (striking out only a dozen times over one entire season), perennial winner (with 10 World Series rings), manager (leading the 1973 Mets to the World Series), patriot (helping storm the beach at Normandy on D-Day), husband (married to wife Carmen for 65 years), as well as one of America’s greatest folk philosophers.
--Baseball (1994): This comprehensive, nine-part PBS series by Ken Burns relates the history while capturing the magic of what was once (and for some like me still is) America’s pastime. Adding two additional episodes as “Extra Innings” in 2010 keeps the documentary current, even though it focuses on darker themes I’d rather forget—the impact of strikes and lockouts, as well as steroid abuse.
Dishonorable Mentions:
--The Natural (1984): The most overrated baseball movie of all time, in my humble opinion. Unlike “Field Of Dreams,” which is a thrilling and joyful fairy tale, “The Natural” is way too dark and grim, much like the 1952 Malamud novel on which it is based. While “Field of Dreams” gave me goosebumps, “The Natural” gave me the creeps. Not even a dramatic, happy ending could salvage it for me.
--Eight Men Out (1988): Once again we see Shoeless Joe Jackson brought back to life onscreen, but this time he’s trapped in a field of nightmares as part of the 1919 Black Sox scandal, in which a host of Chicago White Sox players are charged with taking bribes from gamblers to throw the World Series, while others like Jackson allegedly knew about the fix yet remained silent. Though critically acclaimed and well received by movie goers, I’d pass on reliving one of the darkest chapters in baseball history.
So, what do you all think???
One more thing…
I’ll leave you with one additional thought and piece of advice when it comes to our beloved baseball:
Instead of worrying ourselves to despair about whether our favorite team is going to contend for a title or lament how much today’s pampered players are paid, what do you say we just enjoy watching the games, taking pleasure in baseball’s timeless charm, soothing rhythm, and magical moments? Ignore the darker business side and don’t allow yourself to succumb to cynicism. Enjoy the journey, rather than stress about the destination. Let the little kid in you out to play!
Joy of joys!!! Baseball is back!!!!
Sam, loving your blog and reading most of them. Your piece about baseball reminds me of a great insurance story: Branch Rickey was a board member of the Guardian Life Insurance Company and prior to announcing Robinson’s signing, he offered his resignation to the Guardian board to spare the company any criticism for his action. The Guardian board members not only unanimously rejected Rickey’s resignation, but added, “And more power to Mr. Rickey.” I covered this is a NAMIC speech a few years ago as it's great (and common) story of a mutual insurance company doing the right thing. Be well! Chuck
The Bad News Bears? Or, The Sandlot... if for no other reason than it gave us the quotable "You're killin' me, Smalls!"