Top 7 Baseball Movies of All Time

Field of Dreams - Best Baseball Movie Ever

Denver, CO – What are the top 7 baseball movies of all time? No other sport inspires more movies. With basketball you think of Hoosiers and maybe Blue Chips. Hockey? You might think of Miracle and the old school Slap Shot. Honestly I can’t think of a football movie that would even be in my top 50 movies of all time. BUT – baseball seems to inspire writers and directors more than any other sport. So let’s take a look and you may agree or disagree but here are my Top 7 Baseball movies.

7. – Moneyball – Although a newer movie, the real life story about Billy Beane is mind altering for most traditional baseball fans. Bucking the trend and ignoring traditional methods of using scouts to pick player, Beane uses stats and computer programs to rate players. Brad Pitt does a “good” job of portraying Beane and the story is gripping enough to see more than once.

6. – For the Love of the Game – Starring Kevin Costner, For the Love of the Game chronicles an aging pitcher playing for the Detroit Tigers. Some of the movie gets a little lost in the cheesy love interest played by Kelly Preston but the actual baseball part of the movie is written well and will pull at the heartstrings of those of us that played baseball and long for those hot spring days playing for your high school or legion team. Many of you may not add this to the top seven, but you have to love Costner as a baseball player..

5. – Baseball – Baseball is a documentary that PBS put together in 1994. The mini-series chronicles the history of baseball. Great quotes and images from baseball past and more recent baseball will leave the real baseball fan wanting to watch again. Although incredibly long, you can pick and choose which series to watch. If you watch the entire documentary prepare to sit for 19 hours to watch the whole thing. This is really something for the baseball purist, not just the average Joe looking to be entertained.

4. – Major League – “You may run like Mays but you hit like shit!” “Fuck you Jobu – I do it myself” – Major League may have some of the best quotes from any movie that sports fans love. Just Google quotes from Major League and you will be left laughing in your chair. Major League chronicles a fictional Cleveland Indians team that rises from the worst team in Major League Baseball to one of the best to win the pennant. Starring Charlie Sheen and Tom Berringer this is a must see for any sports fans looking for a comedy with some inspiring scenes to leave you on the edge of your seat.

3. – The Natural – Robert Redford stars in one of the best baseball movies ever. Roy Hobbs, played by Redford, is a star player in 1952 whose career is sidelined after he is shot in the stomach by a deranged fan looking to shoot the best player in baseball. Hobbs comes back with his namesake bat “Wonderboy” to hit a game winning home run and in the signature scene blows up the lights in right field. Anyone who doesn’t put The Natural in their top 3 baseball movies is not a baseball fan.

2. – Bull Durham – Kevin Costner again is the star in a movie that chronicles an older player (Crash Davis) that is sent to the minors to tutor “Nuke” LaLoosh, a pitcher with a golden arm with no control. The Durham Bulls play in Durham North Carolina and the movie gives a good look into what minor league baseball is like. Bull Durham covers many of the weird superstitions and relationships that happen in baseball. Susan Sarandon plays the love interest of both Crash and Nuke with her ending up with Crash in a cheesy ending, but great baseball movie.

1. – Field Of Dreams – Again Kevin Costner delivers his best baseball movie in my mind. Guys don’t tell me you don’t shed a tear when Costner’s Dad asks him if he wants to have a catch at the end of the movie. Field of Dreams chronicles a farmer in Iowa who hears voices that tell him to build a baseball field in the middle of his corn field on his farm. He is chastised by his brother in law and almost loses his farm to the bank. Once he builds the field (“Build it and he will come) ghosts of baseball past come to play on the field. Shoeless Joe Jackson, played by Ray Liotta, is the main character ghost and keeps pushing Costner to keep the field. Ray Kinsella, played by Costner, even makes a trip to Fenway Park – kidnapping writer Terrance Mann, played by James Earl Jones, and sees another message – “go the distance”. Mann plays as if he didn’t hear the voice but did. I don’t want to ruin the end, but the field stays and Kinsella has a catch with his dad.

What do you think DSC fans? Comment and let me know your top 7.

Denver Sports Chat – Kris Loco