This Weekend’s Film Festival – Best Baseball Movies of All-Time

The World Series is nearly upon us so This Weekend's Film Festival gets into the baseball spirit with the best baseball films of all-time. It's an eclectic mix of films, some are in Little League, some are in the minors, some are in the majors, and some are simply in a field in Iowa. Some of the films deal with the directly and some deal with it in a bigger sense. But one thing all the films have in common is a respect for the game. Lets play ball!

Coming in at #5, just beating out the good, but sentimental, classic THE PRIDE OF THE YANKEES, is THE BAD NEWS BEARS. As I said in my original review, "In addition to its look at how competitive Little League can get, another thing that was surprising was how honest it is about the Bears journey to the championship game." The Bears is a team made up of all the players who other teams didn't want. Former minor league pitcher Morris Buttermaker, played wonderfully by Walter Matthau, is paid to coach the team. Early on they get trounced, so Buttermaker recruits his ex-girlfriend's girl Amanda Whurlitzer — Tatum O'Neal following up her Oscar win for PAPER MOON — who helps lead the team to victory with the aid of town thug Kelly Leak, played by a young Jackie Earle Haley. Buttermaker gets consumed with winning and pushes the kids too far and fails to allow the lesser skilled kids a chance to play. Director Michael Ritchie takes a realistic approach to the material, using natural sound and never making the Bears go from losers to pros overnight. THE BAD NEWS BEARS captures a truthful look at why kids want to play ball and why adults want to coach them.

Ranking at #4, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's SUGAR is not about baseball and about baseball at the same time. The story follows the rise of Dominican pitching prospect Miguel "Sugar" Santos, played naturally by Algenis Perez Soto. As I said in my original review, "Through his story one sees the difficult odds any player must face in trying to make the major leagues, especially players from foreign countries." Sugar goes from a farm league in the Dominican Republic to the single A minors and he still has two more minor leagues to make before making it to the majors. Like many players he struggles against slumps, injury and the hungry young guy right behind him, but all these problems are made much more difficult because he's a Spanish speaker in the Mid-West where few people can communicate with him. His community back home is counting on his success. Between the pressure to succeed and the loneliness of America, he has a hard time coping. SUGAR shows the dream and how reality is much harder than one might expect. Through this one player's story, the film gives respect to all those that were talented, healthy and lucky enough to make it all the way.

John Sayles' EIGHT MEN OUT tells the story of one of the worst blights on professional baseball. In chronicling the 1919 Black Sox scandal, where players from the Chicago White Sox conspired with gamblers to throw the World Series, Sayles captures a different time in the history of pro ball. Players were paid less, and those working for Sox owner Charles Comiskey (Clifton James) received even less. They lived among the fans. It was a situation perfect for corruption. Sayles creates this vast world and fills it with characters that give it nuance and color. George "Buck" Weaver (John Cusack) heard of the fix but didn't play a part and yet he was still banned. As I said in my original review, "Cusack’s character serves as the heart of the story. He’s the honest player caught up with the bad apples and thrown out nonetheless. He still loves the game and has a hard time telling the truth to the young fans who look up to him." The film not only captures the feel of the era in baseball, but also the feelings. The players who threw the game where uneducated guys that resented their better-educated teammates. Through the story of the players who just wanted to play and those that just wanted to cash in, the film captures the good and bad sides of pro sports.

BULL DURHAM is the second baseball film of all time. "When it comes to baseball, the key scene in the film comes when Crash [played wonderfully by Kevin Costner] tells [rookie] LaLoosh [played by Tim Robbins] about the statistical difference between batting .250, which won’t get you into the majors, and batting .300. It pretty much comes down to one extra hit a week. The theme of innate talent versus hardworking intelligence is brilliantly brought out in that scene," to quote my original review. Billed as a romantic comedy, the film has minor league groupie Annie Savoy, played sensuously by Susan Sarandon, picking between Crash and LaLoosh as her yearly affair. LaLoosh wins, because Crash won't play, he's focused on his job of getting wild LaLoosh ready for the majors. But this doesn't stop him from falling for the mysterious woman anyway. Both Crash and Annie are scholars of the game, trying to hold onto their youth. LaLoosh is all talent and no brains. Like SUGAR, Ron Shelton's film captures the difficulty of making the majors. Some players like Crash will master the game mentally, but just don't have the extra something to make it all the way, while players like LaLoosh will ride into the big leagues on raw talent not understanding the game at all. It's not fair, but that's life.

Kevin Costner returns in the #1 slot as well in Phil Alden Robinson's FIELD OF DREAMS. As I said in my original review, "[The film] is nostalgic and sentimental and just right… With the conceit of the magical field, the film conjures the notion of simple times when a boy and his dad could share in the game and people of all walks of life could come together in the celebration of the American pastime." Costner plays Ray Kinsella, a man with Gary Cooper-like optimism, who plows down half his cornfield because he hears voices telling him to build a baseball diamond there. Fantastically, the film allows Shoeless Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta) and the other banned 1919 White Sox to play again. The film captures the simple joy of playing baseball and how on a small scale, between a father and son, and one a big scale, a nation, the sport can bring people together. For the characters the game works as a way to heal past wounds. As James Earl Jones's character Terrence Mann says in a brilliant speech, "Baseball has been the one constant." Why is this the best baseball film? It's because it captures the love for the game like no other film.

To sign up for this lineup just head to the videostore, update the Netflix queue, check out HelloMovies.com for streaming sites, visit Zap2It.com for TV listings, or help support his site by purchasing the films on DVD or Blu-ray at the links below.