Philly Front Office

Spring training games have started!!! …now what? It came a little early for me this year, but that foggy time between pitchers and catchers reporting and Opening Day has me itching for baseball that the spring games just can’t provide. What’s the only thing left to do in this situation? Watch all the baseball movies we can. Every year my wife and I watch probably 5-10 baseball movies before Opening Day. I can’t claim to have seen all of them (Sugar and 42 will make the list this year, I promise).

By the power vested in me by the same gumption that led to creating this website, I bring you the OFFICIAL 5 Best Baseball Movies (plus other superlatives)!

Best Documentary: Screwball

The best baseball documentary you never saw. This is just as much a Miami movie as it is a baseball movie, but anyone who has been a fan of baseball in the 2000s should watch this one. Don’t let the category of documentary fool you, this is as entertaining as anything you could watch. Children were cast to look like the actual people involved in the Biogenesis steroids scandal and they are the ones re-enacting what happened. It’s the kind of movie where you tell someone “just trust me” and they thank you afterwards.

Best Kids (But Really Everyone) Movie: Rookie of the Year and Sandlot

Both capture all the emotions of being a kid from way-too-excited down to being scared and lonely. I don’t think there’s a sports loving child out there who isn’t completely enthralled by either one. You’d be hard pressed to find an easier 90 minutes of parenting than throwing one of these on. Speaking of which, all kids movies should be 90 minutes with literally no exceptions. If you can’t get your kids movie under an hour and a half, then I have news for you, your movie is either boring or has too many songs. The kids aren’t going to make it.

Honorable Mention: Everything else

Like all dogs are good dogs, all baseball movies are good movies, even Mr. Destiny and Naked Gun which are both absolutely baseball movies. Special mention to Bull Durham and The Natural which everyone expects to be on every baseball list. They are great, but they’ve lost their luster for me over time. I’m good for now. I’ll keep them on the shelf for a few years, waiting for my kids to be old enough to watch them again.

Special Special Mention: The Scout

I just need to point out the plot of this movie. Al Brooks is punished by the Yankees and sent to Mexico where he discovers this total phenom of a ballplayer in Brendan Frasier’s Steve Nebraska. He can hit nukes and throw 105+ mph. After signing his contract with the Yankees, Brooks discovers that he has quite a bit of childhood trauma and is in need of serious therapy, nowhere near ready for the pressure of Major League Baseball. Still, during his introductory press conference, the Yankees promise that he will make his debut in Game 1 of the World Series if they make it which they obviously do (zero innings in the minors, btw). Steve, who really likes doing laundry, has a predictably huge panic attack on the roof of Yankee Stadium which is solved with basically, “what’s the worst that could happen?” He proceeds to strike out 27 consecutive batters on 81 pitches and hit 2 solo HRs for the 2-0 win. 10/10.

I found this just before publishing: The Fake True Story of Steve Nebraska – The Greatest Player Who Ever Lived

#5 – Moneyball

There is a very specific reason this is on the list and it is not because it is a good baseball movie, it isn’t. This is a movie that seems good because Brad Pitt is at his most Brad Pittiest and people love that, me included. The movie ends in the middle basically because the real story doesn’t have a happy ending and completely ignores pitching, which happened to be phenomenal that year for the A’s. Wait, so why is it on here? Because it is the best backstage look you will ever get at a baseball front office and I happened to love that kind of thing, hence the name of the website. Plus, it’s simply an enjoyable watch, again Brad Pitt being Brad Pitt.

#4 – For Love of the Game

Yes, this is a romantic comedy dressed up as a baseball movie, but it’s also seems like a book come to life¹ in its stream of consciousness, memory lane trip through 9 innings of a perfect game. Billy Chapel is probably the most realistic baseball player there has been on film. Clear the mechanism.

#3 – The Rookie

It’s hard to have a baseball movie that’s both relatable and based on a true story. Real baseball stories are biopics of the greatest athletes you’ve ever heard of. Yes, they’ve gone through hardships and overcome grueling obstacles, but in the end, they are still superheroes. I’m sure Disney takes its liberties with The Rookie, but it’s still the story of basically a regular guy not a prolific major leaguer. Jimmy Morris always wanted the majors, got hurt, gave up, and that was supposed to be it. Life happens. He got a real life second chance and made it, even if just for a little bit. It’s basically the walking fantasy of everyone who once played high school baseball.

#2 – Major League 2

Between Major League and ML2, there is no better set of characters in sports films. Harry Doyle, Roger Dorn, Rick Vaughn, Jake Taylor, Pedro Serrano, Willie “Mays” Hayes, and even the catcher from ML2 are all classics that still bubble right to the service whenever you want to make any kind of baseball joke (“should have got the live chicken:). So, why Major League 2 and not Major League? Because they don’t show the real dramatic parts like where they kill my pet boa constrictor and I vow revenge. That’s why. The first movie was a baseball movie with jokes. The second is a comedy with baseball. Making a good comedy sequel is damn near impossible² and yet they pulled it off and then some. Both movies are infinitely quotable too. In fact, you are probably saying a few to yourself right now.³ Hell, I love this British shit and I may move to England!

#1 – Field of Dreams

Maybe it’s because I have kids now and always wanted to be a dad, but Field of Dreams makes me feel real emotions the way no other baseball movie does, any movie for that matter. There isn’t much baseball in it and the whole plot doesn’t make much sense, but it somehow gets the point across that baseball transcends generations. That’s something that I currently have with my son…even if he likes the wrong team.

1. Writing this line made me look it up and, sure enough, it is based on a book of the same name by Michael Shaara, the guy who wrote The Killer Angels which also became a movie, Gettysburg ↩︎
2. Seriously, try to think of a comedy sequel that was better than the original and didn’t just recycle all the same jokes. I have Wayne’s World 2 and Major League 2. That’s it. ↩︎
3. What do you mean too high? ↩︎