Best Baseball Movies

America runs on two things: baseball and movies. When those two come together, magic happens on the big screen. Here are the Arts & Entertainment Department's favorite baseball movies.

"Bull Durham"

“I believe in the church of baseball.”

This movie smells like a dirty infielder’s glove and cigarettes. At its heart, it’s a love letter to baseball and the minor leaguers who never got a chance.

This movie is just one of Kevin Costner’s famous baseball films and in this one, he portrays the minor-league legend Crash Davis, the mentor to Tim Robbins’ “Nuke” Laloosh. It’s a story of personal growth as we watch the sporadic “Nuke” learn the complexities of being a professional athlete, guided by the much older and wiser Crash.

For Crash, it’s a story of acceptance. Kevin Costner’s Crash Davis is on the downslope of a successful career in the minor leagues, and he’s realized the end is coming. He must learn to appreciate the things he took for granted before, while also finding a new home at the Durham Bulls. Plus, he’s also kept entertained by Susan Sarandon.

Susan Sarandon plays the desirable love interest “Annie Savoy” for both Crash and “Nuke.” They both become enthralled with Annie, carving a crack in their mentor-mentee relationship.

It’s a great movie to watch if you’re an avid fan of the sport and love anything and all things about baseball. It has everything you need from the game itself, to what goes on behind the scenes, plus it has the king of baseball, Kevin Costner. -Sketch Morton

“For Love of the Game”

Kevin Costner has been the lead in many sports films, but this may be his best work.

Costner portrays Billy Chapel, a 40-year-old pitcher for the Detroit Tigers who is set to make his final start of the season.

Chapel is struggling with an internal dilemma: whether to choose his career or his love, Jane Aubrey, played brilliantly by Kelly Preston.

Throughout the film, Chapel pitches the game of his career while interwoven between batters is the backstory of his life, injury, and relationship with Jane.

Not only did the plot work excellently, but the baseball aspects of the film were also done to perfection.

The use of legendary broadcasters Vin Scully and Steve Lyons, along with Bob Sheppard as the public address announcer, made it feel like an actual broadcast. The pitching, fielding and hitting, despite looking a bit cinematic, all looked realistic as well.

The drama and the cinematography make “For Love of the Game” one of the best baseball movies of all time. - Ben Palillo

"Moneyball"

When it comes to baseball movies, “Moneyball” is a story that truly takes the viewer behind the scenes into the building of a historic baseball team.

The story follows Billy Beane, played by Brad Pitt, and his hired assistant Peter Brand, played by Jonah Hill, building a team through a long look at statistics and focusing heavily on on-base-percentage. The Oakland Athletics organization was given a very limited budget, and Beane and Brand built a roster that would go on to win an American League record 20-consecutive wins.

The story creates a great family story between Beane and his daughter, while also showing a lot of perseverance as Beane and Brand ignore many scouts and people who heavily doubt the new philosophy, but Beane sticks to his guns and believes in Brand’s ideas.

The film has great acting, phenomenal storytelling as well as the ability to take an underdog team and showcase how the team came together to create magic.

The story also did not shy away from the truth, which is that the A’s lost in the playoffs and did not have much of a happy ending in real life. They told that story, while also ending it in a happy way, with the decision by Billy Beane to return to the A’s after a huge offer from the Red Sox, choosing the franchise he helped build over a powerful franchise in Boston.

A truly great film that will last the test of time and has so much rewatchability makes “Moneyball” one of the best baseball films ever. - Adam Sheetz

Sketch Morton is a fourth-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email sam7539@psu.edu.

Ben Palillo is a fourth-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email bgp5079@psu.edu.

Adam Sheetz is a fourth-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email ads360@psu.edu.