What’s Your Favorite Baseball Movie?

I hope you had a Merry Christmas!!

Here’s a listing of our family’s favorite Baseball movies and the reason why we like them. These reviews are going to be conducted by my family and in-laws this week of Christmas. Here are the results:

• Grandpop (my father-in-law): “The Natural” – A quintessential drama where a down and out team, run by a corrupt owner, that finds itself riding the coat-tails of the unlikeliest of heroes, a rookie in his late 30’s, with an ending for the ages with the stadium being showered in sparks.
• Grandmom (my mother-in-law): “The Rookie” – because it’s based on a true story of a thirty-something high school baseball coach that resumes his run at a professional career after a bet with his high school team after a rare winning season.
• Pete’s Rose (my wife) and Kayla (my sister-in-law): “For the Love of the Game” – Pete’s Rose likes how the game gets drawn-out suspensefully with flashbacks to earlier moments in his career, building up to a crescendo. She also liked it for its lack of violence. 😉 Kayla likes it for the main character’s perseverance through the adversities over his long career as seen in the flashbacks and how his wife had stayed with him in the end after all they had been through.
• Jordan (my brother-in-law): “The (original) Bad News Bears” – This wasn’t his favorite, but it is in his top 10 all-time baseball movies. It is a hilarious story of a little league team that can do nothing right on or off the baseball field.
• Meredith (my sister-in-law): “The Final Season” – a wonderful story of the baseball devotion of a high school team and the Iowa town that made it into a dynasty which produced a number of professional players.
• One of my favorite baseball movies has to be “Field of Dreams” – a story where a former hippie and lifetime baseball fan feels compelled to build a baseball field out of his Iowa cornfield, risking financial bankruptcy as well as his reputation.

Feel free to add movies or favorite moments of the ones we picked to this list in the comment section & I’ll add these to my families selections. Please add your city & state information for inclusion with your posted comments.

These movies and others are available over on your right through Amazon –>

From you, the readers of Baseball Reflections:

Bryan (from Vacaville, CA) wrote: I would also have to include Bull Durham. A great movie about the life of minor league players.

Danielle (from outside Las Vegas, NV) wrote: Field of Dreams – I like the message behind the movie. Make your dreams a reality no matter how big or small. Strive to follow those dreams, take chances in life and in the end, you will become a better person!

Major League – I like the humor in this movie. I also like that you are able to get a picture of the different characters within a baseball team: the rebel, the spiritualist, the traditionalist etc. It kind of reminds me of my favorite team, The Boston Red Sox. Everyone is their own person and you can truly see this when watching a game, an interview or whatever.

For the Love of the Game – I like the story behind the story the best. It’s a movie about baseball but there is a love story there as well between a man and a woman. Now, what woman does not like a good love story? It is a movie both men and women can appreciate whether you love baseball or not. Being a woman who loves a good love story and baseball, it’s a win-win situation!!

Patrick (from parts unknown) wrote:

I loved Major League as a kid. Just a fun story about a rag tag bunch of baseball misfits pulling together to make the playoffs. If I remember correctly, doesn’t the owner want to move the team to Miami? Ah, those were good times.

For a “pure” love of the game baseball movie, The Natural is probably my favorite. Great ending.