I Watched Every Baseball Movie and Ranked Them by How Well the Actors Played Baseball

As someone with Asperger’s, I had no idea I could throw 100 mph; I’ve topped out at Tim Wakefield’s late-career heater, so clearly I’ve been misdiagnosed for the past 16 years

I was an extra in Moneyball, and it was actually surprisingly dark during filming. Filming took place at the Oakland Coliseum 9pm to 5am. Maybe it was a city ordinance due to the hours filming took place, but only a few of the stadium lights were on. Other unrelated details: 1. It was COLD! We weren’t allowed to walk around, so having to stand/sit in one spot for hours made it worse. 2. Catering was actually just Coliseum food (which was awful) 3. There was a prop churro that obviously wasn’t seen on screen, but yes… there was a food vendor in the stands twirling a rubber churro between takes. 4. There was a standup comic doing his best to keep the extras upbeat during the shoot. It was cold, food sucked and filming is already tedious as is. He did a surprisingly good job. 5. Brad Pitt wasn’t a part of the shoot, but he was still there on-set for the first few hours in his normal clothes occasionally being social with extras. 6. This is gonna sound like BS, but I got to high-five Chris Pratt several times. One of the shots was him leaving the dugout heading towards the tunnel to the clubhouse. These are exposed walkways at the Coliseum. We high-fived in the first take and they wanted us to keep doing it for a few more takes. 7. The closest I got to being visible on screen was in a shot where Jonah Hill is in the stands and he stands up to react to something happening on the field. I was one row up, and one seat diagonal to him. However the shot was framed tight and alas… it was my Moonlight Graham moment.

Never in history has anybody put in this much work to set up a joke. Well played sir, well played.

Moneyball being dark during gameplay was one of my favorite choices in any baseball movie. You’re getting in the mind of the players being shown. Baseball players mention everything else being drowned out and being locked in. Looks as if they’re more on a stage. The baseball vernacular was great, and as someone who grew up in the bay they really nailed what the colosseum was like in those years.

I'm laughing at Ken Griffey Jr being the bad guy considering he might be one of the most beloved players of all time

I watched an hour of this only for you to put airbud as #1 unbelievable finally someone gives it the recognition it deserves as a truly accurate and realistic baseball movie.

The stretch of time from 1988 (Bull Durham) through 1994 (remake of Angels in the Outfield) was truly a golden age in baseball and baseball-themed films.

I understand they're disqualified because of players age, but The Sandlot and origional B.N. Bears deserve honerable mention for capturing the joy of baseball as a kid. My first little leauge team was all 1st & 2nd year players - we won a single game that season...4 years later - with almost all the same kids - we won the championship.

The reason that Bull Durham was so realistic is because Ron Shelton (writer-director) played minor league baseball. You hit on one of my favorite points in the movie; how cruel baseball can be. Crash Davis, a switch-hitting catcher with power could never break through for more than those three glorious weeks. I loved his speech on the bus about how Nuke didn't respect the game despite the fact that The Gods gave him a thunderbolt for a right arm. Crash was a guy who loved the game that didn't love him back. I also like that his record-breaking home run wasn't a big dramatic moment to win a big game. It went out of the park and into obscurity. Ron Shelton had a great line about the theme of baseball in the movie: careers don't end with game-winning home runs, they end on two-hoppers to second base.

I f-ing LOVE that of all movies, the Naked Gun is a respectful in how they portrayed baseball. Theres a reason its one of the finest works of art in cinematic history. 😂

The original “Bad News Bears” was always my favorite, most realistic and believable. The first 5 minutes immediately takes me back to the T-Ball, little league and Pony league years. Great flick.

My grandfather's brothers bestie was actually a grounds keeper for the Yankees back in the day around that time frame. Wetting the fields was not a thing until somewhere in the mid 20's. It actually became a thing because someone who was a grounds keeper for a different organization got fired and decided to spray a field before game play out of spite and it actually made the play better. My grandpa always told me it was the chocolate chip story of baseball. Commenting on your debate for dust accuracy.

Now we're talkin' 1. Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch - 1:09:00 2. Bull Durham - 1:04:44 3. Little Big League - 1:01:29 4. 42 - 58:42 5. Major League - 57:02 6. For Love of the Game - 55:01 7. Sugar - 53:13 8. Touching Home - 52:10 9. 61* - 50:24 10. A League of Their Own - 48:49 11. Mr. Baseball - 47:50 12. Talent for the Game - 45:38 13. Field of Dreams - 43:24 14. Mr. 3000 - 41:29 15. Moneyball - 40:38 16. The Natural - 39:25 17. Everybody Wants Some!! - 38:52 18. If the Sun Rises in the West - 38:08 19. Soul of the Game - 37:27 20. Summer Catch - 36:34 21. Trouble with the Curve - 35:35 22. The Naked Gun - 34:58 23. Major League II - 33:18 24. The Rookie - 31:34 25. Rookie of the Year - 30:50 26. Angels in the Outfield - 28:56 27. Eight Men Out - 26:58 28. The Scout - 24:40 29. Baseball Girl - 23:57 30. Undrafted - 21:24 31. Cobb - 19:20 32. Brewster's Millions - 18:00 33. Home Run - 17:04 34. The Fan - 14:49 35. Ed - 13:23 36. Joe Torro: Curveballs Along the Way - 12:48 37. Angels in the Infield - 10:59 38. The Babe - 9:13 39. Major League: Back to the Minors - 7:13 40. A Mile in His Shoes - 3:18 P.S. 1st place - that's a nice one 🤣 P.P.S. I'm not from the USA and just starting to get into baseball, this is just a breath of fresh air. Brilliant work on reviewing all this stuff 🤘

Watching this as someone who doesn't have baseball as a sport in my country, nor do I have a particular interest in it as a sport, but I'm a BIG fan of anime and movies about Baseball. So getting this video recommended to me was like striking gold. Don't know if you'd ever consider looking at different baseball anime since I imagine that is way out of your line of interest and watching series is a bit more intensive than watching a bunch of movies, but genuinely thanks for the list! I always love finding niche-ish topics covered by passionate people.

Tthis is one of the few times I’ve actually been entertained for a full hour on KZhead without switching videos. Great explaining and great work. I completely agree with Air Bud being in the top that movie is incredible

You're legitimately hilarious. I spent the entirety of the Bull Durham segment, racking my brain to guess what you had as No.1... 😂

Seeing 42 on this list made me miss Chadwick Boseman. I actually didn't realize he played Jackie until about a year ago. I miss him more now

Ahh man it tore me open when I got brought back to Angel's in the Outfield and lost it when Rookie of the year was right after. My grandma introduced me to both and watching little league games was probably her favorite thing ever. She was an amazing lady and I'll never forget her.

Air bud at the end had me wheezing bro LMFAO great vid keep it up

Glad to see Little Big League up so high. When I watched it as a kid, I loved that it actually looked like MLB gameplay (unlike Rookie of the Year). Thanks for putting this together, it has always been something I wondered in the back of my mind how well movies depict actual baseball.

That line drive by Liotta in field of dreams actually happened and was not a choreographed stunt as you assumed, which is why Costner's reaction is so good, and he managed to stay in character

Excellent job of staying on point about the baseball quality and I appreciate your work in looking at so many of the details (Chapel's ERA for instance).

The fact that Little Big League is so high up there is amazing to me! It was my favorite movie growing up as a kid in Seattle because getting to see Lou, Ken, and Randy on film was mind blowing! Amazing content throughout this video! Thanks for making this video!

By the top three, I was like, ok he's named all the ones I've been thinking about what is left? The number one? Perfect. That was phenomenal.

Kamikaze Tanaka from Major League 2 was played by Takaaki Ishibashi and he was one of the biggest and most powerful celebrities in Japan back in the late 80s, all throughout the 90s and into the first decade of 2000s. He is one half of the comedy duo Tonneruzu (Tunnels) and they had major comedy/slapstick sketch shows back in the day, all the way up until their longest and what's become their only running show which was finally retired in 2017 after a 30 year run. He got the part in ML2 at the height of his career. What many may not know about him is that he is the biggest baseball fan, having played for the prolific Teiken High School in Tokyo, which was and is still a baseball powerhouse (tho he was not a starter), and have continued to demonstrate his affection for baseball during his shows, often inviting professional players as guests. Even though he does not have a show on broadcast TV anymore, he started a KZhead channel a few years ago which has 1.6 million followers and regularly talks of baseball, including a sports corner every Monday during the season, covering all kinds of sports, especially baseball. He regularly meets current Japanese baseball players and there's also footage of him meeting Shohei Ohtani in LA along with some of his Angels teammates, and most recently meeting Yu Darvish for a meal when Darvish was back in Japan.

Cheers for putting "Little Big League" at #3. Underneath the ridiculous premise of a 12 year old managing an MLB team, it is a very smart baseball film. It covers situational strategy, hot streaks and slumps, free agents, contract disputes, cuts, injuries. On top of that it has incredible action as you pointed out. It will always be underrated and overlooked, but it will always be one of my favorites.

I was an extra in Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch, and that dog was actually surprisingly good at baseball during filming.

1:08:42 "if you really look at the nuts and bolts" while zoomed in on Tim Robbins' cup was excellent, thank you sir.

Mr. Baseball is one of my all-time favorite sports movies. To this day, whenever someone pulls an obscure statistic to make their point, I quote, "Last season, I led this club in ninth-inning doubles in the month of August!"

Someone in the production side of Little Big League HAD to be not just a massive baseball fan but a massive Twins fan, because there are SO many little details in that movie not just about the Twins but about Minneapolis and St. Paul that could have been missed. Also props for noting John Gordon's presence in the movie. I do miss Gordon and his booth mate, Herb Carneal, as good as Cory Provus is. I think the Twins may have been the last MLB franchise that didn't have a regular color man who was a former MLB player through Carneal's retirement, shortly before his death - neither Gordon nor Carneal played a day of professional baseball, they were just solid, old-school broadcasters.

For the movie 61*, they used Tiger Stadium and repainted it to look like 1960s Yankee Stadium, with CGI on top to add the 3rd deck and freize. On a scene when reporters questions Maris about his signed "X"ball, we can clearly see Michigan Central Station in the background.

This is an incredible analysis. My wife and watched the whole thing….together!!! That’s a rarity. Well done.

I was at the game in Arlington when they shot the film The Rookie. They shot it after the real game, and fans were invited to stay to be extras in the stands. Watched Dennis Quaid jogging in from the home bullpen instead of the visitors, which was annoying. Overall a fun experience, they gave away a Dodge Ram truck to a random fan too

40. A Mile in His Shoes(2011) 3:19 39. Major League: Back to the Minors(1998) 7:13 38. The Babe(1992) 9:12 37. Angels in the Infied(2000) 11:00 36. Joe Torre: Curveballs Along the Way(1997) 12:48 35. Ed (1996) 13:23 34. The Fan(1996) 14:49 33. Home Run(2013) 17:04 32. Brewster's Millions(1985) 18:00 31. Cobb(1994) 19:19 30. Undrafted(2016) 21:24 29. Baseball Girl(2019) 23:57 28. The Scout(1994) 24:40 27. Eight Men Out(1998) 26:58 26. Angels in the Outfield(1994) 28:56 25. Rookie of the Year(1993) 30:49 24. The Rookie(2002) 31:33 23. Major League II(1994) 33:17 22. The Naked Gun(1998) 34:58 21. Trouble with the Curve(2012) 35:35 20. Summer Catch(2001) 36:34 19. Soul of the Game(1996) 37:27 18. If the Sun Rises in the West(1998) 38:08 17. Everybody Wants Some!!(2016) 38:52 16. The Natural(1984) 39:25 15. Moneyball(2011) 40:38 14. Mr. 3000(2004) 41:29 13. Field of Dreams(1989) 43:24 12. Talent for the Game(1991) 45:38 11. Mr. Baseball(1992) 47:50 10. A League of their Own(1992) 48:49 09. 61*(2001) 50:23 08. Touching Home(2008) 52:10 07. Sugar(2008) 53:13 06. For Love of the Game(1999) 55:01 05. Major League(1989) 57:02 04. 42(2013) 58:42 03. Little Big League(1994) 1:01:29 02. Bull Durham(1988) 1:04:43 01. Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch(2002) 1:09:00

Not sure how I got here and not a fan of baseball, but I thoroughly enjoyed this video. Great job! I'm going to have to check some of these out.

This was a great video. I’m totally with you with the top 15 or so. Really great idea for a vid and great job putting it together

That was the best troll ending ever. After giving up over an hour of my Sunday watching I actually LOL with your #1 pick. That was awesome

I've not yet passed 14, but round of applause for you ranking Mr 3000 relatively high. It one of my all time favorite baseball movies. RIP Bernie Mac

Great video, good list of movies. I loved Rooke of the Year and Angels in the Outfield as a kid (I even caught that terrible Angels in the Infield once at a friend's house). I'm glad to see they were relatively higher than I was expecting them to be. But then I was pleasantly surprised to see The Naked Gun make the list, forgetting that yeah, there was a significant portion of baseball in that movie. One of the funniest movies ever made, in my opinion.

James Earl Jones speech about baseball in Field of Dreams gives it a million bonus points

Mr. Baseball was my favorite film growing up. It and major league. The sound in Mr. Baseball was CRITICAL for me. It was a stylistic choice that made the entire experience feel more foreign. I loved it. It's one of my top 3 films that explore what it's like to be a foreigner in Japan because not only is the character dealing with it, but they are sort of making you deal with it too with all the aesthetic choices they make with the cinematography, lightning, sound. It's so crazy.

I legitimately had to pause the video at 32:40 after that sidebar about Mantle and Maris to just reflect on the sheer depth of information provided here. Such an incredible amount of detail that went into the editing, and the data collection for this video. It's always a joy to see sports channels take their knowledge to other subjects, which is clear by the vast understanding of film as a medium, showcased all over this video. Also, the scene of Maris and Mantle in Touch of Mink is great.

42 is such a good film honestly i love it so much glad it got that high

I was sad at first about Moneyball's placement, but the dark baseball scenes is a legit hit, based on your criteria. Makes sense. Also, amazing punchline at the end, well done.

I was working at Castle Rock when they made Little Big League and you are right: the producers were super focused on showing off how they would get the baseball right. It was more about rubbing elbows with them, but one of them had befriended Elster, who got the other MLB folk to come aboard. They told many many stories about Elster and Timothy Busfield that should not be mentioned in most company. The same can be said for For the Love of the Game - Costner was super insistent on getting it all right. (Loved this vid bc good friends of mine worked on about 12 of these films, my dad worked on "Babe," and I worked on "Sugar.")

So glad to see Little Big League high on the list. One of my all time favorite movies ever and you can really tell how much love for the sport went into the movie.

That trivia point from The Rookie - great stuff! I love the research and homework put into this.

9:13 I recorded The Babe back in 2020 when sports channels did not have anything else to broadcast, then sports movies. I assumed the movie was pretty historically accurate. I looked certain things up. Aside from all the things you said in that video. I noted a couple of other things. Jumping Joe did not play with Babe Ruth in Boston in the Babe's 1st year. He appears in the movie as a big brother to Babe, when Ruth joins the MLB in 1914. But in fact Joe joined the MLB in 1917 in Philly (A's). They first played together with the Yankees in 1922. Also in the movie you get the impression that the Babe played his last game at Forbes field when he hit 3 homeruns with the Boston Braves. But he played a couple more games then retired. I wonder if they really hired someone to do research on the subject. Maybe someone said something like '' Well aside from baseball nerds, nobody will be able to verify this stuff.'' Before the internet you would have to go to libraries or baseball museums to check this out. But now it's quite different. Also the part when he is a kid, get from someone who never played baseball on the 1st pitch. But in the 2nd pitch hits a homerun. And then chaining dingers on every pitch to finally hit one that breaks a window on the bell tower past the center field's wall. Come on!! Does it have to be that incredible? Would have been more credible if we saw him hit solid balls in the outfield.

I'm so glad you had Little Big League so high on the list. It's my favorite baseball movie. I'm not really a baseball fan, so I never knew how accurate it really was. And I did grow up watching it, so part of my love may be nostalgia, but still. It's nice to see it getting some love.

Little Big League's "Runaround Sue" montage has some of the best baseball I have ever seen. Criminally underrated movie.

Eight Men Out in the second division hurts my heart, but I didn't watch it for on-diamond content. I still think it's a hell of a movie.

I'm guessing Air Bud being No. 1 was a joke. You putting Little Big League in the top 3 made me happy. It's my favorite baseball movie, mostly because of it's realism.

In "The Rookie" ( I was at the game where Morris made his debut, and my buddies were at the one where the filming took place) Jim Morris warmed up in the Rangers Bullpen instead of the visitors. When filming at The Ballpark in Arlington, they actually asked the crowd to stick around after a regular season game was over to be in the movie.

Okay, but the scene where Kamikaze throws his mitt in the air, does a Michael Jackson spin move, then catches the ball bare handed and screams, is objectively hilarious.

I really enjoyed the break down but was looking forward to a "Sandlot" review lol great stuff man

Great video - you obviously put a lot of time and attention into this and it shows. Well done!

In Field of Dreams, the scene you mentioned about the comebacker to Costner pitching, was not in the script, but kept in. So it's legit. Costner says this in an interview he gave.

This video is probably one of the best that I have seen. I wasn’t waiting for it to end or skipping boring parts. You had such good detail and facts to follow along with. Great job!

The ending of the video was amazing.

Saw this suggested video and watched it just to see how high Little Big League was! It is my favorite baseball movie and I was soooo happy that the realism is recognized in this video! Such an underrated baseball movie as well! Thanks for making this!

I have to admit, I was so excited to find out #1. I had a small list in my head... and I was baffled, was there a baseball movie I did not know about. A masterpiece missing from my knowledge. A film about baseball better than Bull Durum! And 42, and Major League... etc Sigh. All must bow down to the great Air Bud

Hey BND, this was great work. Been a fan for a while now. I was fortunate enough to have played the role of Tom Selleck’s agent in Mr Baseball, and was hoping it would make the list. I had no idea it was used to help American players headed for Japan! Thanks for your hard work, it’s definitely appreciated.

You know what would be awesome? Backyard Baseball: The Animated Motion Picture.

Being born in the early 80s make me perfect age for rookie of the year, but the Jr football movie little Giants probably one of the funniest in that time.

Little Big League was always so underrated. It came out around the same time as Rookie of the Year. That movie got all the love, but Little Big League was so much better in my opinion.

Number one definitely spoke for itself! A real accurate depiction of pro ball and nothing comes close

I'm glad you took everything into account for Angels In the Outfield. As you said, it was supposed to look silly when the angels interfered, and when they weren't interfering it looked just fine(not great but fine). I loved that movie when I was little.

This is so random but my mom is actually family friends with the Miller brothers, and they used to come by our house pretty often when I was a kid. Even got to see the movie in an early private screening. So cool that you included them in that, I loved the baseball in that movie as a kid.

I’m only into the 30s but this is fantastic. Each time a movie pops up, I think if the egregious baseball-breaking moments and, yep, you point it out. Great work-can’t wait til finish the rest tonight!

Of course Naked Gun has decent baseball behind the slapstick. That movie is downright incredible, and so many one-liners from that movie (and Airplane!) are used by my entire family at my family events.

One of my favorite details in Little Big League is the memorial sleeve patch on the Twins' uniforms for the deceased owner. Amazing attention to detail.

long Gone was my favorite baseball movie funny , but pretty accurate at the same time.

1) I need to see Sugar 2) I agree that The Natural is just so so 3) I love the use of silence in For the Love of the Game 4) I need to re-watch Major League, because I remember thinking the baseball didn’t look great when I saw it on release 5) Bull Durham is the best 6) #1 … you got me

I completely agree with Little Big League. Have watched it several times again as an adult now, and was also impressed with how authentic the baseball play is. Also helps that I was a 90's kid growing up outside of Seattle ;)

In "The Scout" it looks like Frazier is pitching from 20 feet in front of the plate!!! Great alternate ending by the way.

Truly amazing to do that at #1. Man, this dude is a genius. 😵

Fun video! The Natural is a hero allegory modeled after King Arthur. (The team name is also the Knights). I think the reason the bat breaking is depicted so dramatically is largely because the bat represents Excalibur. It’s pure mythology.

I'm surprised you didn't mention in "Major League" that former Brewer great Pete Vuckovich played Yankee's power hitter "Hayward". Vuckovich also helped with the films production on authenticity of baseball in the movie. Also former MLB Steve Yeager played "The Duke" the guy once threw at his own son in a father son game. That anecdote was a true story about Steve Yeager they thought it was funny so they added to Bob Uecker's lines.

I like that in A Mile In His Shoes, no-one on the crew knew how a baseball scoreboard works or what information it shows, just that it has numbers.

Little Big League and Talent for the Game were my favorite baseball movies growing up. Even as a kid I was blown away with Little Big Leagues accuracy.

One thing I've really grown to like about Major League over the years, even in the crazy last inning setups, is how accurate everything in the background is. Players and umpires all moving to cover their positions. There are cutoff throws, tagging up like you mention, etc. I don't know how many of the players had playing experience, but they all look like they fit. The menacing first baseman was a Cy Young winner, the Duke was an MLB relief pitcher, and the 3rd base coach was a World Series MVP. Seems they put that collective knowledge to good use.

I think the reason why the Natural works for me is that the movie is a love letter not just to Ruth-era baseball but also how it was covered with them making the players seem legendary. It captures that aspect well while also serving as an interesting contrast with everything going on outside of the games with Robert Redford's character. I think's a little satirical too, especially with scenes like the one with Babe Ruth towards the beginning. It's kind of like a movie about Bo Jackson including all of the urban legends about him throwing crab apples through a screen door and all that.

When I saw the title the first thought that popped into my head was Costner's mental internal dialog at the plate in Bull Durham. Best depiction of what playing baseball is like ever made imo. I totally agree with you!

Love the Wesley Snipes & DeNiro in The Fan, Dad took me to see it in the theater, good times before life got crazy LOL.

Thank you for putting Little Big League at 3. My all time favorite baseball movie. When I first saw it as a kid. The fact that it felt so real was the reason I loved this movie so much.

The longest troll job in the history of KZhead 😂 well done!

The Natural is not just a baseball movie but a heavy esoteric movie with deep meanings hidden throughout. It has masculine and feminine themes. The book was different but the producer wanted it to be this way. Excellent movie when you realize what they are doing. Really two different movies at the same time.

I dont care about sports or baseball BUT I adore videos like this. Good work for a really interesting concept!!!

Bill Simmons did a fascinating interview with Costner about "Love of the Game". Apparently Costner threw 200 pitches the day they filmed the game scenes.

Sugar was very relatable to me as someone of Dominican descent who has known minor leaguers and has had relatives in the minor leagues. A lot of people I showed it to didn’t like it because of how it ended but I loved it for that reason. Most minor leaguers don’t pan out. A lot of sports films are geared towards success stories so it was refreshing to see a film that went in another direction. My only gripe is that they could’ve done a better job at driving the point home that he was done. It could be interpreted that he gave up instead of he hit a ceiling.

I was at that Rangers game back in 01. My family came to visit from Amarillo and we always went to see Rangers games when they came to visit and we went to all of the home games against the Devil Rays that year.

Tim Robbins was miming Fernardo Valenzuela's pitching motion, where he also looked to the sky for a moment before delivering his pitch.

I usually forget to or just don't like videos, but that foolish bb joke literally made me laugh out loud and I had to pause and thumbs up LMAO

That relay from the warning track in "Little Big League" always impressed me. You really don't see those kind of shots in other movies. I've gone through that scene frame by frame to see what kind of movie magic was used to pull it off. But there's no secret. They actually pulled it off. It's such a great movie with great baseball and growing up with that movie, it holds a special place in my heart.

Honestly, respect for actually rolling credits. So many people do the roll credits joke just to back out, but got to respect someone actually doing it. And to make such a great point as well.

I'd like to see you rank the old baseball movies from Pride of the Yankees through Bang the Drum Slowly.

OP, your research is breathtaking. Like, the love and care that went into making this video really shines. Well done!

I used to watch a movie called pastime. It was incredibly tragic. It takes some of the sentiments from bull Durham and turns the tragedy of shattered dreams up to 11. I haven’t watched it in years, but I remember that it killed me watching it as a kid with dreams of being a pro in my head. It gave 12 year old me a heavy dose of reality.

You put one of my favorite baseball movies...'Mr Baseball'...above 'The Natural' and 'Field of Dreams'. Thank you. I feel validated. 😂😂

I can't believe you didn't mention that the knucleballer in 61 is played by Tom Candiotti, knuckleballer extraordinaire! Otherwise great video, glad I stumbled in to your channel randomly today!