Major League Baseball’s Opening Day kicks off in just ONE WEEK from today (3/29/18). It’s one of those few sports dates you circle on your calendar every year. Right up there with the Super Bowl, college football kickoff, the Masters, the NCAA Tournament, and Wrestlemania. You call out sick. You fire up your MLB Network app – whatever it is that you have to do to watch your team, you do it. It’s a veritable holiday.
So, in preparation of that – we here at the SoBros Network have elected to put our brains together and come up with our own list of the greatest baseball movies of all time.
Scoring was simple. Everyone submitted their top five. If you ranked a movie #1, that movie got five points. #2 – four points…so on and so forth. At the end of the voting, I tallied up all of the points and ranked the top 10. And, boom – folks, here we are.
Top 10 Baseball Movies
T-10. Hardball (1 point) – It’s incredibly heart-wrenching and painful to watch, but the brilliance of Keanu Reeves’ Hardball deserves some respeck.
T-10. Little Big League (1 point) – What 12-year-old kid DIDN’T dream about owning a Major League Baseball franchise? Probably not the Minnesota Twins, but hey – we’d take whatever we could get.
T-8. Bull Durham (2 points) – Kevin Costner, motherfuckers. What else do I need to say?
T-8. Summer Catch (2 points) – I’m going to come clean. I’m the only one that had Summer Catch on his ballot. It seems like an outright travesty that no one else respects this classic feel-good movie for the masterpiece that it is.
7. Rookie of the Year (3 points) – Again with the 12-year-old kids. But, what 12-year-old kid DIDN’T dream about having some sort of freak accident and getting called up to the Chicago Cubs?
6. A League of their Own (4 points) – Gotta mention the World War II era baseball flick about women forming their own league. It’s one of those movies that everyone thinks about, but seem to agree is a category below ‘elite.’ U
5. Moneyball (5 points) – I never saw Moneyball, but I believe in it, folks. It’s like Santa Claus. Don’t have to see to believe. One of our writers had it at the top of his list.
4. 42 (7 points) – It’s about a lot more than just baseball, folks. But, no one can deny the story of Jackie Robinson. Surprisingly, this was only on two ballots. Who knew we had a couple of racists on staff that would leave this movie of their lists?
3. Field of Dreams (8 points) – “If you build it, they will come” – who can forget Field of Dreams? It’s one of the first few movies that come to mind when you say “baseball movies.” Go on. Try it…..”baseball movies.”
2. Major League (9 points) – It’s a great underdog story. There’s no denying that. The 1989 comedy was on three of the four ballots cast, and each one had it ranked at #3 or above.
1. The Sandlot (19 points) – Under our scoring system, a movie could’ve earned no more than 20 points. The Sandlot scored 19 because one voter listed it at #2, but it was the only movie that was on every ballot submitted. Regardless, it is the quintessential baseball movie. It is as synonymous with Summer as blazing heat. It paints a picture of childhood that takes everybody back. And, it displays the purest love of the game there is. Plus, it’s easily one of the most quotable movies in the history of cinema. An all-time classic.
Where’d we get it right? Where’d we get it wrong? Hit up the comments.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD and #BeBetter. “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Alabama Crimson Tide football, the WWE, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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