25 Underrated Baseball Movies You Need To Watch

There's no need to explain why the genre of sports movies has long held appeal to audiences, with games offering up action, mystery, and nail-biting finishes. Some of the best films in Hollywood history have been sports classics, with a number of greats centered on America's pastime: Baseball. Whether that's a film about a bunch of Major League misfits or a rag-tag team of little leaguers, an award-winning biopic by a celebrated filmmaker, or a heartfelt family drama, there are plenty of baseball classics throughout cinema's long history.

But the best baseball movies out there certainly aren't the only ones. For every all-time great, there are many more that never seem to get their due. With a flood of new movies every year, it's inevitable that audiences miss out on these underrated gems, but it doesn't mean we have to let them stay on the bench forever. So crack open a cold one, or just get out those peanuts and crackerjacks, because: Here's a bunch of underrated baseball movies that you need to put on your watch list.

Baseball fans and movie buffs in general are no doubt familiar with the 1942 classic "The Pride of the Yankees," which told the tragic life story of New York Yankees slugger Lou Gehrig, whose career was cut short due to an incurable disease. But much lesser known is that film's similarly titled cousin, the 1952 film "The Pride of St. Louis." This mostly-forgotten film was based on the story of another Hall of Fame player, chronicling the life and career of star pitcher Dizzy Dean. 

From his humble beginnings as a backwoods boy playing ball in the Ozarks, the film shows Dean's drafting by the St. Louis club, and his early frustrations in the minors working his way up to the big leagues. It gives a glimpse into his tumultuous relationship with his wife Patricia, and how he leads the Cardinals to a World Series victory. When he suffers a seemingly minor injury though, we see Dean's devastating decline on the mound that abruptly ends his on-field career. After his early struggles in retirement — where we see him unable to come to terms with the end of his playing days — the film shows how Dean transformed himself into a colorful baseball broadcaster and became a role model once more.

Though Dean's story isn't quite the memorable and heartbreaking tragedy of Gehrig's, his story is an uplifting and heartwarming one, and "The Pride of St. Louis" is championship caliber too.

Movies about the world of scouting have produced a number of classics, including the biopic "Moneyball" and the Brendan Fraser comedy "The Scout." But an under-appreciated drama about an aging scout who finds himself struggling to adapt to a new world of analytics should be on your list if you want a drama about the hidden world of player hunting. "Trouble with the Curve" boasts an all-star cast, with Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams, Justin Timberlake, Matthew Lillard, Robert Patrick, and John Goodman — and while it bombed at the box office, it's better than its critics give it credit for.

Eastwood stars as Gus Lobel, a scout for the Atlanta Braves who younger hotshot team executives dismiss as a relic of an older era. But with one ally left in the organization, his boss Pete (Goodman) sends him on a trip to evaluate a top talent and odds-on favorite for the upcoming draft, Bo Gentry (Joe Massingill). To make sure he does the job, Lobel's daughter Mickey (Adams) is told to tag along, and together they contend with fellow scout Johnny Flanagan (Timberlake), whose team holds one slot higher in the draft.

While knocked for being a tad predictable, the allure here is Eastwood, Adams, and the rest of the cast, who deliver award-worthy performances all around. What it lacks in exciting baseball action it more than makes up for with an emotional journey about getting older. It may not make many "best of" baseball movie lists, but it's definitely worthy of the big leagues.

Sports biopics have been a staple of the genre as long as its existed with some of the best baseball movies chronicling the life and career of famous ballplayers. And yet, despite Babe Ruth being easily the most famous slugger to ever play the game, the biggest movie about his life is somehow overlooked. Though nobody would argue it's among the best ever made, the 1991 film "The Babe" is a movie the critics swung and missed on. 

At the height of his fame on the hit sitcom "Roseanne," star John Goodman slipped into an oversized Yankee uniform to play the heavyweight Ruth, and the film tells his life story beginning with his youth growing up in Baltimore, Maryland. Initially signed by the Orioles, he hits it big when he's sold to the Boston Red Sox, becoming a star pitcher who is even more famous for his towering home runs. At the height of his popularity, Ruth is traded to the New York Yankees, and the rest is history. 

Goodman is phenomenal as the big Babe, but reviews at the time criticized it for not exploring Ruth (the man) as much as it could have. Though it doesn't entirely ignore his troubled life, nor his temperamental nature that got him into plenty of trouble on and off the field, it does downplay it, even glossing over much of his reportedly abusive traits. But as a mostly family-friendly movie about a larger-than-life sports figure, "The Babe" hits it out of the park. 

Not all baseball movies have to be about players winning or losing on the field, with some using the sport to tell a different kind of story. One of the most engrossing and underrated baseball movies of this sort has to be the 2018 political thriller, "The Catcher Was a Spy," featuring an all-star cast led by Paul Rudd, with Mark Strong, Sienna Miller, Hiroyuki Sanada, Jeff Daniels, Guy Pearce, and Paul Giamatti. Based on a true story, the film recounts the exploits of Moe Berg (Rudd), a 15 year veteran of the major leagues who helped the U.S. government as a spy during World War II.

Berg, a journeyman catcher who had played for several teams including the pennant-winning 1933 Washington Nationals, is with the Boston Red Sox in the mid 1930s when he finds himself on an All-Star team playing overseas. Unwittingly helping the war effort ahead of America's entry into the conflict, Berg captures film of Japanese naval yards, which gets the attention of American intelligence — impressed by his guts and savvy. Now, Berg is recruited to help locate a German scientist in an effort to slow the Axis' progress toward the first nuclear bomb.

Mixing in global politics with sports could have gone very wrong, but "The Catcher Was a Spy" pulls it off. It also touches on a number of controversial social issues that were being grappled with at the time, helping to make it a thoughtful and thrilling drama with baseball as its canvas.

Unlike Bill Lee, our next ballplayer isn't sent to play in Canada; he's not even sent to Cleveland like the more famous '80s comedy classic "Major League." Instead, star Tom Selleck goes all the way to the far East to play ball in Japan in the underrated "Mr. Baseball," a sports comedy that audiences have slid past for years. But with a charismatic lead and likable star slugger, the film is as fun as any of the bigger baseball romps you've seen.

The "Magnum P.I." star plays Jack Elliot, an aging and declining baseball veteran who's always had a bit of an attitude, and never been much of a team player. But with his skills fading, Elliot is replaced by new star player Ricky Davis (played by future MLB legend Frank Thomas), and the team sends him packing in a shocking trade that takes him halfway around the world. Finding himself on the Nagoya Chunichi Dragons, Elliot is out of his element not just on the field — where they boast a different style of play — but off it too, as he struggles to adjust to a new culture.

As he finds his way in his new home, the disillusioned Elliot slowly makes new friends and learns how to be a better player while helping lead the Dragons to a championship. While the likes of "A League of Their Own" and "The Sandlot" may be home runs, "Mr. Baseball" is a solid double.

"The Fan" is a mostly-forgotten thriller from the 1990s, known then for its nail-biting suspense and psychological drama. What most overlook today, however, is just what a big role the baseball elements play in the movie, making it one of the most underrated sports movies of all time. The film has a pair of superstar leads, and was directed by Tony Scott ("Top Gun"), giving it a high caliber pedigree. The baseball elements are front-and-center, taking a darker look at the world of sports fandom. 

Wesley Snipes stars as Bobby Rayburn, a fictional MLB star and one of the best hitters in the game. Though he's just signed an enormous contract with the San Francisco Giants, he's struggling to live up to expectations on his new team. But his biggest fan has faith: the down-on-his luck Gil Renard (Robert De Niro). An emotionally unstable man whose wife has recently left him and taken their son, Gil makes Rayburn the center of his singular obsession after he loses everything. Finally meeting his idol in person though, Renard is gobsmacked to learn he may not be the hero he envisioned, sending him into a psychotic rage.

More than just a satisfying thriller, the movie's unique baseball setting makes it a compelling watch for those who love the game. Wildly entertaining, it's also an unsettling reminder that the line between healthy fandom and dangerous fanaticism is very much narrower than we might think.

A passion project for its directing duo Noah and Logan Miller, the indie movie "Touching Home" has a surprisingly star-studded cast for a movie made on a shoestring budget by a couple of 'Hollywood nobodies.' But thanks to a chance encounter with a legendary actor, the two brother's were able to turn the story of their troubled relationship with their father — and their Major League aspirations — into a big screen movie. But that serendipitous meeting with Ed Harris ("Apollo 13") put the two movie-making novices on the path to their directorial debut that also starred Brad Dourif, Robert Forster, and Lee Meriwether.

In the film Harris plays Charlie Winston, a homeless, alcoholic father to twin brothers Lane and Clint (Logan and Noah Miller). Though the two boys have worked hard to make their dreams of playing in the majors come true, their real struggle comes from trying to help their father Charlie, and living with the fear that they too might become him.

A smaller scale movie focused on the emotional turmoil wrought by a father seemingly determined to destroy everything around him, "Touching Home" is elevated by Harris, who takes a thinly written personal drama and turns it into something powerful. Only given an extremely limited release — not too many even know this one exists — but if you've watched classics like "Field of Dreams" and are looking for a pinch hitter, this one is it.

Few real-life baseball stories could be as dramatic as the many players who escape the poverty of far-off islands like the Dominican Republic to chase their dreams of playing big league baseball in the United States. From the poor streets of their island nations to playing in front of 40,000 screaming fans in a Major League stadium is the hope of many, and a decade before the duo of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck made the superhero adventure "Captain Marvel," they told one such story in their directorial debut "Sugar." 

A superstar sensation in his village in the Dominican Republic, Miguel "Sugar" Santos is a star pitcher at the local baseball academy. Though the money he's earned pitching in his hometown has helped his family, he dreams of being a star in the U.S. He gets one step closer to his goal when he learns a new pitch — the knuckle curve — and gets invited to play with a minor league spring training squad in Kansas City. But his journey to the states is more challenging than expected, as his struggle to fit in becomes just as hard as proving himself against tougher competition.

A story of hope and courage, of a competitor who refuses to give up, "Sugar" is a triumph of filmmaking. Critically acclaimed, "Sugar" is one movie on this list that was beloved by all who saw it, but earns its underrated status because it went largely unseen upon release.

From writer/director David Mickey Evans, who's 1993 film "The Sandlot" has become a baseball movie classic, comes this 2007 film about a group of amateur ballplayers called "The Final Season." Evans should know a thing or two about the game, growing up in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, a minor league baseball town for decades. He puts his hometown knowledge to good use in this true story of underdog baseball coach Kent Stock, played by "Lord of the Rings" alum Sean Astin.

Stock is brought on as assistant coach for the Norway Tigers — a famed high school ball club — under a legendary manager who'd brought the team to more than two dozen state championships. But when the school's program is reorganized and scheduled to be shut down, Stock is unexpectedly elevated to head coach for its final season. Stock is sneered at by the community and his own team; they don't think he has what it takes to continue their winning tradition. Now forced to battle opponents on the field — and his own players in the locker room — his only goal is to take the Tigers to one last title before the team is shut down forever.

An under-the-radar release that never made it off the bench, it's another story that shows just how emotional the game of baseball is when it becomes part of people's lives.

Baseball can be the perfect allegory for life's challenges and second chances, as player's careers wax and wane. Slumping players — and even veterans with declining skills — can bounce back to their former selves, and the 2019 drama "Bottom of the 9th" used the sport to help tell a bigger story of such a struggle. Starring Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello, it tells the story of an aspiring baseball player whose life is derailed when he makes a horrible mistake that gets him a lengthy prison sentence that separates him from his high school sweetheart and the sport he loves. 

Manganiello stars as Sonny Stano, whose budding minor league career has him fast tracked for a spot on the vaunted New York Yankees. But fate throws him a curveball when he is put behind bars and loses not just his dream of playing ball, but the love of his life (Vergara) as well. Released after nearly two decades, the world has moved on without him, but it hasn't diminished his dreams, and now Sonny hopes to get back on track with an amateur club, and win back the love of his former flame.

The casting of Vergara and Manganiello, who are a married couple in real life, was a brilliant choice as their chemistry and screen presence together is undeniable. A story of determination and redemption, it was met with good reviews, but was hardly talked about on its release.

More than just an underrated baseball movie, "Night Game" might be one of the '80s most underrated crime thriller's as well. A gritty, grizzly murder mystery, it sees Roy Scheider playing Detective Mike Seaver (no, not that Mike Seaver), a cop who works the worst homicides and who also happens to be a big fan of baseball, specifically of his hometown Houston Astros. 

So when a series of brutal murders rock the city, it's Seaver who figures out a startling coincidence: They've all been killed following night games when the Astros' star pitcher Silvio Barreto is on the mound for an evening win at the team's stadium, the Astrodome. Narrowing down the suspects, Seaver is able to sleuth his way to the person responsible, and finds a desperate, violent man with an axe to grind. But when he gets too close, Seaver soon finds his own fiancé in the killer's crosshairs and now he's going to have to step up to the plate himself if he's going to get the killer.

Despite a few groan-inducing moments and at least one laughable twist, the mystery itself is a satisfying and clever one. Look past a few minor errors, and you'll find a good detective tale that uses baseball as a major part of its story.

Originally an all-white game, black players in baseball were long forced to play in their own separate Negro League, and it was Brooklyn Dodgers second baseman Jackie Robinson who famously became the first black player in the majors. Chadwick Boseman played Robinson in "42" in 2013, a critically acclaimed film that dealt with the racism he faced on and off the field. But years before, a fictionalized story attempted to touch on the same subject: the 1990 drama "Pastime," starring William Russ and Glenn Plummer.

Set in 1957, the film takes place among a team of minor leaguers where 41-year-old veteran Roy Bream (Russ) still boasts about his brief stint in the big leagues. When a young talented pitcher named Tyron Debray (Plummer) joins the club, Bream sees it as a chance to pass on his knowledge to a new generation. But as the team's only black player, Debray's life isn't made easy by his all-white team, especially racist pitcher Randy Keever.

One of the few films of its day to tackle the sport's continued battle with racism after Robinson broke the color barrier, the story in "Pastime" may be fictional, but it handles the subject matter with sensitivity and grace.