The 3 Best Baseball Movies Ever Made

Baseball is so ingrained in the fabric of American society that it has been a popular topic of Hollywood films for many years. Ranging from comedy to drama and genres in between, the game has more than enough intricacies to make for compelling fodder.

Ranked lists of movies are rife on the internet but are often tied to factors like quality of cinematography and costuming. There will be none of those pretensions here. While I can appreciate the finer qualities of films, when it comes to those about baseball, I am looking for something that either gives me greater insight about the game and/or the warm and fuzzies because of how well the topic is celebrated.

Although I haven’t seen all the baseball movies ever made, here are the three that have earned spots on my own top-ranked list.

3. Sugar: The 2008 drama directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck tells the story of Miguel “Sugar” Santos, an impoverished but talented Dominican pitcher who is signed out of a baseball academy and starts a professional career in the minor leagues in the United States.

“Sugar,” who has nothing to fall back on but a baseball career, discovers the path to his dream is dotted with obstacles. Simply trying to navigate in the foreign world that is Midwest America is as big of a challenge as he has ever experienced in his life. When he cannot find the same level of success as a professional as he did as a starry-eyed up-and-comer back home, he is forced to re-evaluate his goals, ambition and…