Because what else is there to do, baseball-wise, besides read and watch movies?
Via ScreenRant:
According to Rotten Tomatoes, these are the top ten baseball flics. Here’s the criteria:
It should be noted that only certified fresh movies are included, as some baseball films have high ratings but only a handful of reviews.
Definition of “certified fresh?”
The “Certified Fresh” seal is reserved for movies that satisfy two criteria: a “Tomatometer” of 75% or better and at least 80 reviews (40 for limited release movies) from “Tomatometer” critics (including 5 Top Critics).
Obviously, in this case, the rules were relaxed a bit.
In reverse order (since I don’t know how to do a countdown here):
A League of Their Own (78%)- 42 (80%)
- Major League (83%)
- The Rookie (84%)
- Eight Men Out (86%)
- Field of Dreams (86%)
- Everybody Wants Some (87%)
- Sugar (92%)
- Moneyball (93%)
- Bull Durham (97%)
Can’t quibble too much, especially since it’s based on a formula, but I’ve never even heard of Everybody Wants Some, so I can’t comment on how nuts people are. Sugar is the dark horse here. Wonderfully received but probably not well-attended.
Not wholly familiar with RT’s paradigm, so I don’t know how far back it goes. The oldest movie here is Eight Men Out, which premiered in 1988. But there are a lot of classics missing.
And now a list from IMDB on the same topic(also provided by ScreenRant). The site uses a 10-point scale.
- Field of Dreams (7.5)
- The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg (7.6)
- Moneyball (7.6)
- 4192: The Crowning of a Hit King (7.7)
- The Pride of the Yankees (7.7)
- Long Gone (7.8)
- *61 (7.8)
- The Sandlot (7.8)
- Catching Hell (7.9)
- The Battered Bastards of Baseball (8.0)
This is a much more eclectic group, since IMDB encompasses film and television. Plus, not all the selections were feature films, as were the RT selections. The top-rated Battered Bastards was a 2014 Netflix offering. *61 was an HBO production while Catching Hell, about the “Bartman Game,” was one of ESPN’s 30-for-30 programs. 4192 was a 2010 documentary that I also had not heard of previously. Shame on me.
NOTE: Since the time I began this entry, I hopped on Netflix and watched Battered Bastards. Its Number One rating is well-deserved and I highly recommend it.
Glad TPOTY made somebody’s best baseball movie list, and now that I see it, surprised that The Sandlot did not make the Rotten Tomatoes.
is available on Amazon.com,
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