There are a couple of sports, namely baseball and boxing, that seem to lend themselves very well to the arts of storytelling and film making. Certainly there have been plenty of films about football (The Longest Yard, Remember the Titans), hockey (Miracle, Youngblood), basketball (Hoosiers, White Men Can’t Jump), and soccer  (Victory), and there have even been films made about Olympic sports like cross-country, gymnastics, figure skating, and even bobsledding. But I’d be willing to bet that there are more movies centering around baseball and boxing than all of the other sports combined.

For boxing, it’s easy to see why. Almost every boxing movie you can think of involves some sort of underdog story, whether it’s Rocky, The Champ or The Fighter. In fact, the sport of  boxing itself has drastically waned in this country over the past couple of decades, and yet a movie like The Fighter can still be successful at the box office and garner an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture precisely because it’s an underdog story and those themes resonate in a universal way and fit particularly well in a setting that includes boxing.

Baseball is another matter. There are plenty of baseball films that involve underdogs, as we’ll see below. But baseball offers something else. On it’s own, baseball is a very unique game in that it’s a team sport that relies on individuals performing their own specialized tasks. Football requires 11 players to act as a unit. Even though they have individual assignments, the play is designed  so that no one can do their job correctly without all of their teammates doing what they’re supposed to do. In hockey and basketball there are five players acting in unison, passing the ball or puck with precision so that one of them can score. All of those teams work as single units to work towards common goals, and the players more or less represent equal parts. No matter how great Lebron James is, he couldn’t win a championship without Dwayne Wade. Michael Jordan never won a title without Scottie Pippen and Wayne Gretzky never won a Stanley Cup without Mark Messier.

But when the pitcher is on the mound, only he can make the right pitch. His catcher can offer the signal, but no other player on the field can assist him. Likewise, the batter is on his own. The runners on base are of little help to him, and the batter in the on deck circle can do nothing for him. He is the only one who can put the ball in play. Of course there are some aspects to teamwork in baseball as well. The runner on base can distract the pitcher to the point where he isn’t making his best pitches, and thus give the hitter and easier pitch to hit. Second basemen and shortstops team up often to make double plays. And of course, no one can throw a ball unless there is a teammate to catch it. And that is what makes baseball unique is that it focuses equally on the individuals making plays as well as the team.

Since the characters are so compelling, they make excellent characters in films. And baseball is timeless. They play it largely the same way today as they did generations ago. Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams could all play in today’s game. It would be much more difficult to make that case about the past stars of other sports.

With all of this in mind, and with baseball season now underway, here is a very subjective list of my 5 favorite baseball films of all time.

5) Bull Durham

This is a sexy and funny film that has one of the most iconic baseball lines of all time. Like many baseball films, this movie implies that baseball is a metaphor for life, which of course it is.

4) Major League

This is a tongue in cheek 80’s comedy, but it is a very funny film that actually has some great character arcs as “a bunch of has-beens and never-will-be’s” attempt to win the pennant. This movie is an underdog story as well as being about teamwork. That makes it a strong thematic film with dynamic characters. It’s also one of the funniest movies of the decade.

3) Field of Dreams

“If you build it, he will come.” That iconic disembodied whisper sets a man off on a journey of self-discovery and forgiveness. With his wife and friends thinking him crazy, Ray Kinsella transforms his corn field into a baseball field and helps bring redemption to the Chicago “Black Sox” and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, while at the same time finding his own redemption in his relationship with his father.

2) A League of Their Own

This is another underdog story where the team as a whole overcomes adversity while the individual characters live out the drama in each of their lives. This film, about a women’s baseball league in World War II as it all. It’s a dramatic film with a lot of lighthearted humor and wonderful character arcs. Baseball serves as a necessary diversion for a war weary country and these women heroically carry the torch, doggedly carrying the league that no one thought would work.

1) Moneyball

This is a wonderful film that also combines the theme of the underdog, but moves it from the players to the front office. Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A’s must somehow figure out a way to field a competitive team even though he lacks the resources to do so. He must think outside the box and completely go against 100 years of baseball logic, even as he’s ridiculed every step of the way. This is a dramatic, smart and compelling film that you don’t have to be a baseball fan to enjoy.

Honorable mentions: Fever Pitch, The Bad News Bears, The Natural, The Pride of the Yankees, The Sandlot

As mentioned above, baseball is a metaphor for life. That is why it is a compelling game that has become a part of the fabric of American society. It’s also why it makes such a compelling setting for films.