The Best Baseball Movies of All Time

variety.com:

Carole Horst Opening weekend is upon us, which means baseball is back! While Major League Baseball gears up for the 2024 season, Variety reflects on America’s pastime, which began in the mid-1800s and that showbiz was quick to monetize.In “Plie Ball!

Baseball Meets Dance on Stage and Screen,” Jeffrey M. Katz links the growing popularity of baseball with the pop culture art of the time: songs.

He cites one of the earliest baseball ditties, 1858’s “The Baseball Polka.”Many followed, but it was 1908’s “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer that has endured, although Von Tilzer tried again to capitalize on the wildly popular sport with 1910’s “Back to the Bleachers With Mine” (July 16, 1910, Variety ad).While songs kept fans upbeat on the game, baseball stars were sent out on the theater circuit by savvy promoters and producers in the late 19th century, and vaudeville welcomed the athletes well into the first few decades of the 20th century, with Variety’s pages touting news and reviews on Yankee pitcher Waite Hoyt, White Sox star Cap Anson, New York Giants manager John J.

McGraw and N.Y. Giants pitcher Rube Marquard among the stars who picked up extra cash by regaling rapt audiences in the off-season with stories about the sport and its colorful characters.Variety covered baseball as part of the entertainment business that it is, and the moviemakers have always courted the top players for films.