More than ‘Field of Dreams’: 5 great baseball movies to stream as the season starts

Batter up! Now that baseball season is in full swing, we scoured the streaming services for films to get you in the mood. Field of Dreams — the Universal Pictures movie that flawlessly combines fantasy with sports — is currently up on Peacock, the same streamer where you can also view Moneyball and For Love of the Game.

If you like your baseball movies with an all-star cast and a lot of comedy, look no further than A League of Their Own. And if biographical films are more your thing, try 42, about Major League Baseball's first Black player. It starred Chadwick Boseman as Jackie Robinson, several years before the late actor suited up as Black Panther for Marvel.

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So, grab your peanuts and Cracker Jacks, maybe a cold beer, and take a seat on your couch to view some of these baseball flicks when your favorite team is having an off-day. 

Field of Dreams (1989)

Kevin Costner's character, farmer Ray Kinsella, hears a voice while out in his Iowa cornfield, saying, "If you build it, he will come." A vision of outfielder "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, played by Ray Liotta, and a baseball diamond, prompts him to build his own baseball field on the property. Shoeless Joe eventually comes back to play, along with the ghosts of several other players. Facing financial problems and a looming foreclosure on his home, Ray's young daughter (Gaby Hoffman) and author Terence Mann tell him that people will pay to come see the baseball games played here.

Besides the baseball greats that show up to play in Ray's field, he's visited at the end by another special guest — his own father, John, a huge baseball fan whom Ray was estranged from before he died. A catcher playing on Ray's field is revealed to be a younger version of the John that Ray knew, and the pair play a moving game of catch. The film earned three Oscar nominations, in the categories of Best Picture, Best Original Score and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Field of Dreams is now streaming on Peacock.

Moneyball (2011)

Data and metrics never seemed so exciting as when Jonah Hill and Brad Pitt's characters in Moneyball used them to boost the 2002 Oakland Athletics into a record-breaking winning streak. Based on the 2002 book of the same name and loosely based on the real team and its general manager, Billy Beane, the film stars Pitt as Beane and Hill as Peter Brand, who's partially based on former A's assistant Paul DePodesta. 

In the movie, Billy seeks to build a dream team with a dismal budget. He's impressed with Peter, an Ivy League economics grad who he hires and helps build an effective roster using sabermetrics, or an analysis of game activity. Scoring six Academy Award nominations, including a Best Actor nod for Pitt and Best Supporting Actor nod for Hill, the film also stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Wright, and Chris Pratt.

Moneyball is now streaming on Peacock.

For Love of the Game (1999)

Kevin Costner is back in another baseball movie (he's in a lot of them), this time, as an aging pitcher for the Detroit Tigers. Just as his relationship with his girlfriend of five years, Jane (Kelly Preston), is slipping away, he finds out that his team has been bought and the new owners want to trade him. Pitching at Yankee Stadium in what's likely his last game, Costner thinks back on his career and relationship, not initially realizing he's in the middle of pitching a perfect game. 

John C. Reilly, Jena Malone, Vin Scully, Steve Lyons, Brian Cox, and J.K. Simmons also star in this drama that's based on the 1991 novel of the same name.

For Love of the Game is now streaming on Peacock.

42 (2013)

Chadwick Boseman stars as Jackie Robinson, the groundbreaking ballplayer who became the first Black person to play Major League Baseball in the modern era when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. The film — whose title is a reference to Robinson's now-retired uniform number — also stars Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey, the Dodgers owner who wanted to hire a Black player.

Among the film's other stars are André Holland as Wendell Smith, the sportswriter who helped Rickey decide on Robinson; and Christopher Meloni as Dodgers manager, Leo Durocher. 

42 is now streaming on Prime Video and Hulu.

A League of Their Own (1992)

This fictional take on the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League — a league of women players that was active between 1943 and 1954 and created due to many men being drafted for World War II — has a hysterical roster of talent. 

Tom Hanks stars as Jimmy Dugan, the drunken, initially unmotivated manager of the Rockford Peaches. Among the talent on the Peaches are sisters Dottie and Kit, played by Geena Davis and Lori Petty. Madonna portrays the provocative Mae, and Rosie O'Donnell stars as Mae's abrasive friend, Doris.

A League of Their Own is now streaming on Peacock and Prime Video