Roy Hobbs is a boy who is a skilled baseball player, often playing catch with his father Ed (Alan Fudge). One day, his father suffers a fatal heart attack and drops dead near a tree on the family property. When the same tree is later struck by lightning, Hobbs considers this a sign and fashions the heart of the tree's trunk, seen glowing after the trunk is split in two by the lightning, into a bat, which he dubs "Wonderboy" and carves a lightning bolt into the bat.
The story of famed Houston Astros baseball Pitcher J.R. Richard, from his early life in Louisiana, to his beginnings as a major baseball player in 1969, leading up to the massive stroke he suffered in 1980, leaving his only true Resurrection to his close friends and fans back into baseball.
In 1988, Dottie Hinson attends the opening of the new All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) exhibit at the Baseball Hall of Fame. She sees many of her former teammates and friends, prompting a flashback to 1943.
Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau), a former minor-league baseball player and an alcoholic who cleans swimming pools, is recruited by a city councilman and attorney who filed a lawsuit against a competitive Southern California Little League, which excluded the least athletically skilled children (including his son) from playing. To settle the lawsuit, the league agrees to add an additional team—the Bears—which is composed of the worst players.
The film was written by Pulitzer Prize winner Ira Berkow, and narrated by actor Dustin Hoffman. It was directed by Peter Miller, a documentary filmmaker known for his previous films A Class Apart, Sacco and Vanzetti, and The Internationale.
Branch Rickey, played by Edward Herrmann, is the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers who is determined to integrate Major League Baseball. He begins sending his scouts to Negro League games to find the best players. Rickey directs his scouts to look not only at playing ability but also at the players' maturity and capacity to withstand the hostility that is sure to be directed at the first black player in the Major Leagues.
The ball happened to be the one hit by San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds for his record-setting 73rd home run at the end of the 2001 MLB season. When the ball landed in the right-field bleachers at what was then Pac Bell Park (San Francisco), there was a mad scramble for the precious ball, bodies piled up on the walkway above McCovey Cove. Patrick Hayashi, who stood quietly with a sheepish grin on his face as the scrum continued, eventually held the historic ball up for a TV camera to reveal that he had possession of it. MLB and Giants security grabbed Mr. Hayashi and escorted him down to the bowels of the ballpark and authenticated his baseball as the true #73.
Former Las Vegas showgirl Rachel Phelps (Margaret Whitton) has inherited the Cleveland Indians baseball team from her deceased husband. Phelps has received a lucrative deal to move the team to Miami, and she aims to trigger the escape clause in the team's contract with Cleveland if season attendance falls below minimum levels. To do this, she fires most of the existing players and has her new General Manager Charlie Donovan bring in new ones from a list of aging veterans and inexperienced rookies, hoping to make the worst team ever that would certainly cause attendance to decline. Donovan hires Lou Brown, a former coach from the Toledo Mud Hens to lead the team.
The 1919 Chicago White Sox are considered the greatest team in baseball and, in fact, one of the greatest ever assembled to that point. However, the team's owner, Charles Comiskey, is a skinflint with little inclination to reward his players for a spectacular season.
Dans les années 1950, à Pittsburgh, Troy Maxson, ancien joueur de la Negro League de baseball est devenu éboueur. Il vit avec son épouse Rose et son fils cadet Cory dans une maison qu'il a pu acheter avec une partie de l'indemnité de blessure de guerre de son frère Gabriel qui, blessé à la tête, est devenu un handicapé mental qui erre dans le quartier et qui est menacé d'internement. Son fils aîné, Lyons, n'arrive pas à se stabiliser, vivant de petits contrats de musique et devant subir les récriminations de son père.
Miguel "Sugar" Santos (Perez Soto) spends his weekends at home, passing from the landscaped gardens and manicured fields on one side of the guarded academy gate to the underdeveloped, more chaotic world beyond. In his small village outside San Pedro de Macorís, Miguel enjoys a kind of celebrity status. His neighbors gather to welcome him back for the weekend; the children ask him for extra baseballs or an old glove. To his family, who lost their father years before, Miguel is their hope and shining star. With the small bonus he earned when he signed with the academy some time ago, he has started to build his family a new house—one that has a bigger kitchen for his mom and a separate room for his grandmother.
The film details the life story of American professional baseball player Dock Ellis, his prolific career, his addictions to alcohol and amphetamines, his efforts to help other addicts until his death in 2008.
The plot centers on a young boy from Montreal named Steve (Nicholas Podbrey) who is given a baseball cap by his idol, Andre Dawson of the Montreal Expos. One day, Steve loses the cap and soon after discovers that it was found by the boy of a wealthy businessman. Steve along with his unemployed father (Michael Ironside), go to the wealthy boy's house to discuss the matter. After a long and heated debate, Steve and his father leave empty-handed.