Best movies like Hitting the Cycle

An unknown middle-aged batter named Roy Hobbs with a mysterious past appears out of nowhere to take a losing 1930s baseball team to the top of the league.

Takada, a Japanese fisherman has been estranged from his son for many years, but when the son is diagnosed with terminal cancer his daughter-in-law, Rie, summons him to the hospital. Through a series of obstacles and relationships, he is brought unexpectedly closer to both an understanding of himself and of his son.

Filmed over 14 months with unprecedented access into the inner circle of the man and the sport, this is the first official and fully authorised film of one of the most celebrated figures in football. For the first time ever, the world gets vividly candid and un-paralleled, behind-closed-doors access to the footballer, father, family-man and friend in this moving & fascinating documentary. Through in-depth conversations, state of the art football footage and never before seen archival footage, the film gives an astonishing insight into the sporting and personal life of triple Ballon D'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo at the peak of his career. From the makers of ‘Senna’ and ‘Amy’, Ronaldo takes audiences on an intimate and revealing journey of what it’s like to live as an iconic athlete in the eye of the storm.

Jim Morris never made it out of the minor leagues before a shoulder injury ended his pitching career twelve years ago. Now a married-with-children high-school chemistry teacher and baseball coach in Texas, Jim's team makes a deal with him: if they win the district championship, Jim will try out with a major-league organization. The bet proves incentive enough for the team, and they go from worst to first, making it to state for the first time in the history of the school. Jim, forced to live up to his end of the deal, is nearly laughed off the try-out field--until he gets onto the mound, where he confounds the scouts (and himself) by clocking successive 98 mph fastballs, good enough for a minor-league contract with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Jim's still got a lot of pitches to throw before he makes it to The Show, but with his big-league dreams revived, there's no telling where he could go.

Actor Dustin Hoffman narrates this decade-spanning documentary that highlights the contributions of Jewish Americans to the most American sport of them all: baseball. Highlights include a rare interview with legendary pitcher Sandy Koufax.

Ex-baseball player Bill Johnson, failing at many jobs when his ball-playing days are over, reluctantly takes the advice of his father-in-law, Jonah Evans, a retired umpire, and enters an umpire-training school. Assigned to the Texas League, he does fine until the championship play-offs when a riot develops over one of his calls. The involved player is knocked unconscious in the proceedings and cannot verify that Bill made the correct call. Despite lynch mob plans to at least tar-and-feather him, Bill's family - his daughters Lucy (Gloria Henry and Susan and his wife Betty - help Bill reach the ballpark safely the next day through a series of hair-raising encounters.

The story of a New York pro baseball team and two of its players. Henry Wiggen is the star pitcher and Bruce Pearson is the normal, everyday catcher who is far from the star player on the team and friend to all of his teammates. During the off-season, Bruce learns that he is terminally ill, and Henry, his only true friend, is determined to be the one person there for him during his last season with the club. Throughout the course of the season, Henry and his teammates attempt to deal with Bruce's impending illness, all the while attempting to make his last year a memorable one.

A young barber's girlfriend falls into the clutches of a shady nightclub owner and his cohorts, who plan to get her involved in their nefarious schemes. When his efforts to rescue her prove futile, he enlists the help of his father, who was at one time a professional baseball player, and his former teammates to save her.

An ex-mercenary turned smuggler. A Mende fisherman. Amid the explosive civil war overtaking 1999 Sierra Leone, these men join for two desperate missions: recovering a rare pink diamond of immense value and rescuing the fisherman's son, conscripted as a child soldier into the brutal rebel forces ripping a swath of torture and bloodshed countrywide.

Bobby Stano had everything going for him. Fresh out of high school, he was signed to the majors, had a beautiful girlfriend, everything was looking up. That is, until he and his friends get into a fight with a neighboring gang. The confrontation results in an accidental fatality and quickly changes Bobby's life forever. He's found guilty of murder and locked in prison for the next thirteen years. When Bobby is released, he's faced with a vilified reputation, a relationship to rekindle and a new life to find.

In a last-ditch effort to save his career, sports agent JB Bernstein dreams up a wild game plan to find Major League Baseball’s next great pitcher from a pool of cricket players in India. He soon discovers two young men who can throw a fastball but know nothing about the game of baseball. Or America. It’s an incredible and touching journey that will change them all — especially JB, who learns valuable lessons about teamwork, commitment and family.

A basketball player's father must try to convince him to go to a college so he can get a shorter prison sentence.

A pro ball player with a substance abuse problem is forced into rehab in his hometown, finding new hope when he gets honest about his checkered past, and takes on coaching duties for a misfit Little League team

Two years after a Super Bowl win when NFL head coach Sean Payton is suspended, he goes back to his hometown and finds himself reconnecting with his 12-year-old son by coaching his Pop Warner football team.

An English teacher and struggling single mother has her life disrupted when the father who abandoned her as a child comes back into her life.

Jack Elliot, a one-time MVP for the New York Yankees is now on the down side of his baseball career. With a falling batting average, does he have one good year left and can the manager of the Chunichi Dragons, a Japanese Central baseball league find it in him?

Halloween is an exciting time of year for Hannah Marie who is joined by her Scary Godmother and all sorts of new friends including kooky monsters, friendly vampires and silly skeletons. It's a journey to the Fright Side she'll never forget as Hannah and her friends must foil her cousin Jimmy's plans to ruin Halloween for everyone!

Darryl Palmer (Michael O'Keefe) is a major league baseball player who meets and pursues an attractive singer (Rebecca De Mornay). After some setbacks, the two are married and sent on an emotional journey that sees his career take off, while hers doesn't. When she gives up her dreams to support her husband, she can't escape her own unhappiness. With a separation on the horizon, Darryl must choose between his big-league life and his one true love.

Air Force reservist Lt. Col. Robert "Dutch" Holland is recalled into active duty at the peak of his professional baseball career.

Song-and-dance man Bert Kalmar can't continue his stage career after an injury for while, so he has to earn his money as a lyricst. Per chance he meets composer Harry Ruby and their first song is a hit. Ruby gets Kalmar to marry is former partner Jessie Brown, and Kalmar and Jessie prevent Ruby from getting married to the wrong girls. But due to the fact, that Ruby has caused a backer's withdrawal for a Kalmar play, they end their relation.

Slowed by age and failing eyesight, crack baseball scout Gus Lobel takes his grown daughter along as he checks out the final prospect of his career. Along the way, the two renew their bond, and she catches the eye of a young player-turned-scout.

A hotel room shootout between two assassins kicks off a long night where bodies fall like dominoes, as we follow a chain of crooked cops, gangsters, hitmen, a femme Fatale and an ex-mercenary through a relay of murder, betrayal, revenge and redemption.

Calvin Campbell is a former professional baseball player sent to an early retirement due to his panic attacks at the plate. Even though he had all the talent for the big leagues, he struggles with the curveballs life has thrown him. Today, he mindlessly sleepwalks through his days and the challenge of raising his teenager daughter. His life is in a slow downward spiral when it is suddenly awakened and invigorated by the most unlikely person – Produce, a young-man with Down syndrome who works at the local grocery store.

True story of the life of Jimmy Piersall, who battled mental illness to achieve stardom in major league baseball.

Ben McGrath (Chris Klein) had major league potential playing professional baseball, but his hopes to play ball literally get crushed. Down on his luck, Ben gets another swing at redemption as a new attorney for Schmood & Associates. His unorthodox boss, Mel (Jon Lovitz), convinces him to manage their eclectic softball team full of misfits and strikeouts. Together, will they have enough spirit to win it all?

This intimate and revealing documentary follows professional wrestler, Cody Rhodes, from leaving the WWE to his eventual return to WrestleMania and his journey chasing the WWE championship一a feat his father, "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, never accomplished.

The triumph and tragedy of Native American Jim Thorpe, who, after winning both the pentathlon and decathlon in the same Olympics, is stripped of his medals on a technicality.

The true story about a father struggling to make amends with his twin sons as they pursue their dreams of professional baseball.

Every year in June, nearly 2,000 athletes out of high school and college are chosen from an amateur baseball draft to play in the minor leagues. This inspiring documentary follows the lives of two young players on their arduous journey to launch Major League Baseball careers. As one faces his final year to tryout, another player wrestles with the pressure of keeping his million-dollar first-round draft contract intact. This thrilling and emotional journey illuminates the power determination can have on whether dreams are achieved or lost.

The true story of Kurt Warner, who went from a stockboy at a grocery store to a two-time NFL MVP, Super Bowl champion, and Hall of Fame quarterback.

Major League Baseball scout must find promising young player to save his job and his team.

Pop Clark is about to lose his baseball team, unless they can win the pennant so he can pay off debts. He hires ace player Larry Kelly to ensure the victory. As well as rival teams, mobsters are trying to prevent the wins, and as the pennant race nears the end, Pop's star players begin to be killed, on and off the field. Can Larry romance Pop's daughter, win enough games, and still have time to stop a murderer before he strikes more than three times?

A U.S. soccer star suffers a career-threatening injury in the run-up to the World Cup, and during his recovery, embarks on an epic romance with a Russian single mom.

When Jessica Parker’s former high school boyfriend, superstar baseball player Chase Taynor, returns to town, she finds the inspiration to reinvent her struggling diner… and revisits the past to find something even better for the future.

A world champion ski racer and local ski instructor find romance on the slopes as he returns home and prepares for the biggest race of his life.

Thomas, Kyle and Marint had it all:loving wives, children and careers on the rise. But when tragedy strikes and their worlds crumble, it proves to be more than they can bare, and they find themselves caught in a forsaken ghost land somewhere between heaven and hell. In this anguished world, nothing is what it seems, and these nomads must face their demons head on in order to recover a once fallen destiny.

Baseball player Terry McCall is a very good baseball player, who doesn't mind bragging about his skills on the baseball diamond and also his off-the-field skills at wooing and winning women. An accident causes his luck to turn bad and results in him turning blind, but he later regains his sight after being instrumental in saving the life of Mickey Malone, the team's young mascot. He then promises Mary Malone, Mickey's sister, for whose affection he has been competing with a teammate, that he is through showing off and bragging. But, in the end, he is still blowing smoke.

The story of Rickey Hill, who overcomes his physical disability and repairs his relationship with his father in a quest to become a major league baseball (MLB) player.

As its title implies, this video attempts to go beyond the public persona of one of major league baseball's greatest stars. Accepting Ruth as a larger-than-life figure, this 59-minute video doesn't attempt to rationalize, apologize, or analyze his behavior. Rather, it endeavors to present an unbiased account of the life of George Herman Ruth, contradictions and all.

Fun for the whole family, hilarity ensues as the best athlete in pro football has to learn how to teach a motley group of kids how to win on the baseball field while they teach him how to win in life.

An Atlanta-based chef gets fired just weeks before Christmas and reluctantly takes a job with a pro baseball player who is a single dad of three and needs a live-in-chef to get him through the holidays with the kids.

Sparky Smith (Joe Mantegna) was manager of the Seattle Mariners until he had one too many shouting matches with the team's owner (Michael Lerner) and winds up fired. Now Sparky's ready to coach any team who'll have him. The only problem is, no one will, until the day the Russian Sports Ministry led by the delectable Tanya (Natalya Negoda) comes knocking at his door. The Russians need a baseball coach for their Olympic team, and Sparky is just the man for the job. Once on Russian soil though, he soon discovers that the Russian team is composed of athletes, hockey players, and shot putters who barely know their way around a diamond. Confronted with this losing team, hilarious comedy ensues when Sparky is told to accept an invitation to have his team visit the States and play his old team the Mariners.

A story of family, of dreams deferred, and of a final chance at redemption. Frustrated with his waning baseball career, David returns to his hometown and becomes obsessed with a local lovely, reaching out to her troubled son. When David is rejected, the townsfolk gossip about his relationship with the boy.

Based on the book “The Legend of Mickey Tussler”, this film follows the story of eighteen-year-old Mickey Tussler, who lives on a farm with his father and mother and who has Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism. But he can throw apples at an amazing speed. When a chance meeting occurs with the baseball manager of the semi-pro team the River Rats, from Clayton, Ohio, Mickey gets a chance to pitch for the team and to prove to his father he can do more than live hidden away on the family farm, taking care of his pig Oscar.

A young man reluctantly embarks on a journey to his ancestral land of Lesotho to bury his estranged father, and finds himself drawn to the mystical beauty and hardships of the people and the land he had forgotten.

After suffering a career ending knee injury, pro-baseball superstar Jimmy Easton returns to a place he has not been in a very long time.... home. Here, Jimmy confronts dark memories from a tragic past as he tries to make peace with a life he once left behind. Things take an unexpected turn when he is forced back into the world of baseball as the coach of an underachieving college team.

A professional hockey player who is only happy when he is miserable signs a long-term contract that covers his entire career only to ruin it in his first year due to substance abuse and alcoholism. He rides his good luck in the final month of the final year of his contract when he gets a last chance at redemption in the seventh game of the finals.

"Truth Be Told: Rick Ankiel" gives insight into Ankiel's personal journey of redemption - overcoming a troubled youth, high expectations, and psychological struggles to achieve success on the field.

Talented chef, Mandy Preston’s life has been turned upside down ever since the passing of her father, who was the master chef of her family’s famous restaurant. Now her family business is failing, her love life is in shambles, her passion for cooking has died and her childhood best friend and fellow chef Jake Turner has left town to find work in the big city.

While visiting his hometown of Milwaukee, father of three and aspiring attorney, Claude Motley, is shot in the face by 15-year-old Nathan, during a carjacking gone wrong. Two nights later, Nathan attempts to rob Victoria, who fires her gun in self-defense, partially paralyzing Nathan from the waist down. Three strangers tragically bound together by a weekend of gun violence on a five-year journey toward recovery and forgiveness.