One of the best in its baseball movie sub-genre

There are a ton of great baseball films that, when at their best, are much more than a simple biopic about a particular player. Some are great comedies ("Bull Durham", "Major League", "The Bad News Bears (1978)"), some are great biopics ("Pride of the Yankees", "42", "Cobb"), some are period pieces often focusing on specific baseball lore ("Eight Men Out", "61"), and others center on baseball's romanticism and how tightly intertwined it once was with American culture. It's in this latter category that I place "The Natural," and along with "Field of Dreams" is the best in that sub-genre.