---
title: "Tom Hanks Returns to Baseball in Sony's 'The Comebacker,' Set for Summer 2027"
description: "Tom Hanks is heading back to the diamond. Sony Pictures has set a summer 2027 release for 'The Comebacker,' a baseball drama reuniting Hanks with director Marielle Heller — more than three decades after he insisted there's no crying in baseball."
category: "Entertainment"
category_url: https://herald.la/category/entertainment
author: "Gabriela Soto"
published: 2026-07-01T23:55:00.000Z
updated: 2026-07-01T23:55:00.000Z
canonical: https://herald.la/article/tom-hanks-returns-to-baseball-in-sony-s-the-comebacker-set-for-summer-2027
tags: ["Tom Hanks", "The Comebacker", "Sony Pictures", "Marielle Heller", "baseball movies", "Hollywood"]
---
# Tom Hanks Returns to Baseball in Sony's 'The Comebacker,' Set for Summer 2027

Tom Hanks is heading back to the diamond. Sony Pictures has set a summer 2027 release for 'The Comebacker,' a baseball drama reuniting Hanks with director Marielle Heller — more than three decades after he insisted there's no crying in baseball.

Tom Hanks is returning to baseball — and this time, the ball hits back.

## The pitch

Sony Pictures has set July 30, 2027, as the theatrical release date for "The Comebacker," a drama starring Hanks as a pitching coach whose life is upended when he is struck in the head by a baseball at the mound, [The Hollywood Reporter reported](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/the-comebacker-tom-hanks-baseball-release-date-sony-1236635440/). Marielle Heller directs from her own screenplay, adapted from a short story by the author Dave Eggers. Hanks's company, Playtone, is producing with Leah Holzer, and Major League Baseball is cooperating on the film — a stamp of authenticity that should mean real ballparks on screen.

## A reunion

For Hanks, the project is a reunion with Heller, who directed him to acclaim as Fred Rogers in 2019's "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood." The register sounds familiar: character-driven, adult, rooted in a sudden disruption that forces a person to reckon with who they are. According to The Wrap, the project drew a competitive bidding contest among studios before Sony landed it — a sign of enthusiasm for the pairing.

## No crying in baseball

Hanks has history on the diamond. His turn as the boozy manager Jimmy Dugan in Penny Marshall's "A League of Their Own" (1992) produced one of his signature comic performances and a line — "There's no crying in baseball!" — long since lodged in the American vernacular; the film was later added to the Library of Congress's National Film Registry. Now, as a coach felled by the sport itself, Hanks gets to explore the other side of that idea: what happens when baseball makes you cry.

The announcement lands amid renewed studio appetite for baseball on screen, a genre that gave audiences "Bull Durham," "Field of Dreams" and "Moneyball." No additional casting has been announced. If the last Hanks-Heller collaboration is any guide, "The Comebacker" will care less about the box score than about the person standing at the mound when everything changes.

## Sources

- [Tom Hanks baseball movie 'The Comebacker' sets July 2027 release at Sony](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/the-comebacker-tom-hanks-baseball-release-date-sony-1236635440/)