In an overview of statistics-oriented baseball games, "Computer Gaming World" stated that "Hardball" "would probably be disappointing to anyone other than an avid arcade fan". "Compute!'s Apple Applications" stated that the Apple II and Macintosh versions had "almost everything you could want from a baseball simulation", with good support for playing as manager, player, or statistician and "exceptionally clear and precise graphics". The magazine concluded that ""Hardball"s realism is outstanding—at a level unmatched by other baseball software to date". The game was reviewed in 1988 in "Dragon" #132 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars.