It’s widely agreed that baseball movies as a rule don’t do well either at the box office or with critics. Sure there are exceptions — Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, and the original Bad News Bears immediately come to mind. But by and large, meh.
Case in point: I recently watched a MLB Network presentation of The Perfect Game, a circa-2009 flick based on the true story of a “rag-tag team” of kids from Monterrey, Mexico, that “overcame all odds” to win the Little League World Series in 1957. (This is not to be confused with Perfect Game, a 2000 made-for-TV product starring Ed Asner and Patrick Duffy which I’d never even heard of until now.)
Needles to say these poor kids had to battle prejudice, stereotypes, and all other kinds of disadvantages, all the while learning “life lessons.” They were so poor they have to carry all their possessions — basically one change of underwear — in brown paper bags as they had to deal with language barriers, rednecks, “Whites only” restrooms, and restaurants that wouldn’t t serve them.
The Mexican team’s coach was a “towel boy” for the the St. Louis Cardinals who had higher aspirations but was also a victim of prejudice (well, the Cardinals did try to boycott a game in 1947, rather than play against Jackie Robinson). There was the obligatory love interest that seemed to disappear once the kids traveled to America, but I just thought I’d mention it anyway. And there was a wise-cracking female newspaper reporter (for that extra layer of overcoming prejudice) who turned from skeptic to supporter over the course of the film. Blah blah blah.
The most recognizable name in the cast was Cheech Marin although Lou Gossett Jr. put in a cameo as Cool Papa Bell (!), the “magical Negro,” who is reduced to being a groundskeeper for youth baseball fields. Gossett had played the title role in the 1981 TV adaptation of Don’t Look Back: The Story of Leroy “Satchel” Paige, based on the ballplayer’s memoir. Tony Revolori (ne Anthony Quinonez), who played the role of Zero in The Grand Budapest Hotel, played one of the kids.
Of course, you can’t judge a movie about/for kids with the same degree of scrutiny as those for adults. Even so, The Perfect Game was pretty eye-rolling for almost three hours (the original running time was 1:58).
Nevertheless it received a relatively amazing 57% on Rottentomatoes.com.
Not so fortunate: two baseball flicks that are among those which received a zero rating from the popular film site.
- The Bad News Bears Go to Japan (1975)
- The Slugger’s Wife (1985)
Granted the former garnered only 15 reviews and the latter just over half that. Guess the media didn’t even want to bother with them.
Some might say Summer Catch or Rookie of the Year should rank right up (down?) there. What is your selection for that third strike?
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"The Babe" had to be the worst movie ever – baseball or otherwise.
I'd toss on the 1999 Kevin Costner film "For Love of the Game". The baseball side was well done, the love story side…
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