Steve Pulaski
If the story of Andrew Scheinman's Little Big League were ever to come true, and an eleven-year-old boy through some circumstance managed to inherit a baseball team and the stadium they play in, the results would likely look similar to this film. That's certainly saying something, given the fact that Little Big League is a PG- rated film set in the 1990's, and one would ostensibly assume it would be full of mediocre comedic value and redundant gags about an eleven-year-old, well, inheriting a baseball team and their stadium.Through miraculously gifted and careful writing by Gregory K. Pincus, and sensitive but firm direction by Scheinman, Little Big League surprises with its level of competence and maturity about this cockamamie idea. It takes itself about as seriously as its eleven-year-old protagonist takes the game of baseball, and not in the way where groans are induced, and doesn't settle for cheap humor that is forgotten as soon as the credits roll. It takes a fantasy and sketches it in reality, providing a "what if?" tale almost believable enough to encourage young kids and fill them with optimism about them owning their favorite sports team.The film concerns Billy Heywood (Luke Edwards), who lives with his single-mother Jenny (Ashley Crow) and possesses an infinity and vast understanding of baseball. The love for the game is pushed along in an encouraging manner by Thomas Heywood (Jason Robards), Billy's grandfather who owns the Minnesota Twins team and their ballpark. When his grandfather dies, Billy views a filmed will that turns the team and ballpark over to him, despite his young age and lack of business experience. Billy replies to this by saying in a heartbreaking tone, "I'd rather have my grandfather."It isn't long before Billy becomes the center of attention, at school, in public, and in the neighborhood, as the youngest team owner in the history of sports. Billy must manage to bring the average Minnesota Twins up to commendable playoff level, connecting with Twins players Lou Collins (Timothy Busfield) and Jerry Johnson (Duane Davis), his personal idol, while also learning more about the game than he thought he could by viewing it up close. The downside to all of this is, inevitably, as the owner, Billy must make tough managerial decisions, and through that makes the mistakes that even the adult owners do. However, in a motivational speech that avoids the trappings of sentimentality, talks about how even when the chips are down that a player shouldn't lose their direction. "Who cares?," he replies when the ideas of striking out or making an error are suggested, and all is forgiven if the love of the game can still be embraced by its players. After all, "baseball was made for kids; it's the grownups who screwed it up," Billy states at one point in the film.Little Big League was released in the summer of 1994, about a year after another baseball film for kids hit the scene, Rookie of the Year. The latter received a great deal of recognition and financial success, while Little Big League found itself more-or-less eclipsed by an overblown genre and a more serious story, failing to resonate with an audience until years after its release. This is an understandable shame, as while both Little Big League and Rookie of the Year bear narratives that occasionally intersect or merge in my mind, the latter is far more littered with crude humor and mawkishness that fails to impress on the thematic level of its successor.There may not be a lot in Little Big League for a lot of adults, who miss the numbers crunching and the business look at baseball, but there is a serene little spark of magic that shines through the film and its ideas about a kid taking a boatload of responsibility all at once and handling it to the best of his abilities. It's a quietly positive film, but a boldly realistic one all the more, which makes it a commendable exercise in a tired genre.Starring: Luke Edwards, Ashley Crow,, Timothy Busfield, John Ashton, and Kevin Dunn. Directed by: Andrew Scheinman.
matt_back5
Little Big League was one of my favorite movies as a kid. Growing up in Minnesota I thought it was the coolest thing that there was a movie about our Twins, and a good movie at that. Being a baseball player is every kids' dream, and owning one would be the next best thing. This movie, unlike some sports films, accurately shows the game of baseball and what it is like on and off the field. The acting is fairly good and the characters and story line are not one dimensional and boring like some kid's movies. It is humorous but can be very serious at times. Watching it makes me feel young again and reminds me of my love for baseball. Little Big League is a movie that both kids and adults can enjoy.
psplayer311
I saw this movie lots of times and one of things that made me really like it was how well baseball was accurately portrayed in this movie. I think alot of movies try to make sports seem as real and accurate as they can but it's a pretty tough job because they're making a hollywood movie with actors. And you can tell that it's acting because the pitches or plays can all look fake and the overall play can look pretty weak. But this movie did a really good job of making the game look realistic. Obviously, the appearances of guys like Mickey Tettleton, Rafael Palmeiro, Griffey, Johnson, O'Niell, Alex Fernandez and others really helped. But the stadiums all looked great and accurate and how they would look in real life. Mainly, the game just looked real in the film, which is something that I havent seen in a lot of baseball movies. I think it's definitely one of the best baseball films out there in terms of accuracy and appearance and the story line really did of a good job of how major league life can go. Things can be going your way at minute, but a few months or weeks later, things can all change and your team can go downhill. I think the movie did a good job of showing a major league baseball team, the Twins, and the ups and downs of a season. Good job
jeffplus3
Between 1993-1995, many baseball movies such as Little Big League, The Sandlot, and Rookie of the Year came out, but I think that Little Big League was the most clever of them all. There were plenty of funny scenes that adults, rather than children, could relate to. It was well done and well acted. I enjoyed this movie and I have owned it since it came out.
