the appeal of this movie, aside from the standard cliché of the underdog and the principled hero, may be in its star, edward james olmos who gives a fine performance as baseball talent scout, virgil sweet. facing the possible end to a career and last brush with professional baseball, fate leads him to discover a great pitcher, sammy bodeen (jeff corbett) who he takes from an idyllic idaho town to playing for the California angels. of course, as the cliché goes, all of the odds are against sweet and especially bodeen, who everyone adores as the new hope for a poorly performing team, but in the end whom everyone doubts really has the talent for the game.while a nicely acted little film held together by the strength of its star in particular, there is little substance to this movie for someone seeking a more action-packed baseball drama. the movie centers largely on sweet's dynamics and as such, takes a long time to generate something more than just sweet auditioning players on the one hand and contemplating the future of his career on the other. even the final stages of the film, in which the team's new owner threatens young bodeen's chances to really prove himself, hardly offer much of a real climax but instead feel like the point of a movie where you expected the events to occur as they did as though there were not any other real way to wrap up the movie.it is a nice little time waster especially for olmos fans, but the film doesn't offer much meat on the bone.

I read everyone's reviews and they were all pretty accurate. Each person will take something different from this movie. If you ever wanted to be a pro ball player you might relate more to Virgil's character and desires. Overall I gave it a strong numeric rating due to Olmos' unsung performance and Bracco's. Traditionally this is the basically a repeated story but the twist in this is the scout's desire to essentially play one time in the majors and feel the glow of the experience. That is a bit of a different perspective than what has been utilized in the past. The rest of the story and supporting cast are just that, supporting. But they do it well to make a rather enjoyable film. I would certainly put it in my top ten of baseball related movies with a strong human element intertwined throughout the storyline.Enjoy.

I really enjoyed this film. It's formulaic, but the performances are excellent. I especially liked the actor who played Sammy Bodeen. He was brilliant. For real baseball fans it is fun to pick out the real professional ball players among the cast. Some of the television networks have begun to show this gem each spring as part of a kick-off to the major league baseball season and I look forward to seeing it each year. Seeing that guy who plays Bodeen is like seeing an old familiar friend. I highly recommend this film for little league coaches to show their teams. It's great for families and kids. My children love it and my wife does too.

I'd switched on the TV because I couldn't sleep, and a film had just started. It was around 1am, and they don't usually show this kind of feel good movie around that time, so the film was very welcome. I'd never seen James Edward Olmos in a film before this one, or I didn't remember him because I must have seen him in Bladerunner. So I didn't realise that he was such a decent actor. He's got such a common face, like a farmer, so this charismatic performance was surprising. Anyway, it was a cute little film, and it is worth watching if you've got nothing better to do.