Themes: Baseball Players, Fathers and Sons, Big Break
Main Cast: Dennis Quaid, Rachel Griffiths, Jay Hernandez, Beth Grant, Angus T. Jones
Release Year: 2002
Country: US
Run Time: 127 minutes
MPAA Rating: G
Plot
The true story of a middle-aged baseball rookie comes to the screen from Finding Forrester (2000) screenwriter Mike Rich and the studio behind the previous year's equally inspirational sports drama Remember the Titans (2001). Twelve years ago, the pro baseball aspirations of Texas pitcher Jim Morris (Dennis Quaid) were derailed by a severe shoulder injury. Jim became a high school science teacher and baseball coach, married his sweetheart, Lorri (Rachel Griffiths), and settled down to raise a family. After corrective surgery repairs, despite the longstanding damage to his shoulder, Jim discovers that he can pitch a ball even faster than he could before. When his team delivers a lackluster on-field performance in a losing game, coach and players agree to a wager: If they'll make it to the district championships, he'll try out for a major league ball club. When his team makes it to the championship and wins for the first time in the school's history, Jim is forced to live up to his end of the bargain. Nearly laughed off the field, he confounds the pro scouts by tossing successive fastballs that clock at nearly 100 miles per hour. It seems that Jim is about to live his dream of joining a major league team in middle age, when most players are planning their retirement. The Rookie (2002) co-stars Brian Cox, Beth Grant, and Jay Hernandez. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Review
Stylish and well-crafted, this sports melodrama doesn't offer up much that is new in its oft-clichéd milieu, but the well-traveled paths down which it trods are reliable ones. If not for the film's badly distended running time it might have ended up, despite its lack of originality, in a genuinely affecting place. It's too bad that director John Lee Hancock and screenwriter Mike Rich don't get that their project is fundamentally G-rated schmaltz that's been road-tested and sanitized for Middle American bourgeois viewing. There's nothing wrong with candy corn cinema when it's self-aware, but the filmmakers seem to be laboring under the delusion that they're crafting a 21st century Field of Dreams (1989) instead of the latest family-friendly Disney concoction. The bloated two-hours-plus length betrays their pretensions, with nearly every scene slogging on long past the point where it should have been cut. The Rookie is definitely not a bad film; it benefits from its factual origins enough that the third-act payoff is genuinely affecting, and the performance by Dennis Quaid is thankfully free of irony or self-pity. It's just that the art of editing at either the script or at the final cut stage could have helped tremendously to disguise the artificiality that's being employed to manipulate viewers. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Brian Cox - Jim Morris, Sr.; Rick Gonzalez - Rudy Bonilla; Chad Lindberg - Joe David West; Angelo Spizzirri - Joel De La Garza; Royce D. Applegate - Henry; Russell Richardson - Brooks; Raynor Scheine - Frank; David Blackwell - Cal; Blue Deckert - Dave Patterson; Dan Kamin - Mac; Trevor Morgan - Young Jim
Credit
Bruce Finlayson - Costume Designer, John Lee Hancock - Director, Philip Steuer - Executive Producer, Eric L. Beason - Line Producer, Carter Burwell - Composer (Music Score), John Bissell - Musical Direction/Supervision, Barry Robison - Production Designer, John Schwartzman - Cinematographer, Mark Johnson - Producer, Mark Ciardi - Producer, Gordon Gray - Producer, Mike Rich - Screenwriter
Jim Morris (played by Dennis Quaid) injured his shoulder 12 years before the movie's events begin, thereby putting an end to his pitching career in Minor League Baseball. Since the injury, he turns to a career as a chemistry teacher, head baseball coach, and assistant football coach at a Texas high school. His baseball team finds it impossible to hit his pitching when he first throws batting practice. Hoping for some degree of mutual motivation, his struggling charges offer him this agreement: if they reach the state playoffs, he will attend a tryout camp for Major League Baseball.
The team performs well and makes it to the playoffs, forcing Jimmy to meet his end of the bargain by attending a nearby tryout. When he does, the professional scouts discover his ability to repeatedly throw the baseball at 98 miles per hour, a feat that fewer than 10 professional baseball players at the time could accomplish. This ability affords him the opportunity to play professional baseball and he signs on with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays organization. He is initially assigned to the minor league Class AA Orlando Rays (now the Montgomery Biscuits) but quickly moved up to the AAA Durham Bulls, later to be called up to the "bigs" during the September roster expansions.
A brief epilogue states that Jim Morris spent two seasons in the Major Leagues.
Real life differences
The film has Morris making his debut against the Texas Rangers, striking out Royce Clayton on three pitches, with the last swing being a complete swing. In reality, Morris struck out Clayton on four pitches. The third swing was a foul ball, but during shooting, the actor was unable to replicate the pop foul after 8 hours of shooting. The director opted to change the story to three strikes instead. [1]
The film portrays Morris as a resident of Big Lake, but he never actually lived in the town. During his time teaching at Reagan County High School he lived in San Angelo and commuted to work daily.
The film shows Morris teaching chemistry, and a broadcaster called him a chemistry teacher. In reality, he taught physical science.
The scene with the radar gun, which was copied by ESPN in a commercial with Bobby Valentine taking the part of Morris, never actually happened.
In the film, the school that Morris teaches at is named Big Lake High School; in real life, though the school is in Big Lake, its actual name is Reagan County High School.
The Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Texas Rangers uniforms worn in the movie are incorrect for the era in which the film takes place. They were, however, the uniforms worn by those teams at the time the film was released.
The bullpen in which Jim warms up prior to his first major league appearance vs. the Texas Rangers is actually the Rangers' bullpen; the visitors' bullpen at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington is much less visible.
In the scene where Jim's father gives Hunter a first-baseman's mitt instead of a regular fielder's glove, it is implied that Jim, Sr., in keeping with the movie's portrayal of Jim's father as uninterested in baseball, doesn't know the difference between the two. In reality, Jim Morris, Sr. played minor league baseball, and would have known the difference (a first-baseman's mitt is considerably larger and lacks individual fingers).
In the film, when Jim is called up to the majors, a teammate named Brooks is called up with him. In real life, Steve Cox was the player called up with Jim. Brooks was a fictional character created for the movie.
Filming locations
The Rookie was filmed almost entirely in North and Central Texas. Apart from scenes filmed at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, locations included the following:
The city of Thorndale, Texas, was used predominantly in the opening half of the film as the small town of Big Lake. Thorndale High School's interior and exterior building and baseball field were used for Big Lake High School's campus. Thorndale's Main Street and downtown area was also used extensively in the film.
Neighboring Thrall High School in Thrall, Texas, was dressed for several differing scenes, including scenes of several different "away" baseball games filmed on the school's field. Thrall's then-recently completed football stadium stood in as Big Lake's. Thrall's old football field, dressing rooms and recreation pavilion were dressed as an oil refinery's outlay in a deleted scene viewable on the DVD's special features.
A scene shot in front of a motel supposedly in Florida was actually filmed in front of what is now a Best Western in Taylor, Texas.
Jim Morris Sr. was not a Naval Recruiter by profession. He was a National Security Agency member posing as a recruiter.
Jimmy's mother did not support Jimmy's dreams in real life. His father was the one that supported his dreams.
Most of the population portrayed in this movie of Big Lake, Tx were fictional. Only the baseball team and those directly connected were based on real people.
Citations
^ Morris spoke about the differences between the film and reality at the MASFAA Annual Conference on November 18, 2007. He was the keynote speaker.
External links
Official site (Defunct as of August 13, 2008, restored as of 7/09)
