Friday Flicks: The Rookie

The offseason can be tough on baseball fans. Why not get your baseball fix through the Silver Screen? All offseason long, check out “Friday Flicks” at lunchtime for a baseball movie review. Want to suggest a movie for review? Comment below with the title.

The Minnesota Twins were a prominent part of last week‘s flick. This week, a man strives for a dream he thought was lost.

Based on a true story, Dennis Quaid stars in The Rookie as Jim Morris, an aging pitcher who was drafted as a youth but was forced out of professional baseball because of an injury to his throwing arm. After a glimpse into Morris’s childhood, the film finds him settled into small town Texas as a high school chemistry teacher and part-time baseball coach in a football state.

Morris appears to be content raising his young family and doing his job, happiest when his adorable eight-year-old son Hunter (played by Two-and-a-Half Men‘s Angus T. Jones) shadows him as he coaches his team of misfit high school baseball players. With the encouragement of the high school players he coaches, Morris tries out for the Tampa Bay Rays. He and his family wrestle with the possibility of a minor league, and possibly major league, career, all while holding on to what is most important to them.

Is it a hit? I give it a triple. The flick is a family friendly movie. While some might find that too tame, I found it to be filled with drama, hope, excitement, and the daily grind of baseball. If you like true (or “based on true”) movie , you’ll enjoy this one. If you’re looking for something grittier, well, this is one to rent and watch with your kid, your niece, the whole family…or enjoy for yourself. You might just find that every day life can be grittier than it seems.

Oh, and I really appreciated the shout out to St. Rita.

Come back next week for one of the most well-known baseball movies. Take a trip to that cornfield in Iowa…