The Rookie

Jim Morris was a kid who dreamed of playing baseball in the major leagues and played for two seasons. Few athletes reach that high of a place and even fewer do so, when they’ve reached 35. In most other careers, that’s the age when most begin to reach their steps. However, the punishment that playing sports does to the body, sends baseball players into retirement way before they’ve become senior citizens. Morris could throw a 98 MPH fastball at an age when most ballplayers have been retired for quite some time from the game.

In “The Rookie,” released in 2002, first-time director John Lee Hancock, who also wrote the scripts for Clint Eastwood’s “A Perfect World” and “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” treats Morris’s career like it is a visual story. Dan Lybarger said in his review, “He and screenwriter Mark Rich (Finding Forrester) play up the larger-than-life elements of Morris's quest, making the unlikely nature of tale seem more palatable.”

Lybarger continued, “The movie opens with a sepia-tinged prologue in which two nuns discover that prayer can make seemingly foolish decisions, like loaning money to a wildcat oil driller, can later turn into acts of providence.”

Similarly, young baseball lover Jim Morris, played as a child by Trevor Morgan, spends a lot of time playing baseball despite his family never staying in one location long enough for Jim to join a team. Naturally, his dad, played by Brian Cox, a Navy man with little time for sports, wants his son to try more obviously realistic things. As Jim gets older, he and his family move to a small Texas town ironically named Big Lake where baseball is almost non-existent. Even Jim’s arm betrays him. Some injuries prevent him from furthering from the minor leagues.

As an adult, Jim, now played by Dennis Quaid, has left behind his lifelong dream. He’s now teaching high school science classes and has married a guidance counselor named Lorrie, played by Rachel Griffiths. With three kids of his own, played by Angus T. Jones and Rebecca Spicher, the only time Jim has for baseball is for coaching a very poor team at high school. Unknown to Jim, years of keeping himself in shape and off the pitcher’s field have left him with an arm that can throw fast.

In the center of football country, the only people willing to attend the baseball game are the deer that walk on the outfield at night. The team’s performance doesn’t help. However, the kids notice the skill left in Jim’s arm, so they make a bet with Jim that if they can make the state finals, he will try out for the majors.

Both events occur, and Hancock and Rich somehow manage to keep things interesting. Lybarger said, “It helps that movie readily acknowledges the difficulties that a thirtysomething player would have in the minors. Jim may be in better condition than his younger peers, but he has far more obligations than they do. AA ballplayers, unlike their brethren in the majors, earn wages more akin to a fry cook. The movie also, thankfully, depicts Morris' home life in an unflinching manner.” Jim’s family is happy that he can still be great on the field, but they can’t decide if him trying for the pros are brave or foolish.

Lybarger credited, “There are a fair amount of cornball touches here and there (do we really need to hear the ball go "whoosh" every time Jim throws it?), but Quaid's performance proves to be a solid anchor. He might be a good decade older than Morris was at the time, but he does look convincing on the mound. As he has matured, a look of resignation has accompanied his trademark grin. This diffidence gives The Rookie a dramatic weight it wouldn't have had otherwise.”

Ron Shelton, the writer-director of the classic baseball film, “Bull Durham, said that for a sports movie to work, the cameras have to be able to go where a TV crew can’t. Because “The Rookie” manages to delve deep into Jim Morris’s thoughts, the inevitable cliches don’t seem like that much of a problem.

As I stated yesterday when I was in eighth grade and we went to Philadelphia, different coach buses were playing different movies. One of my classmates who was on a different bus said that they were watching this on the way to Philadelphia. I saw it On Demand for free, and I started to watch it, but I never finished it. Then, earlier this year, I went back and saw the entire movie. This is a good baseball movie. If you haven’t seen this, you should, especially if you love baseball. I don’t know anything about Jim Morris, so I can’t say how accurately this film portrays his life. This is a good sports film.

Tomorrow I will be looking at a film that isn’t good because it feels like it is copying other films as we continue “Disney Month 2023.”