Little Big Boss

This will be a sacrilege too many people, but I am not a fan of baseball. That said I do like a good sports movie and this is a pretty good one. This is probably Luke Edwards best film and the rest of the cast were also really good. Yes there are better sports movies and there are better baseball movies but this is worth a look. I didn't expect to like it but I did.

Touching, if improbable film about a young boy who inherits a major league baseball team after his grandfather passes away. Robards makes a nice turn as the grandfather. The film is pleasant enough for families and for true fans of the game.

I remember that I didn't want to see this movie at the theater (or as a rental for that matter) because of the marketing of the movie and what I thought would be a dumb story. However, I was pleasantly surprised. For what it was worth, it was a pretty good movie. Yeah, the story-line was not believable and it was cheesy at times, but the basis behind the story was pretty solid, it had some pretty good lines, and it was pretty entertaining the whole way through. Word of warning, though - Don't let Randy Johnson scare you. That guy had to have fallen out of the ugly tree and hit every single branch on the way down, THEN bounced and hit every single branch on the way up. Plus he's called the 'Big Unit'; scary! 6.5 out of 10.

Young Luke Edwards is one lucky kid. His grandfather Jason Robards is the owner of the Minnesota Twins and he and grandpa are close. At the age of 12 Edwards is a walking encyclopedia of baseball. It's a trio with mother Ashley Crow at the third end of that equilateral triangle.

The scenes between Robards and Edwards are really special and sad that Robards part calls for him to die. But that's part of the basis of the plot. Robards dies and leaves the team to his grandson. I don't know about you, but I would love to have been Colonel Jacob Ruppert's son and have him the leave the New York Yankees of 1939 to me.

But being the juvenile baseball maven he is Edwards soon enough questions whether he's got a good manager in irascible Dennis Farina. The pubescent owner fires Farina and takes over the management of the team itself.

As one of his friends says the Twins are in the American League with the designated hitter rule so half of managing is taken out of your hands. Not so as the lad soon finds out. Complicating things is the fact that one of the players Timothy Busfield is dating his mother.

For me Robards character is based on the former owner of the Twins Cal Griffith who in the tradition of his uncle and adopted father Clark Griffith ran the Twins and formerly the old Washington Senators as a mom and pop operation. After free agency came into being Griffith tried to hang on, but couldn't and he sold the Twins to Carl Pohlad in 1984.

What gives it away is Robards character saying how as a lad he missed the opportunity to see Walter Johnson pitch. It establishes the team with its former home and identity.

Little Big League is a really great both baseball and family film that kids of all ages can appreciate.

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