Little Big Boss

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.