Big Leaguer

Big Leaguer (1953)

** (out of 4)

There have been quite a few good baseball films over the years but sadly this isn't one of them even though we do get a fine performance from Edward G. Robinson. In the film he plays John Lobert, a former baseball player who currently runs a training camp in Florida for the New York Giants. Each year he judges new talent trying to find the next great player but the team is getting a little fed up with him not finding any All Stars so the pressure is on to find someone to save his job. BIG LEAGUER has a few good moments in it but in the end you can't help but feel rather bored and letdown. I'm sure there could have been a very good movie made about these young kids who come to this camp to try and fulfill their dreams but this film is so child like that you can't help but feel you're watching something fake. The ball players are all stereotypes as you have one whose father was a baseball great and of course he can't live up to his father. You have another who thinks he's the greatest thing on Earth yet he's not. You have another who doesn't want his hard working father to know he's missing college to try and play ball. All the stereotypes are on hand here and not one of them comes across as a real character. Robinson at least keeps the film moving as he has that great energy that only he could get across. There was a quick scene where I thought we were going to get to see him bat but that ended up not happening. Vera-Ellen appears as his niece and makes for the love interest to one of the players played by Jeff Richards. I really wasn't overly impressed with either of them but apparently Vera-Ellen was a very big name back in the day but I really couldn't see why. Frank Ferguson, Richard Jaeckel and William Campbell also star. Carl Hubbell plays himself in a quick cameo.

For a film that is set in the New York Giants training camp of 1953, the biggest surprise for me is the fact that manager Leo Durocher did not appear in it. Leo at the time was married to Laraine Day and was quite at home in the movie colony. And he was a natural ham.

This is not spring training with the New York Giants. In fact the Giants down to today do their spring training in Arizona. This is a winter instructional school, something pioneered by the Giants across the Harlem River rivals, the Yankees. Here the school is run by veteran baseball coach Hans Lobert.

There was in fact a real Hans Lobert, a very good third baseman who played in the beginning and teen years of the last century for such teams as the Phillies and the Giants among others. His style of play in the field was very similar to baseball immortal Hans Wagner, hence John Lobert became popularly known as Hans Lobert. At third base he was the Brooks Robinson of his day and while he didn't hit in the same class as Hans Wagner(very few ever did)he was no easy out at the plate.

Edward G. Robinson plays the real life Hans Lobert who's dealing with some promising rookies like Jeff Richards, William Campbell, Richard Jaeckel among others. Robinson acts like a father confessor to all these kids as he deals with not just their playing skills, but a few personal problems as well. The real Lobert was known to do just that, he was a beloved figure in baseball.

Baseball Hall of Famer Carl Hubbell made an appearance in Big Leaguer, I suppose to lend authenticity. He was some pitcher in his day as well with a screwball that could practically turn a corner backwards.

Another reviewer made a comment about the players being all white at the school. Oddly enough the Giants had integrated at that point, becoming the second team in the National League to do so following the Dodgers. A star rookie from 1951 named Willie Mays was in the army at this time, but the Giants had Monte Irvin and Hank Thompson playing for them at the point in time Big Leaguer was filmed.

My guess would be that at this point in time the Giants like many other teams weren't signing black prospects fresh out of school. They were instead raiding the Negro Leagues for proved players. The Negro Leagues were in their last stages, in fact the last star player signed out of them was a man who played for the Indianapolis Clowns named Hank Aaron.

I have a funny feeling that Giant owner Horace Stoneham made this film in response to the success that the Dodgers enjoyed in 1950 with the Jackie Robinson Story. Big Leaguer is a much better film than that was.

This film isn't about stars, but about eager young prospects trying to make the grade. It's got a good baseball feel to it. Baseball fans will love it, hopefully it will come out one day on DVD and VHS.

And wasn't Hans Lobert one lucky fellow to have himself portrayed on the screen by an established movie star.

As a young boy I was one of the kids playing sandlot baseball in the closing scenes of the movie. I've never found a copy of the movie and I understand it's privately owned and stored in a basement somewhere. I can only hope that someday it will be released to the public. If anyone knows more about it, I would appreciate any information.

Watching the filming of the movie was an experience. A number of the local kids were hired for the sandlot scene. We each got paid $5 (I got my social security card with a California number because of that).

I would also be interested in knowing what the other extras are doing these days.

This film has every baseball cliche in the book. It is hackneyed stuff from beginning to end, and is corny as Kansas. But I still liked it because I am a sucker for baseball. If you're a sucker for baseball as well, then this film is for you.

I have never been a big fan of the pint sized Edward G Robinson and so MGM's veiled attempt to warm up their film goers to Edward G. Robinson by supplanting him in America's favorite past time a baseball film, as the Manager named John Lobert who runs a training camp in Florida for the New York Giants it was difficult for me to visualize this ever happening. I would have believed Edward G Robinson more as a Ballet instructor flirting around the stage in a tutu rather than in a baseball cap and a baseball film.

I know the film was released in 1953 and the lovely actress Vera Ellen would be the only reason I would have watched this in the first place. Awww but who doesn't love a good sports film on a baseball training camp in the springtime injected with a romantic undertow?

I give the film a mere passing grade of 5 out of 10 IMDB rating and this is based on Ms. Vera Ellen's fine performance.