Joe Torre: Curveballs Along the Way

Paul Sorvino does a fine job as Joe Torre, the man who had not been to the World Series for over a decade as a player and another two decades as a manager. In 1996, he finally made it. What a shame that just one year earlier, Don Mattingly had retired after the disappointing playoff loss to the Seattle Mariners due to his long suffering back problem. But that is for another film. This one has some production shortcomings, but the human story of Torre overcomes those shortcomings. David Cone and Doc Gooden gave everything they had that year, and the team also made an amazing comeback in the World Series against the Atlanta Braves. I remember watching the third game of the Series at a bar in Queens with some friends, and we were drowning our sorrows in Jack Daniels and cokes, as the Yanks were trailing in the third game and had already lost the first two. But baseball is a funny game; anything can happen and turn the momentum on a dime. I enjoyed reliving this great year for Torre and the Yankees, and so will you if you are a Yankee fan. All others might want to shave one star off the rating.

There might be a baseball movie out there that can rival how bad this one is, but I doubt it. For such great actors cast in some of the parts, I was sorely disappointed by the performances. The cinematography was poor, going from shots during a game that were obviously on a sound stage to crowd shots from any baseball broadcast. They would purposely do close up shots so you wouldn't see that nobody was actually there. Just not believable at all. I couldn't suspend my disbelief at all. Blech!

This was a baseball movie I thought I'd never get a chance to see: a TV movie that's never on TV and has, as far as I know, never been released on video. So imagine my delight when I saw this available on VoD, and for only $1.95! It can't suck that bad, right?

It doesn't. I don't disagree with the other comments here. Yes, the video inserts during actual game footage are jarring, but they're somehow not distracting. (The technique of combining documentary footage with scripted performances was used more successfully in AFTER THE SHOCK - another television movie with a baseball connection.) And the on-field re-enactments are unconvincing, though I've yet to see a baseball movie with authentic-looking game action.

Most of the actors acquit themselves here. Steinbrenner got more believable as the movie progresses - so much that I stopped thinking of the "Seinfeld" caricature. Paul Sorvino took a moment to get used to, but was probably the best casting choice possible. And Robert Loggia does sorta look like Frank Torre (while unfortunately sounding exactly like Robert Loggia).

What about the players? They're more hit-and-miss. Doc seemed the most accurate, and I also approved of the actor who portrayed Joe Girardi. Boggs wasn't awful, either.

But where did they get Strawberry and O'Neill? Neither was believable on or off the field, and neither physically resembled their real-life counterparts in the slightest.

If you live in the New York area or have read Joe Torre's autobiography "Chasing the Dream," there's nothing in this movie you don't already know. We're all familiar with Torre's professional history before coming to the Yankees, and Gooden's past, and Coney's medical problems, and the Jeffrey Maier incident. Everyone else may be confused about what's going on, since the movie is not very informative and suffers from choppy editing. But I did appreciate some minor details throughout, like what a pitching coach actually does and Boggsy's bad memories of the '86 World Series. And the many clips of the '96 Yankees season (good and bad) are always great to see again.

CURVEBALLS ALONG THE WAY is not the worst baseball movie ever made (try watching a MAJOR LEAGUE sequel, or STEALING HOME, or THE SLUGGER'S WIFE). It ain't even the worst Yankee movie out there, as anyone who's suffered through THE SCOUT can attest.

The only comment I have seen on IMDb was a spoiler with which I disagreed.

This movie never set out or purported to be an artistic classic. It is just a simple movie about a baseball player/manager, his family and his major achievement.

Yes I like baseball although cricket is the game I'm most involved with. Yes I enjoyed this movie as a baseball lover.

What you will miss if you just treat this as a one-dimensional clunker is the wonderful warm vignettes of Italian family life portrayed by brilliant actors wonderfully cast. Not overdone or clouded by the Italian-American propensity to view their families too sentimentally.

Then you have the portrayal of top level athletes in the confines of their dressing rooms. Not hysterical, over the top psychopaths but calm, dedicated professionals doing something they desperately love. Here I have to nominate Isaiah Washington for his beautifully underplayed yet insightful portrait of a man wanting to atone for past misdeeds.

Hollywood produces overblown garbage hyped to the limits to recoup investors' funds. Yet when a gentle, small but highly professional film like this is made we fail to recognise that telling simple stories in an unadorned manner is what movie making lacks. This move tells a story. Simply, effectively, with skilled actors within type, who inhabit their characters to illustrate the story.

I'm surprised that "Joe Torre: Curveballs Along the Way" never became a camp classic. It's laughable bad at times. Paul Sorvino spends most of the movie walking around in moping around with a puss on his face. Robert Loggia spends most of the movie walking around with his hand over chest. "Curveballs Along the Way" uses stock footage of Yankee games in a very poor way. It uses the fake sports talk phone calls in an even worse way. The biggest problem with the movie is the subject matter. Sorvino is stuck playing Torre as some kind of super wise baseball genius which he was not. He was just in the right place at the right time. Honorable mention: the nice performance by Isaiah Washington.