There hasn’t been a really good kid’s sports movie (maybe Bend It Like Beckham) since the early 1990s, the golden era of kids playing sports. The Sandlot, Little Big League, Little Giants, Air Bud, etc all came out in a very short window of time, Rookie of the Year among them. The story of Henry Rowengartner (Thomas Ian Nicholas), the broken armed Chicago Cub phenom, falls near the upper middle of the kids playing sports movies, funny enough on the surface but never going too deep.
Henry is basically the average kid among us with the ubiquitous dream scenario: he gets to play in the major leagues. Via a freak accident to his arm, Henry develops a killer fastball, prompting Larry Fish (Dan Hedaya), the Cubs Manager Sal Martinella (Albert Hall), and The Cubs geriatric owner Mr. Carson (Eddie Bracken) to sign Henry to boost ticket sales. Henry learns to pitch through the help of Chet Steadman (Gary Busey), an aging star pitcher on his last legs. Henry becomes an instant sensation as he leads the Cubs to (hopefully) the World Series, causing friction with his best friends George (Patrick LaBrecque) and Clark (Robert Gorman), as well as his Mother, Mary (Amy Morton).
What helps Rookie of the Year a great deal is how funny it is. Daniel Stern directed this movie, and smartly, put himself in as the wacky sidekick Pitching Coach Brickma with one of the more bizarre reasons for being in a movie I’ve seen. A great deal of the big laughs come from Stern, in particular his first appearance and his monologue about keeping pitchers healthy. The central story also is well edited for maximum laugh delivery. Henry’s first batting appearance in particular is a highlight, with well executed cuts between Henry, his mother, and Chet. Running gags abound like the Manager mispronouncing Henry’s name, or hilarious product placement with the young pitcher. These laughs allow just enough poignancy to be put in for maximum effect. Stern actually daringly, does not play up issues with Henry and his mother; that relationship is the rock solid foundation of the movie and needed to sell the third act, plus gets used to wisely undercut an obvious speech about Henry’s dad. Instead, he points out the fleeting nature of talent; with pre-psychopathic Gary Busey getting a touching speech about living in the moment and having some fun. While this light tone keeps the movie from touching something deep and hitting greatness like the Sandlot, it actively keeps kids engaged in fun ways that parents will probably find funny too, a hallmark of a family comedy.
Rookie of the Year’s issue is it’s clearly staying with formula for a kids movie: Kid has mega talent, talent messes with kids friends and family, kid reconciles with friends and family, kid wins big game. You know from Henry’s first disastrous little league game where the movie is going and what the ending will be, sucking some of the fun out of it. There are also a few too many subplots that distract from the meat of the story, like Mary’s relationship with new boyfriend Jack (Bruce Altman). The movie’s biggest failing is the third act. The start of it is clever, with a twist people will probably see coming, and a great twist for the final out, but how Henry gets the big 3 outs works for 1 out of the 3, the final one. Out #1 is illegal in baseball, and #2 would never, EVER happen in as big of a game as this one. I can forgive #1 for how clever it is and creative license, but #2 is just dumb and takes you out of the movie, though as a kid I thought it was funny.
Rookie of the Year belongs to a dormant breed of movie, the live action family film. Most of those films have some sort of message within it now, and push the story into schmaltzy territory. Rookie of the Year is content to just be a fun way to spend a couple hours with Mom and Dad, laughing and then doing something else. That sounds like faint praise, but its extremely hard to pull off, like the Cubs winning the World Series. Seriously boys, let’s not take 108 years this time ok?