Talent for the Game

My review was written in August 1991 after watching the film on Paramount video cassette.

Paramount's baseball pic is an entertaining sport drama that the distributor tested in Florida last April with no further bookings. Pic will definitely please pay-cable and home video fans.

Similar projects have long been in the works. From 1980 through 1983, 20th Century Fox developed "The Scout" for Peter Falk to star as the discoverer of a Fernando Valenzuela-type pitcher. By 1989, that unrealized project had become a joint venture of Fox and Orion, to star Rodney Dangerfield and Sam Kinison, also never made.

This version takes a somewhat more serious tack, no surprise since filmmaker Robert M. Young and his frequent star Edward Jame Olmos favor pictures with something to say. Olmos is comfortably, non-ethnically cast as a scout for the California Angels whose job is being eliminated.

New billionaire owner of the club (oily Terry Kinney) is doing away with the tradition of field scouts to save money. Olmos' last chance is to sign a phenom and earn a front office job.

When his car goes kaput during a drive with girlfriend (and club exec) Lorraine Bracco, Olmos lucks into seeing a sandlot game in Idaho where 20-year-old Jeff Corbett is throwing amazing pitches. After a struggle with the boy's parents, Olmos takes him west to sign with the Angels.

Familiar story is as old as a Joe E. Brown baseball comedy or a boxing saga like "Kid Galahad", but Young invests the proceedings with infectious small-scale heroism. Evil Kinney forces the kid to immediately start in the majors as a publicity stunt. Olmos loses his cushy new job when he stands up for the boy's rights. Bracco quits in solidarity.

Film's climax is fanciful, but finale's clever irony sets it apart from more sentimental genre pics, such as the current indie release "Pastime". Olmos and Bracco do well with standard roles, as does tv star Jamey Sheridan as the equivocal buffer between them and the owner.

Corbett, who bears a striking resemblance to Paramount's recent wannabe karate star Jeff Speakman, is quite convincing as the fireballing pitcher. Tech credits are solid down the line.

I read everyone's reviews and they were all pretty accurate. Each person will take something different from this movie. If you ever wanted to be a pro ball player you might relate more to Virgil's character and desires. Overall I gave it a strong numeric rating due to Olmos' unsung performance and Bracco's. Traditionally this is the basically a repeated story but the twist in this is the scout's desire to essentially play one time in the majors and feel the glow of the experience. That is a bit of a different perspective than what has been utilized in the past. The rest of the story and supporting cast are just that, supporting. But they do it well to make a rather enjoyable film. I would certainly put it in my top ten of baseball related movies with a strong human element intertwined throughout the storyline.

Enjoy.

One of the better movies made involving the scout finds the "phenom" and takes him to the majors. Olmos is superb in this little movie. He brings that aura that he had in Stand and Deliver. Good supporting cast for such a low budget.

What stood out for me was the first half of the film, which has collected a number of apocryphal baseball scouting stories (read "Prophet of the Sandlots" and "Dollar Sign on the Muscle" where some of them appear in print). Edward James Olmos is quietly effective as veteran scout Virgil Sweet, traveling across the country evaluating prospects in an assortment of the usual and unusual places. But the story becomes formulaic as Sweet finds the Holy Grail of scouting: a heretofore unknown pitcher with all the tools to become a superstar in the big leagues. Although Sweet is employed by the Anaheim Angels, the ending is all Hollywood. While not in the pantheon of great baseball movies, it is an enjoyable way to spend 90 minutes.

Do not understand baseball. This is a gem. Yes the scenario where Sammy is exploited by the major lague team owner is a bit hokey - but.....don't let that ruin the great job that this movie does of capturing the feel of minor league baseball and the struggle, even the most talented have, to make it to the big leagues and succeed. And the longing of Virgil to catch a major league pitcher is conveyed perfectly by Edward James Almos - anyone who has the longing to play baseball but not quite enough talent will get the lump in their throat. Much the same as another flawed but good baseball movie - the Rookie.