The Winning Season

THe film was overly sentimental and over dramatic. Moreover, in spite of the lavish attention to period baseball with the appearance of CGI stadiums along with period uniforms and gloves, it seems to me that they failed to understand a simple fact of baseball. In the final game of the World Series, played in Detroit, the main character, Joe, runs out on the field to play defense for the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates to start the game. The visiting team always bats first and the home team takes the field first. A gross error of judgment. I also agree with the other poster about the huge numbers of homers and long balls being out of place in the game of that era.

There are all sorts of problems with this movie, which I will leave for others to point out.

At its best, this movie tells a wonderful story, that of a little boy who loves baseball but isn't very good at it. He is granted an astounding opportunity, that he doesn't even ask for: he gets to play baseball with one of the early greats, Honus Wagner, against one of the early Satans - and greats - Ty Cobb. It is every little boy's fantasy, and he gets to live it.

The rest of the movie is sentimental, like a Hallmark Hall of Fame special. That's all very nice, of course.

But the little boy's fantasy, which will be understood by any man who has not grown so old as to have forgotten what it was like to be a little boy, is golden.

I have no idea if this movie has anything to say to women. Perhaps not. I've never been a woman, so I can't say.

But if you were ever a little boy and loved baseball, no matter how bad you were at it, this movie has a lot to say to you.

I'm a Pittsburgher with an above average knowledge of the Pirate history and Honus Wagner. Many things about the movie were well done. The recreation of Forbes Field, though imperfect, was better than expected. The portrayal of Wagner seemed to be generally on the mark. The protrayal of Cobb, on the other hand, seemed patentely unfair and overstated like I suspect most modrern-day portrayals of Cobb are. Let's face it though, this movie is above all a kids fantasy as is the book upon which it is based. The story in the book holds together better in my opinion. All that being said I will purchase it for my collection should it ever be released as a DVD.

"The Winning Season" is a nice family movie whose plot seems to be a mix between two classic from the 1980's and even includes a similar "choose love or game" theme just like as "For the Love of Game". Here a kid (Mark Rendall) living in 1985 (where another famous film about time travel was released) has the magical chance to see many famous baseball players of the past (in 1909) after discovering a magical baseball card of Honus Wagner (Matthew Modine), and this card could solve all his family financial problems.

Instead of being a kid he's somehow is transformed into a young men, played by Shawn Hatosy, who is marveled by this time travel but he desperately wants to get home in the future. In the meantime he lives with Wagner and his future bride (Kristin Davis) and he has the chance to met notorious baseball players including Ty Cobb (William Lee Scott) and watch many incredible games.

The film is good, has a good message despite making a plot loan of many other great films (it's very similar to "Field of Dreams"), it's very charming, has some good humor moments and it's very delightful to see it.

The acting of the ensemble casting is good, although I enjoyed more of the boy's performance than Shawn playing him as a grow man. William Lee Scott was very interesting playing Cobb, the movie's antagonist.

Anyway, it's enjoyable in many ways, "The Winning Season" is a very positive TV movie. 9/10.

This is the best new baseball movie I've seen in ages,Big (Tom Hanks) crossed with Field of Dreams and 8 Men Out....The reproduction of the way life was turn of the century Pittsburgh was excellent and looked as real as if you were there...The actors who were cast as the ball players & especially the portrayal of Honus Wagner by Matthew Modine and Ty Cobb by William Lee Scott were incredible....The movie has a feel good ending,a kid overcoming adversity on the ball field,problems at home with his family,discovering he's grown up & gone back in time,a little love story for the ladies,this movie just absolutely has it all!!!!!A Great movie for the entire family.....