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If the story of Andrew Scheinman's Little Big League were ever to come true, and an eleven-year-old boy through some circumstance managed to inherit a baseball team and the stadium they play in, the results would likely look similar to this film. That's certainly saying something, given the fact that Little Big League is a PG- rated film set in the 1990's, and one would ostensibly assume it would be full of mediocre comedic value and redundant gags about an eleven-year-old, well, inheriting a baseball team and their stadium.

Through miraculously gifted and careful writing by Gregory K. Pincus, and sensitive but firm direction by Scheinman, Little Big League surprises with its level of competence and maturity about this cockamamie idea. It takes itself about as seriously as its eleven-year-old protagonist takes the game of baseball, and not in the way where groans are induced, and doesn't settle for cheap humor that is forgotten as soon as the credits roll. It takes a fantasy and sketches it in reality, providing a "what if?" tale almost believable enough to encourage young kids and fill them with optimism about them owning their favorite sports team.

The film concerns Billy Heywood (Luke Edwards), who lives with his single-mother Jenny (Ashley Crow) and possesses an infinity and vast understanding of baseball. The love for the game is pushed along in an encouraging manner by Thomas Heywood (Jason Robards), Billy's grandfather who owns the Minnesota Twins team and their ballpark. When his grandfather dies, Billy views a filmed will that turns the team and ballpark over to him, despite his young age and lack of business experience. Billy replies to this by saying in a heartbreaking tone, "I'd rather have my grandfather."

It isn't long before Billy becomes the center of attention, at school, in public, and in the neighborhood, as the youngest team owner in the history of sports. Billy must manage to bring the average Minnesota Twins up to commendable playoff level, connecting with Twins players Lou Collins (Timothy Busfield) and Jerry Johnson (Duane Davis), his personal idol, while also learning more about the game than he thought he could by viewing it up close. The downside to all of this is, inevitably, as the owner, Billy must make tough managerial decisions, and through that makes the mistakes that even the adult owners do. However, in a motivational speech that avoids the trappings of sentimentality, talks about how even when the chips are down that a player shouldn't lose their direction. "Who cares?," he replies when the ideas of striking out or making an error are suggested, and all is forgiven if the love of the game can still be embraced by its players. After all, "baseball was made for kids; it's the grownups who screwed it up," Billy states at one point in the film.

Little Big League was released in the summer of 1994, about a year after another baseball film for kids hit the scene, Rookie of the Year. The latter received a great deal of recognition and financial success, while Little Big League found itself more-or-less eclipsed by an overblown genre and a more serious story, failing to resonate with an audience until years after its release. This is an understandable shame, as while both Little Big League and Rookie of the Year bear narratives that occasionally intersect or merge in my mind, the latter is far more littered with crude humor and mawkishness that fails to impress on the thematic level of its successor.

There may not be a lot in Little Big League for a lot of adults, who miss the numbers crunching and the business look at baseball, but there is a serene little spark of magic that shines through the film and its ideas about a kid taking a boatload of responsibility all at once and handling it to the best of his abilities. It's a quietly positive film, but a boldly realistic one all the more, which makes it a commendable exercise in a tired genre.

Starring: Luke Edwards, Ashley Crow,, Timothy Busfield, John Ashton, and Kevin Dunn. Directed by: Andrew Scheinman.

Between 1993-1995, many baseball movies such as Little Big League, The Sandlot, and Rookie of the Year came out, but I think that Little Big League was the most clever of them all. There were plenty of funny scenes that adults, rather than children, could relate to. It was well done and well acted. I enjoyed this movie and I have owned it since it came out.

This will be a sacrilege too many people, but I am not a fan of baseball. That said I do like a good sports movie and this is a pretty good one. This is probably Luke Edwards best film and the rest of the cast were also really good. Yes there are better sports movies and there are better baseball movies but this is worth a look. I didn't expect to like it but I did.

I remember that I didn't want to see this movie at the theater (or as a rental for that matter) because of the marketing of the movie and what I thought would be a dumb story. However, I was pleasantly surprised. For what it was worth, it was a pretty good movie. Yeah, the story-line was not believable and it was cheesy at times, but the basis behind the story was pretty solid, it had some pretty good lines, and it was pretty entertaining the whole way through. Word of warning, though - Don't let Randy Johnson scare you. That guy had to have fallen out of the ugly tree and hit every single branch on the way down, THEN bounced and hit every single branch on the way up. Plus he's called the 'Big Unit'; scary! 6.5 out of 10.

I thought this was a perfectly nice family film and almost canned it after the first 15 minutes, but I was glad I didn't because it turned to be a good movie.

The first 15 minutes including two GDs by Dennis Farina and some uncalled-for vulgarity by Jason Robards, but everything settled down after those two exited the film soon after and it wound up being a "cute" baseball movie and very impressive in its realism.

The last comment about "realism" was the most impressive aspect of the film to me. I had grown up seeing every baseball movie and never seeing any actors who knew what they were doing until Kevin Costner came along with his "Field Of Dreams" (and later with "For Love Of The Game"). So I appreciate the more modern-era of movie-making where at least we see actors who can throw and hit. This movie is about as close to seeing real baseball as you're going to get: very realistic diamond action.

The story was outlandish - an 11-year-old managing a Major League baseball team, but the baseball was so good and a good mix of comedy and drama made it turn out to be a satisfying film to watch. There are some nice shots of Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium in here, too.

Luke Edwards, as the kid, was just fine and a kid you could root for, not a wise- guy. He was aided by adults John Ashton and Timothy Busfeld. This is a nicer role for Ashton ("Midnight Run") and Busfeld, couldn't have played a more likable ballplayer. He was great to watch.

This a good film for adults, not just kids, and especially if you enjoy baseball.