Review – The Rookie

Baseball and kids and the triumph of the underdog … throw in Disney, and you’ve got a pretty good idea what’s in store here. This is the true story of a small town Texas baseball coach (Dennis Quaid alternately smirking and scowling through another role) with a miracle fastball that takes him to the majors (or at least to the Devil Rays) by the end of the picture. The thing I found most interesting about this production was the almost complete lack of antithesis. The guy’s dad is kind of a creep, and his wife rags on him in a couple of scenes. But for the most part there’s no opposition, just a slow, steady rise to success. The result is a sentimental little picture that’s fun to watch if you’re a baseball fan with a couple of hours to kill on a brain-dead weekend evening. Mildly amusing