The Rookie
“Sometimes dreams come back to life.”
Jim Morris never made it out of the minor leagues before a shoulder injury ended his pitching career twelve years ago. Now a married-with-children high-school chemistry teacher and baseball coach in Texas, Jim's team makes a deal with him: if they win the district championship, Jim will try out with a major-league organization. The bet proves incentive enough for the team, and they go from worst to first, making it to state for the first time in the history of the school. Jim, forced to live up to his end of the deal, is nearly laughed off the try-out field--until he gets onto the mound, where he confounds the scouts (and himself) by clocking successive 98 mph fastballs, good enough for a minor-league contract with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Jim's still got a lot of pitches to throw before he makes it to The Show, but with his big-league dreams revived, there's no telling where he could go.
Details
Release Date: 3/25/2002
Runtime: 127 minutes
Languages: English
Director: John Lee Hancock
Budget: $20.0M
Revenue: $75.6M
Production
Companies: Walt Disney Pictures, Gran Via Productions, 98 MPH Productions
Countries: United States of America
Where to watch · US
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Reviews
r96sk
A cracking sports drama about the career of Jim Morris. Absolutely loved this, the 127 minute run time flew by real quick; thoroughly enjoyable. It portrays, with extra drama I'm sure, the events of Morris' real life baseball career in a fantastic way. There's great character development right from the get-go, by the conclusion I was utterly invested in Morris. He is played by Dennis Quaid, who is superb in the role. I felt every emotion of his character, best I've (currently) seen of Quaid so far. The film does a great job at making you care for not only him, but even his high school team. Speaking of which, they did a terrific job with the casting of those guys - I felt like I was watching a bunch of real teammates; Chad Lindberg, of <em>'The Fast and the Furious'</em>, is one of them. Even away from Quaid and Lindberg & Co., you still have Morris' family to feel for as well. There's many characters to get attached to, but I was very interested in all of them. Fantastic stuff, I'd highly recommend you watch <em>'The Rookie'</em>.
