Rookie of the Year is a light-hearted comedy about a 12-year-old baseball fan who, despite his love for the sport, can't play the game at all. During one Little League contest, he breaks his arm. After it heals, it miraculously becomes a super-human arm that can out-pitch any player in the major leagues. The boy joins the Chicago Cubs and helps lead them to the World Series. Though the plot is silly and contrived, it's a pleasant film that is ideal for young sports fans. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
Review by All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
lost interest.
Along with
Little Big League and
Angels in the Outfield, Rookie of the Year was one of a trio of sports fairytales that came out in 1993 and 1994 about the unlikely contributions of a 12-year-old boy in major league baseball. In this one, the kid is an actual player, able to throw devastating fastballs after a medical anomaly in which his broken arm heals as a kind of mousetrap missile launcher. When his arm cocks and snaps into motion, real superstars such as Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonilla are left helplessly whiffing at each pitch. Although this is sort of fun to see, the idea involves such a huge suspension of disbelief that viewers may only grudgingly give it. Still, actor
Daniel Stern's directorial debut works a winning formula for young sports fans, especially those who practice striking out the league's top hitter to win the World Series against the picket fence in their backyard. Stern's major mistake in an otherwise even-keeled film is his own portrayal of the Cubs' klutzy and exhaustingly eccentric pitching coach. Stern is so bug-eyed and loose-limbed that his scenes are downright painful to watch. The other actors acquit themselves more tolerably, notably
Gary Busey (also hamming it up, but not as much) as a grizzled, junkball-throwing veteran. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide