Heather Rule's Blog, page 4

The Rookie commentary, part 11: ‘I’m the old guy’

For some reason, the next scene opens up with kids in a bounce house. It’s odd until the camera pans out and shows that it’s part of the festivities outside a stadium. The graphics on the screen announce it’s Orlando in the AA Southern League. Baseball fans are filling up on hot dogs and games before the main event – a baseball games – starts.
Jimmy walks into the locker room, zigging and zagging his way around players much younger than him. One player sitting on a bench removes his headphones (the ones from the 90s, not earbuds or AirPods) and asks if Jimmy is the old guy. “I’m the old guy,” says Jimmy, embracing the role.
Playing for the Orlando Rays, a minor-league affiliate of the Devil Rays, Jimmy wears a No. 9 jersey as he warms up in the bullpen, located down the first baseline in front of the stands in the outfield. Fans, also noticing his age, start heckling him. One probably-not-sober-fellow asks if he uses a walker to get to the mound. Another can be heard asking if Jimmy came up with the Senators. Then there’s this gem: “Hey skipper, I didn’t know it was bring your dad to work night.”
Let’s go over something here. Double-A ball is still two steps away from the major leagues. So even though Jimmy was in his mid-30s at the time, which is still relatively young in life and not at all unheard of for players in the big leagues, it’s definitely rare for someone his age to be stuck in the minors. Obviously, the scouts couldn’t just send Jimmy immediately to the Bigs, even with that 98-mph fastball.
Rough first outing
Back to the game, Jimmy gets the call to go in. Although he’s first introduced as Johnny Morris. I’d love to know if that mistake actually happened somewhere along the way in his minor-league career. When he gets to the mound, after first tripping over monster trucks near first base as part of a fan in-stadium gimmick, the manager hands him the ball and tells him to work fast because they have a long bus trip.
Fans are shown in the stands having a good time, dancing to the music as Jimmy warms up. When he starts pitching, he lets a wild one sail above the batter at home plate and hit the protective netting behind the plate. The fans immediately let Jimmy have it, booing and heckling him hard.
This screams movie-bit to me. I get that the intent in the movie is to put doubt into the audience's minds that Jimmy isn’t that good or he’ll be too nervous in the clutch or whatever. But these are fans at a minor-league ball game watching a brand-new pitcher. “Old” or not, they’re not going to let the guy have it like that.
We don’t know the outcome of the game, and it really doesn’t matter, but apparently, Jimmy had a rough go, telling Lorri on the phone later that he let a few of the pitches get away from him.
On to triple-A in the minor-league life
On the charter bus that night, because the minor-league life is not one of luxury, Jimmy sits alone staring out the window. The movie flashes back to teenage Jimmy staring out the window of the station wagon as the family is driving to its final destination in Texas. We also see him throwing the baseball against the fence, with the raindrops bouncing off the chain links as the ball makes contact.
That scene weaves back to the present with Jimmy blowing away hitters, showing the swings-and-misses consecutively. Somewhere in this sequence, Jimmy moves from double-A to triple-A ball, as the screen graphics note with the location: Durham, NC, AAA International League.
Still living that minor-league road life, Jimmy stands in a phone booth in the parking lot of a motel talking to Hunter and asking him the solution for 4x4. Hunter guesses 17, and dad calls him out for guessing and instructs him to “add it up.” Hunter is successful this time, while Jimmy receives an impatient knock on the phone-booth door as the “hurry up” signal.
Not wanting to talk about math anymore (I don’t blame ya, kid.), Hunter asks his dad if he’s made it to the big leagues yet. Jimmy, probably exhausted and frustrated with however long it’s been and hehasn’t gotten the call-up, completely ducks the question and asks Hunter to put his mom on the phone.
Jimmy wants a report on the home front, and Lorri tells him they’re a little behind money-wise. Baseball aside, being away from his family and the money issues are stressing him out. He says he’s tired, they say their “I love yous” and end the call.
He encounters a line of teammates when he exits the booth, prompting one of the outspoken fellas to explain to Jimmy that this is the only long-distance phone they have access to and he should put a time limit on his calls if someone is waiting. Jimmy doesn’t respond, so the player takes the opportunity to give him some jabs about how he’s all talked out from being on the phone with his girlfriend. That gets Jimmy’s attention; he replies that his son needed help with his homework.
Jimmy draws media attention
At batting practice on a sunny day, a TV reporter shows up and gets Jimmy called over to the sideline from the outfield. A young-stud hitter in the box, who seems pretty pleased with his cuts, is obviously annoyed that he’s not getting any love from reporters.
“You believe that? I go 4-for-5 last night, look where they got the camera.”
Then there are a couple of more comments from other teammates about how Jimmy should retire, because he’s certainly old enough etc. What are we seeing here? Yes, that’s resentment from some of the other players to put a conflict out there. It wouldn’t be unheard of, I suppose. These young players are likely just starting out, trying to get their careers off the ground, and then this “old guy” comes along and steals their thunder? Let’s put a pin in this one for later, too. 
The Rookie commentary, part 1: ‘What kind of baseball do they have? … They don’t.
The Rookie commentary, part 2: ‘There are more important things in life than baseball’ The Rookie commentary, part 3: ‘Yeah dad, bring the heat!’
The Rookie commentary, part 4: ‘You don’t have dreams, you don’t have anything’
The Rookie commentary, part 5: 'You got your shot at baseball. You got hurt.' 
The Rookie commentary, part 6: 'State! State! State!'
The Rookie commentary, part 7: 'It's your turn, coach'
The Rookie commentary, part 8: 'You just threw 98 mph'
The Rookie commentary, part 9: ‘Do you know how many guys can throw the ball 98 mph?’
The Rookie commentary, part 10: 'What are we telling him if you don't try now?'

The Rookie commentary, part 10: ‘What are we telling him if you don’t try now?’

In the next scene, Jimmy is back at his father’s house, sitting in his truck and staring into the darkness as if trying to figure out if he wants to go in. Jimmy ends up wandering in the yard and declines an invitation to come in the house when his dad sees him.
Because Jimmy and his dad still apparently don’t talk about things, the old man opens up the conversation by saying Lorri called him and “guess the scouts saw what they wanted to see.” That’s the way of telling the audience that things went well and now Jimmy has a decision to make regarding if he should head out and away from his family so he can go give this baseball thing a try again.
He’s at a crossroads. He’s not sure what to do. And even with the tumultuous relationship, he still ended up at his dad’s place for advice. Dad first fouls one off with a “give it some time” approach, which is something Jimmy says he doesn’t have. Then dad goes for the belt.
“Your grandfather once told me ‘it’s OK to think about what you want to do until it was time to start doing what you were meant to do.’ That may not be what you wanted to hear.”
Goodnight.
The blow-up continues on the home front
Quick-cut to Jimmy unleashing his fury for his dad back at home talking to Lorri: “I swear, sometimes I think he lies in bed at night just figuring out the one thing that he can say that hurts the most.” After all the awkward scenes with Jimmy the teenager and the tension in their father-son relationship, this is really the first time we see it boiling over for Jimmy, the anger he’s built up.
Jimmy hoped that this time, his dad was going to come through with some good advice. Now it’s Lorri’s turn to respond with an icy “maybe he did.” Yes, it’s time to recall her earlier, unconvincing happiness about Jimmy’s 98-mph fastball from his tryout.
Lorri goes into the list of reasons why she has reservations about her husband taking off to go play ball again. He has a family to support, a great job waiting in Fort Worth (which feels like it’s just a movie-chip pawn sometimes), and she tells him that he’s losing sight of all of those important things. “You can’t eat dreams, Jimmy,” she says, in reference to him needing to bring in some dough.
The gloves really come off when Lorri says she had the front-row seat to Jimmy’s pitching career the last time, especially when he got hurt and shut himself off from the rest of the world and from her. That dagger? “Truth is, I was happy when you quit.” 
But she does make some good points, and she also doesn’t want to see him get hurt again. It’s not worth the risk to her.
I have no idea if real-life Jimmy and his wife had these debates about whether he should give this a shot or not. I would imagine there were certainly discussions. Though this dramatic fight does scream “movie bit.”
Then they make-up
The dust settles and Lorri tucks in a sleeping Hunter. His walls are decorated with baseball cards, cutouts of ballplayers, even a photo of his dad on the mound. She gazes at all of it as she pulls the blankets close to her son. Her own wheels are turning in her head. She’s obviously going to change her mind, because we don’t come this far into the movie for Jimmy to put the brakes on and finish up teaching science in Fort Worth.
The husband and wife apologize to each other on the porch, each knowing the earlier conversation got too heated. Naturally, they each flip their positions, Lorri telling him to play and Jimmy saying she was right on her counterpoints.
But it’s Lorri who delivers the speech that tugs at the heartstrings. She mentions Hunter, their 8-year-old boy who waited in the rain all day to see his daddy pitch.
“What are we telling him if you don’t try now?”
So, I guess Jimmy going for it is all to Hunter’s credit? It’s obvious that Jimmy’s passion for baseball was injected into his son’s veins, too.
Time to hit the road
Still, Jimmy is hesitant, noting he can’t leave his wife with the sole responsibilities that come with three young children, bills to pay and a house to keep. She’s prepared though, telling him she’s a Texas woman who doesn’t need a man to keep things running. Score a point for the independent women!
Whether it’s the next morning or soon after, Jimmy is up early, dressed with an overnight bag slung over his right shoulder as he kisses his sleeping daughters goodbye in their shared bedroom. He stops in Hunter’s room as well, adding a “see you soon, little man” to his kiss on the head.
Lorri is waiting in the hall, and they embrace in a hug, gripping each other tightly, in a way meant for hugs of a person leaving for a while. 
The Rookie commentary, part 1: ‘What kind of baseball do they have? … They don’t.
The Rookie commentary, part 2: ‘There are more important things in life than baseball’ The Rookie commentary, part 3: ‘Yeah dad, bring the heat!’
The Rookie commentary, part 4: ‘You don’t have dreams, you don’t have anything’
The Rookie commentary, part 5: 'You got your shot at baseball. You got hurt.' 
The Rookie commentary, part 6: 'State! State! State!'
The Rookie commentary, part 7: 'It's your turn, coach'
The Rookie commentary, part 8: 'You just threw 98 mph'
The Rookie commentary, part 9: ‘Do you know how many guys can throw the ball 98 mph?’

The Rookie commentary, part 9: ‘Do you know how many guys can throw the ball 98 mph?’

Lorri arrives home at the end of the day juggling a pair of grocery bags, kicks off her shoes and checks the answering machine. (If you grew up owning a smartphone from birth, please turn to the nearest Millennial or Boomer to ask about answering machines.) One of the messages is Jimmy calling the house to tell his wife not to fix dinner because they’re picking up pizza. That’s your second reminder in this scene alone that this was during a time before texting and cellphones attached to everyone’s hand.
There were a couple of other messages on the machine though. In what’s a really fast turnaround, some baseball scouts and representatives with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays left messages for Jimmy. Lorri, of course, is a little confused. Remember, she didn’t know anything about Jimmy’s tryout.
Then cute little Jessica runs into the kitchen with a gleeful “Mommy!” greeting and unloads some pizza boxes from her hands. “Daddy told me to give you the pizza and not say anything else.” Kids can be so literal and forthcoming, right?
It’s clear they won’t be able to keep the secret of where they’ve been all day, so Jimmy offers a “go ahead” as Hunter and Jessica start filling their mom in on the baseball-tryout excursion. Among other things, Hunter talked about how hot it was (I mean, yeah, you’re in Texas, right?) and getting sunburned.
Husband and wife talk it over
Jimmy’s clearing the table post-pizza when he tells Lorri his own version of events, starting with the scout’s reaction: “The guy thought that the damn radar gun was broken. Do you know how many guys can throw the ball 98 mph?”
“Not many,” Lorri slyly responds. “You can count ‘em on one hand,” Jimmy says. “I still don’t believe it. Those are Major-League scouts on our message machine.”
Feeling left out, Lorri wonders why her husband didn’t tell her about the tryout. Why the big secret? It does seem strange, especially since he thought it wouldn’t amount to anything. But I guess that’s maybe the reason right there. I do find it interesting that he went the whole baseball season without it coming out though. Didn’t she inquire as to why this one-win high school team suddenly struck gold and couldn’t lose? You’d think she’d at least be curious.
Jimmy again brushes it off, saying it was just this thing to get his players to start playing. He even says here that he thought he’d throw a few pitches and that would be it. Turning serious, Lorri wants to know if he’s considering taking this process further than just a “thing” with his players.
For the first time, we see Jimmy start to take this potential career switch seriously, too. It’s almost like what the scout said about having to call in the 98-mph fastball. You have to give it a shot, right? Plus, Jimmy said he never threw that hard in his earlier playing days.
There’s some brief tension as he notes how Lorri doesn’t seem excited about this, but she quickly – and unconvincingly – brushes that off and says she is. Remember this for later.
You can see the baseball-passion wheels turning
Jimmy shuffles through the house later that night, doing the usual checks like shutting off lights and making sure the front door is locked. The television is on, and it’s showing an MLB game with a relief pitcher jogging in from the bullpen. If Jimmy wasn’t considering his return to pitching, the wheels start turning here as he pauses to stare at the pitcher on TV.
Sure enough, he followed up with those phone calls on the “message machine.” It’s pouring rain at a ball field. Jimmy stands in soaked gray sweatpants with a white-and-yellow jersey shirt and that same Jiffy Lube hat on a pitcher’s mound. His left foot moves back and forth against the muddy rubber as he tries to gain traction. Hunter, his own personal mascot, is dressed in rain gear and gripping the chain-link fence watching his dad.
Meanwhile, four baseball scouts are armed with radar guns to see if Jimmy’s first effort was a complete fluke. Nope. The audience sees the gun this time, registering 97 mph. Same for the next pitch. Scout Patterson offers a “So much for his arm falling off, huh?” to the other scouts, who were probably pretty skeptical unless they saw Jimmy pitch the first time. For good measure, Jimmy cracks 98 mph on the radar gun. 
The Rookie commentary, part 1: ‘What kind of baseball do they have? … They don’t.
The Rookie commentary, part 2: ‘There are more important things in life than baseball’ The Rookie commentary, part 3: ‘Yeah dad, bring the heat!’
The Rookie commentary, part 4: ‘You don’t have dreams, you don’t have anything’
The Rookie commentary, part 5: 'You got your shot at baseball. You got hurt.' 
The Rookie commentary, part 6: 'State! State! State!'
The Rookie commentary, part 7: 'It's your turn, coach'
The Rookie commentary, part 8: 'You just threw 98 mph'

The Rookie commentary, part 8: ‘You just threw 98 mph’

The Morris family is seated at the breakfast table one morning. Jimmy is feeding the baby and engaging in a conversation with Hunter and Jessica about Captain Crunch. Lorri is bustling about before heading out the door for the day. Jimmy tells her he has nothing going on, although he then tells Hunter to “remind me not to forget Jamie (the baby) if we go anywhere.”
Next thing we know, we can assume Jimmy is headed to this baseball tryout to live up to his end of the bargain with his team. The pickup cruises past a road sign for San Angelo 97 miles away.
Jimmy and his kids show up at baseball tryouts and – shocker – most of the players jogging around the baseball field are young studs. Seeing this, Jimmy looks reluctant but pushes the baby’s stroller toward the registration table anyway. One of the scouts, Dave Patterson, recognizes Jimmy right away. For the viewer’s benefit, Patterson mentions that he saw Jimmy when the Brewers drafted him back in the day. The scout assumes Jimmy is there to bring some of his players for the tryout.
“I’m here for me,” Jimmy says.
Awkward… “Well, all right then,” the scout responds.
Jimmy waits for the scouts to take a look
To set the scene, it’s time for another musical montage as the players take part in various batting and fielding drills on the field. Meanwhile, Jimmy sits and plays tic-tac-toe with Jessica, via a coloring book resting on top of their cooler on the grass.
Later, he’s still waiting to get the call and is in the middle of changing the baby’s diaper in the back of the pickup. Hunter points out that it’s the last diaper they brought, but Jimmy is way ahead of him, saying they’re going to hit the road. Jimmy tells a disappointed Hunter that there’s nothing he can do if the scouts won’t even take a look at him.
So, of course, the scout calls Jimmy over and says he’s up. Shocked they’re giving him a chance, Jimmy scrambles to get the baby settled, puts Hunter in charge of his sisters and says he’ll be right back.
Jimmy heads to the pitching mound, wearing jeans and a gray t-shirt. Yes, the traditional Jiffy Lube hat is still there. I wonder how much the company paid to get that much screen time in the movie?
Shooting his shot
He decides to go ahead without any warm-up, and the scout says “don’t hurt yourself.” Jimmy takes his traditional stance on the mound, moving his foot back and forth to kick the dirt away. Holding the baseball low behind his back, he shakes it around before raising it to his glove and eventually firing a pitch into the catcher’s mitt. Cue up that country-twang music.
Jimmy goes to work, bringing the heat with a sequence of pitches, complete with those same “whooshing” sound effects on the throws and ending with the “smack” of the catcher’s mitt. The scouts glance at their radar guns, but the audience and Jimmy don’t have a read on the speed just yet. Unsure of where he stands – and probably thinking he’s throwing grapefruits up there – Jimmy asks if he should keep going. The scout asks for a couple more.
After a bunch of pitches, including one in slow motion showing Jimmy’s focused, deadlocked eyes demonstrating his concentration once again, the scout says that’s good.
Jimmy quickly leaves the mound. He must be thinking this is the end of the line, really. He tried out, he kept his promise to his players, that’s it. But the catcher jogs over and offers up his two cents, for what they’re worth.
“Pitch, pitch. Man, you were bringing some heat out there. You got ‘em talking.”
He threw how fast?
Jimmy immediately puts his dad hat back on (although really, the Jiffy Lube cap never left) and strolls over to a metal garbage can to throw away a dirty diaper. Scout Patterson comes over and casually asks Jimmy how fast he threw the baseball back in his prime. Eighty-five, 86-mph, Jimmy replies. Then Patterson drops the bombshell.
“You just threw 98 mph.”
Skeptical is an understatement for Jimmy’s reaction here. He’s not buying this pity for a second. But Patterson says three radar guns on a dozen straight pitches all showed the same thing. Then we get a little scouting lesson, although it’s really not rocket science: Rule No. 1 is that pitching arms slow down with age. Mind blown on that one.
Patterson outlines the dilemma about the next step here. If he calls his higher-ups about a guy twice the age of the rest of the players, he’s going to get laughed at. On the other hand, “if I don’t call in a 98-mph fastball, I’m going to get fired.” Basically, Patterson lets Jimmy know he might get a callback.
The Rookie commentary, part 1: ‘What kind of baseball do they have? … They don’t.
The Rookie commentary, part 2: ‘There are more important things in life than baseball’ The Rookie commentary, part 3: ‘Yeah dad, bring the heat!’
The Rookie commentary, part 4: ‘You don’t have dreams, you don’t have anything’
The Rookie commentary, part 5: 'You got your shot at baseball. You got hurt.' 
The Rookie commentary, part 6: 'State! State! State!'
The Rookie commentary, part 7: 'It's your turn, coach'

The Rookie commentary, part 7: ‘It’s your turn, coach’

The Owls, one-by-one, grab their ball gloves off the bench from the dugout. Coach Morris tries to offer up some encouragement. “We’re a different team than the last time we played these guys.” Then he says there’s nothing to be nervous about in a way that shows he’s clearly trying to convince himself more than his players.
Game action starts with an opposing run coming across the plate and the Owls catcher motioning for his teammates to settle down after getting into “an early hole” of 2-0.
As the Owls grab the bats for the bottom of the 1st inning, the coach throws a couple of clichés at them, like one swing at a time, one hit at a time and one run at a time. They’re only down 2-0, but he’s acting like it’s a Mount Everest-like deficit. I guess these guys in their 20s on the other side are pretty good ballplayers.
Hanging in there
A groundout is a representative to show the Owls did not tie the game or take the lead in the 1st inning. Then it’s time for some game action with the soundtrack in the background to speed our way through the game.
Later, Rudy is at the plate with a runner on third base and the Owls still down 2-0. Jimmy, coaching at third base, provides the baseball sign to his hitter. Sure enough, he put the squeeze on, and the runner is safe at home plate on the suicide squeeze bunt to cut the deficit in half, 2-1.
Back in the field, the same big hitter from the early-season game smashes a ball to a deep part of the park. But the Owl outfielder catches the ball right at the fence. The ball hit the top of the chain link, bounces back into play and the outfielder grabs it with his bare hand before it hits the ground.
“And the owls are hanging in there,” says the PA announcer.


Time to rally
We’re into the late innings now, because the Owls are all standing up in the dugout with rally caps on. They’re cheering on Wack at the plate with a couple of runners on. The mouthy Wack comes through with the RBI knock to tie the score, 2-2. Jimmy gives runner Joe David a very obvious stop sign with both hands at third base, but for some reason, Joe David runs through it and slides home. He’s safe for a 3-2 Owls lead.
One more half inning to hold the one-run lead, and the Owls will complete their comeback season. The bases aren’t juiced, but Rudy is pitching with two on and a full count as tensions mount. Ball four. OK, now the bases are full of Wombats. I’ll give you one guess who’s up. Did you say that same big hitter? You win. We hear from the PA announcer that he was last year’s district MVP. Because of course he was.
Rudy is rattled and throws ball one high and tight, causing the big man to jump back. The count goes to 1-1, and then he gets ahold of a pitch, hitting it over the fence… but just foul. “Let me tell ya folks, they don’t make foul balls any scarier than that one,” says the PA guy.
With the count 1-2 and one strike away from the victory, Rudy’s teammates pump up the chatter across the diamond. “He can’t hit you!” and “Dig deep, Rudy!” can be heard. He delivers a pitch for a swing-and-a-miss strikeout, sealing the win and the district championship.
As the Owls start the celly on the field with the traditional dogpile, PA man is shouting “Owls win! Owls win! Owls win!” I’m not sure why we need a dedication to Harry Caray and his “Cubs win!” tradition here, but we get it anyway.
In a move I’ve seen many veteran coaches make over the years of coaching youth championships, Jimmy Morris stands back from the pile of players on the mound and claps his hands for his players’ efforts, complete with a giant smile across his face.


‘It’s your turn, coach’
The celebration continues into the locker room as the Owls are dancing and bopping around in their dirty, sweaty uniforms as the song “Jump around” blasts on a stereo. Things simmer down, and Rudy takes command with a toast to their coach, “to the man who taught us about wanting something more.” Rudy presents coach with the game ball signed by all the players and, making good on the bet, says “now it’s your turn, coach.”


via GIPHY
The entire team forms a line and shakes Jimmy’s hand, each saying “it’s your turn, coach.”
Later, Jimmy takes down his collection of newspaper clippings from his bulletin board. There’s a new clip though, about a baseball tryout with that same moniker written in orange marker across the story: “It’s your turn, coach.” 
The Rookie commentary, part 1: ‘What kind of baseball do they have? … They don’t.
The Rookie commentary, part 2: ‘There are more important things in life than baseball’ The Rookie commentary, part 3: ‘Yeah dad, bring the heat!’
The Rookie commentary, part 4: ‘You don’t have dreams, you don’t have anything’
The Rookie commentary, part 5: 'You got your shot at baseball. You got hurt.' 
The Rookie commentary, part 6: 'State! State! State!'

The Rookie commentary, part 6: 'State! State! State!'

We come out of the montage and into the Owls locker room with the players excited, whooping and hollering about their string of victories. Coach, with yet another shot at the football team, tells his players to “keep it down. Folks are going to think that football season started already.” Anybody that loves Texas football but doesn’t care for baseball probably shouldn’t watch this movie.
Coach Morris brings the boys back down to earth a little bit, offering a compliment by saying he’s proud of them and how amazing it is that they’ve won so many games in a row. But… tomorrow’s district-championship game still remains.
“Let’s finish this thing up.” -Coach Morris, as the players start chanting “State! State! State!”
And then, a guy appears almost out of nowhere in the team locker room. He’s from Fort Worth and wants to talk to Jimmy about that application he sent in. OK, first of all, how did the guy get in the locker room? What great timing, too. Let’s have a job interview when he’s dirty and sweaty minutes after coaching his baseball team in the biggest game of the season to date.
But then, we see that one of the players looks over and notices the conversation. Ah, alright then. This whole scene was for that benefit, so we can set up the will he/won’t he go situation. It all has a very movie-thing feel to it.
Case in point, the next scene is Jimmy talking over the situation at home with Lorri. She tells him that his players will understand because, as we all know, high school coaching jobs don’t get any better than Fort Worth. She references how much the family could use the money, planting a seed that money is definitely a factor here for these two school employees with three young children. I mean, it’s very understandable.
Remarkable turnaround for the Owls
We’re treated to another shot of a newspaper clipping mentioning the district championship game for the Owls. The camera pans up to a shot of the beautiful, green grass on the ball field the next day. Jimmy is in the locker room dressed in uniform – white with Vegas-gold lettering with “Owls” scrawled across the front, complete with yellow ball caps with the Owls logo.
It’s nowhere near Herb Brooks level, but Coach Jimmy Morris revisits the history of the baseball program, probably more for the audience than the dramatic effect for the players. A few years ago, the Owls were a one-win team. Same thing last season. This year? Their turnaround led to 16 victories. But he reminds them that they need No. 17.
Then we circle back to that player who just happened to see the Forth Worth guy snooping around. It’s the outspoken Wack, who asks if coach is coming back next year. Coach could be a politician with the dodge he provides, saying “let’s worry about this year first.”
To finish up the pregame speech, Coach Morris calls for hats-off and leads the team in a prayer. This warms my heart. And not that I’m looking for similarities and comparisons, but Jimmy Dugan also led his team in a pregame prayer before Game 7 of the World Series in “A League of Their Own.” Good stuff.
Setting the scene for the big game
After the prayer, the camera cuts to shots of shoes and socks from the ground level for both teams on the field as they’re lined up for the national anthem. The opponent is none other than a team the Owls faced earlier in the season, with that big hitter who looks so much older than high-school age. A pan to his teammates down the line reveals a bunch of tall, athletic fellas who also look like they’re closer to their 10-year reunions than high school graduation.
Now there’s also a better look at the rest of the team lined up, jawing their gum with smug looks on their faces. One of the players looks like he’s in his 30s. I’m not kidding.
Seriously though, why do so many of these competitive/sports children’s movies (Iceland team in “Mighty Ducks 2”, I’m looking at you.) feed the audience such a David versus Goliath feature when it comes to opponents? These are supposed to be high schoolers, not 25-year-olds. And yes, I know that sometimes in Hollywood actors cast in roles are older than the characters they play, but it’s usually pretty close and doesn’t leave the audience questioning anything.
Anyway, enough of that soapbox. The movie’s old friend, Henry, sings the national anthem, then gives a little point to Jimmy at the end as a silent “good luck.” It’s nice that they’ve kept a friendship after all these years.
Next, it’s time to play ball. 
The Rookie commentary, part 1: ‘What kind of baseball do they have? … They don’t.
The Rookie commentary, part 2: ‘There are more important things in life than baseball’ The Rookie commentary, part 3: ‘Yeah dad, bring the heat!’
The Rookie commentary, part 4: ‘You don’t have dreams, you don’t have anything’
The Rookie commentary, part 5: 'You got your shot at baseball. You got hurt.' 

The Rookie commentary, part 5: ‘You got your shot at baseball. You got hurt.’

On another sunny afternoon, we see Jimmy and Hunter at the same house where teenage Jimmy moved to back in the day. It’s Hunter’s birthday, and he’s there to see his grandpa. Remember him? That warm-and-fuzzy military man from the start of the movie? It’s the same actor from before the time lapse, just with more gray hair. Jimmy greets him with a “sir” upon entering the house. Clearly, they’re still cold and cordial with each other.
Hunter sits on the couch and rips open the boring-and-gray wrapping paper on his birthday present from gramps, which turns out to be a baseball glove. With “no fingers,” to be exact. Jimmy, unamused and getting a glass of water in the kitchen, deadpans that it’s a first baseman’s mitt. An awkward moment when grandpa asks if that’s wrong, because he obviously isn’t in tune with the baseball side of his boys.
Even able to simmer the situation as an 8-year-old, Hunter tells his grandpa that he likes first base, letting him off the hook for getting a glove that is only for one position on the diamond, and not a pitcher’s glove, like his dad. Prompted on his manners by Jimmy, Hunter gives grandpa a hug and thanks him for the gift before he heads out into the yard to play.
Jimmy glances at the plaques and photographs that line the wood-paneling walls and remarks that he didn’t know his dad had those. Mom gave them to him, and Jimmy is quick to verbally hit back at his father with a “she’d be the one to have them.” A couple of things are clear here. One is that it looks like Jimmy’s parents aren’t a couple anymore. Two, the tension between father and son didn’t just disappear once Jimmy reached adulthood. It’s still very much around.
Hangin’ with the fam
Later, we get a glimpse of family life at Hunter’s birthday party, complete with Jimmy’s mother, an old-fashioned ice cream machine and the first sighting of Hunter’s younger sister, Jessica, who blows out the candles before her brother. Typical sibling stuff.
Presumably once the sugar rush hits the kiddos, Jimmy and his mother head down a dirt country road for a leisurely stroll and conversation. She tells her son that he got his a stubborn side from his father, since Jimmy is still holding resentment and blame on his dad after all these years.
“You got your shot at baseball. You got hurt,” his mother says.
She adds that that had nothing to do with his father.
I’d have to dig in a little more to the actual Jim Morris, but this relationship bit with his father feels like it could be a movie thing and not based on truth. I mean, it could very well be true, but the way the storyline progresses between them throughout the movie, it wraps up with a bow.
Coach is back on the moundBack at another baseball practice – still at the gravel yard while the grass seed comes in on the ball field – Wack mouths off yet again and as a result is told to come in for BP (batting practice) with Jimmy tossing from the mound. And yes, coach is wearing that same Jiffy Lube hat. It’s part of his informal uniform throughout the movie. Wack eggs coach on, wants him to bring the heat.
Cue the musical montage as Jimmy cranks his pitches up a notch, and his players can’t keep up. It’s a compilation of swings and misses from various Owls players, even with the “whoosh” sound effects for their hacks at the air. The music abruptly ends when Wack finally fouls off a pitch. He feels quite encouraged by getting a piece of it.
One thing I noticed here, and it shows up throughout the film when he pitches, is Dennis Quaid’s eyes. They’re laser-focused. He doesn’t blink. He’s so intent on throwing fastball strikes that watching his eyes during the windup is pretty mesmerizing, actually.
Owls win!
Now that the Owls have their bet with the coach, have seen the heat he brings and have a green baseball field for the first time, it’s time to play some baseball. The next sequence offers a montage of baseball, game-action clips on that green field. The Owls finally get a win.
This leads to another musical montage stringing together another game from the Owls. Fans are cheering them on from the bleachers. We’ve reached the part of the movie where we need to move the story along and quickly assign a bunch of wins to the Owls to get them to that all-important district championship game.
Sure enough, the PA announcer proclaims five wins a row for the Owls. Interspersed with the game-action clips from their season, we see close-ups of a bulletin board and Jimmy tacking up newspaper clippings with Owls-related headlines.
As a print reporter, this is great to see. It’s also a bit of a trend in sports movies. Or at least, it’s not the first time I’ve seen it. “A League of Their Own” used newspaper clippings to quickly show the results of the early games of the World Series. I recall the “Mighty Ducks” trilogy used this, too. The camera also uses a variety of shots here, including a nice overhead above home plate as runners score. 
The Rookie commentary, part 1: ‘What kind of baseball do they have? … They don’t.
The Rookie commentary, part 2: ‘There are more important things in life than baseball’ The Rookie commentary, part 3: ‘Yeah dad, bring the heat!’
The Rookie commentary, part 4: ‘You don’t have dreams, you don’t have anything’

The Rookie commentary, part 4: ‘You don’t have dreams, you don’t have anything’

Back to another Owls game, Rudy is on the mound pitching to an opposing player who looks like he’s been old enough to purchase alcoholic beverages for years. The “kid” smashes an RBI double to put the Owls down by 10. Time for the hook as coach says “Not your day, Rudy,” to which he glumly responds: “Not my year” and hands over the ball.
Coach – and the movie camera – pan around to the other players on the field. Everyone looks bored and like they’d love to be anywhere else but playing baseball for a losing team. The final score ends up 13-3.
The result prompts a postgame pep talk from Jimmy with his team on the bleachers. He starts by throwing around the Q word.
“You quit on me, and worse, you quit on yourselves,” Coach Morris says.
He goes on to tell them that they’re making it easy for the school to drop the baseball program, if that’s the writing on the wall they see anyway. Then he spins a small-town tale of what their futures will look like after graduation. It’s a standard, work-raise-a-family-retire scenario, all the while staying in Big Lake. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course.
“But if you’re looking for something more after you’re done here, you better give some serious thought as to how you’re gonna play out the rest of this season.
“I’m talking about wanting things in life. I’m talking about dreams. And all that starts right here. You don’t have dreams; you don’t have anything.”
Here comes the bet
And then the turn tables. Catcher Joel asks coach about his dreams, noting that whenever he catches coach, he has to ice his hand. “You’re the one who should be wanting more,” Joel says.
Wanting to keep the focus on his team, Jimmy replies that he had his shot at baseball. His team says he should take another. That’s when the bet comes into play. And yes, this is part of the true story. His team challenges Jimmy to try out for the big leagues again if they start winning their own ball games. Being dismissive again, Jimmy offers that scouts won’t have any interest in a high school science teacher. OK, so Joel ups the ante, wagering that the team will need to win its district and go to the state playoffs. Everyone is now much more excited than we’ve ever seen them on a baseball field so far, and Jimmy gives in, agreeing to the challenge.
Hunter is there, too, and he’s a smart kid: “I don’t get to tell Mom about this, do I?”
‘Stuff that’s real’
Later, we’ve reached the speedometer scene of the movie. Jimmy pulls over in the dark of night near a speedometer sign on one of those old country roads. Actually, he drives past first before putting it in reverse and stares at the 35 mph-limit sign. Good news is he didn’t speed, passing by at 31 mph, but that doesn’t really matter for the scene. With Hunter once again asleep in the truck, Jimmy pulls out his glove and throws a baseball into the air, past the sign, testing it out. The pitch registers a 42-mph toss.
He waits by the truck and looks all non-suspicious as another car drives by, then stretches his arms over his head and pounds his foot in the dirt to prepare for a “real” pitch. All the while, the soundtrack of the film is simple and gradually fades up on a simple country-music piece. The lyrics I made out were “Stuff that’s real, stuff you feel.” The Google machine tells me it’s called “Stuff that Works” by Guy Clark, a little ditty released in the 90s.
When Jimmy finally unloads the pitch, the meter reads 76 mph, and Jimmy immediately looks annoyed that this is apparently his top speed after all these years. He walks into the darkness to retrieve his baseballs. As he does so, the still-illuminated speed sign flickers. Five other lights on the left side glimmer to brightness and reveal that actual speed of 96 mph. That’s major-league speed.
Then we’re treated to a couple of scenes about the grass seed on the baseball field, first with the hair spreading and then some players stopping by Jimmy’s classroom to tell him the grass is growing.
The Rookie commentary, part 1: ‘What kind of baseball do they have? … They don’t.
The Rookie commentary, part 2: ‘There are more important things in life than baseball’ The Rookie commentary, part 3: ‘Yeah dad, bring the heat!’

The Rookie commentary, part 3: ‘Yeah dad, bring the heat!’

Quick-cut to sprinklers popping up at ground level on a luscious football field full of crisp, green grass. Then the camera pans over to the school’s baseball field, which is very clearly a pile of dirt without any green to be found. Score another touchdown for the football tally.

With 10 players on the Owls high school baseball team practicing on the sub-par surface, coach Morris says they’re “waiting for the grass seed to take.” The players aren’t buying it, and one remarks about how the school’s football field “looks like Tiger Woods’ backyard.” There’s a timely reference for golf fans in the early 2000s.

At the end of practice, the team’s catcher, Joel, takes off his gear and asks his coach if he wants to throw. See, the catcher lets him know that he’s seen Jimmy tossing the ball at the old legion field at night; it’s no secret. Joel tries to sweeten the deal by saying that it helps to have someone to throw to, so the coach obliges. Hunter is also here, by the way. It’s subtly clear that he loves baseball just as much as his dad and is a young team manager, of sorts; Hunter’s busy putting the equipment away in the dugout.

Coach brings it 
Jimmy goes out to throw to his catcher, still wearing that Jiffy Lube hat and red shirt. When asked, he says he threw 85-86 mph back in the day. Then he adds that he “promised too many doctors” that he wouldn’t throw a “real” pitch anymore. That doesn’t stop the encouragement from the catcher and Hunter to get him to try anyway.

“Yeah dad, bring the heat!”

Who can resist that?


via GIPHY

So, Jimmy fires one into the catcher’s mitt, producing a “whoa” from Hunter and then a happy, 360-degree twirl in the dugout. Then it’s a little montage of pitches from Jimmy, in slow-motion with sound effects of his arm movement and the smack of the ball in the catcher’s glove. Joel is also quite impressed. When he’s finished, Jimmy asks to keep it between them, and that goes for Hunter not telling his mother either, “because I said so.”

Leaving school that night, a custodian tells Jimmy that he knows why the grass isn’t growing on the baseball field. The custodian flips the switch for the field lights to reveal a small group of deer eating away at the seed. It’s a nightly visit for three or four deer, apparently. Mark down another tally under the football column as Jimmy makes a crack about all the “big budget money they got.” Texas really loves its football.

Throwing ‘real’ BP to the Owls
Jimmy must not be able to contain his excitement about his pitching, or want to keep secrets, because while drinking wine on the porch with his wife that night, he tells her: “I threw today.” He also promises her that he’ll stop if his arm starts to hurt, but he must have touched a nerve because she abruptly gets up to go check on the kids. Stay tuned.

Back at baseball practice, Coach Morris ends up throwing batting practice because of some flimsy movie excuse that their pitcher, Rudy, is in the locker room looking for a shoe or something. Basically, the writers wanted to find a way to get Jimmy on the mound in front of his whole team. The players laugh and mock him, especially when the first kid up – nicknamed Wack, who’s cocky right out of the gate – crushes a pitch for an obvious home run.

Coach and the catcher make eye contact and silently agree that he should throw a “real” pitch now, if only to shut up Wack, probably. So, he does, and it draws a “What was that?” from a bewildered Wack as his teammates start to laugh in disbelief as the loudmouth getting schooled for a pitch.

Want the grass to grow? It’s all about that flow
We’re back to the old guys playing games (poker this time) in town, Henry asks Jimmy about a bunch of job applications he’s sent out. It seems like another throwaway scene, where the movie wants to let the audience know that perhaps Jimmy is looking elsewhere for work. Remember this plot point for later.

The other part of the scene has the fellas asking Jimmy about the problem with the baseball-field grass. Henry tells the coach he’ll have the field looking greener than Dublin on St. Patrick’s Day if Jimmy can keep his players off the field for the next three weeks. More on that later, too.

The Owls are finally in action playing a ball game, but unfortunately, they drop their season opener. The game ends with Rudy caught looking at the plate to finish off with a strikeout. He and the rest of the team look pretty dejected.

At a local barbershop, Cal – who’s one of the guys in the old-guys’ club, plus apparently a barber and also the public address announcer for the Owls games – is serving a customer when Henry and the other old fella come into the shop and start sweeping hair into bags and take it with them. Curious, but you can guess that this has something to do with their plan to fix up the baseball field. A little later, we’ll see the trio spreading this human hair on the ball field to keep the deer away from the grass seed.

Interesting tactic. Let’s see if it works.


The Rookie commentary, part 1: ‘What kind of baseball do they have? … They don’t.
The Rookie commentary, part 2: ‘There are more important things in life than baseball’

The Rookie commentary, part 2: ‘There are more important things in life than baseball’

The military family is on the move again, this time shown in a station wagon pulling a U-Haul trailer driving on old country highways in the middle of nowhere. In the backseat, Jimmy’s little brother (we assume; he’s not a major character) asks what those things are, referring to oil rigs. Dad explains what they are and that if they’re moving up and down, that means times are good. “Looks like times are good.”
They pass a sign for Big Lake – 3 miles – as they proceed to pass through what I can presume to be the main street of the small Texas town. Next, we see the family unpacking the car and going through boxes in the front yard of their new home. Mother and Jimmy are looking for a specific box they can’t find, which includes the lad’s socks and, his mother tells her husband, his baseball glove.
Dad is there to comfort yet again: “Well, quit moping and grab a box,” he sternly tells Jimmy. “There are more important things in life than baseball. The sooner you figure that out, the better.”
Yikes. I’ll take Dream Crusher for 600, Alex.
The kid is determined to play baseball
Jimmy later bikes into town, on a bicycle complete with the old-style banana seat, and enters a store with a bell on the door to signify his entry. Wearing a baseball cap, the youngster announces that he’s looking for socks. One of the middle-aged men playing dominos upstairs in the all-quiet store comes down to help him out, showing off the variety of socks to choose from, some with stripes or without etc. Jimmy says he just moved to town, and the man offers a friendly handshake and introduces himself as Henry.

As Jimmy sadly spins the socks rack, Henry senses something is on the boy’s mind and offers to help him find whatever it is he’s looking for. Jimmy timidly takes the opportunity to ask: “Got any baseball stuff?”
“Don’t get much call for baseball stuff around these parts,” Henry says. “Now if it’s football, that’d be a whole different story.”
The theme of football > baseball comes up a lot in this movie, at least early on.
Henry pulls out a catalogue to help Jimmy find some baseball stuff and then brings up the story about the nuns and Santa Rita. For the first time in a while, Jimmy starts to crack a smile. Next, we see him biking to the spot from the story, near the old oil rig where the old-time baseball was played. He starts to uncover the dirt baseball mound, moving his left foot back and forth.
Here's our time-jump in the movie
As the camera pans up to the Santa Rita sign, there’s a time shift. When the ball field comes into view again, it’s filled in a little more with green grass. And we now see Dennis Quaid – playing the adult Jimmy Morris – on the same mound. Nice knowing you, actor from the “Genius” movie.
Adult Jimmy eventually heads back to his tan Ford pickup truck and drives away, with a Santa Rita coin hanging inside.
Jimmy pulls up to a parking spot in front of Big Lake High School and walks into the office. As I learned from a bonus feature on the DVD about the real-life Jim Morris, the school was actually called Reagan County High School, still with the Owls as the mascot. Actress Rachel Griffiths walks by and offers a simple “coach” greeting to Jimmy, to which he responds “counselor.” Cordial enough, until she grabs Jimmy’s ass on her way by. Obviously, these two are an item. She actually plays Jimmy’s wife, Lorri.
We’ll assume that Jimmy is a baseball coach, because what other sport would he care so much about? But for now, we also know he’s a science teacher. In the next scene he’s talking to his class about protons and neutrons. We don’t see a lot of his classroom in the movie, so this is pretty much just establishing his life as a coach/teacher in the same Texas town he moved to as a teen.
History lesson in why Jimmy isn’t in MLB
Later, Jimmy and a young boy we’ll come to know as his son, Hunter, are seated at the café for dinner. And hey, the guys playing dominos back in the day are now in the café. One is cooking their orders while the others are seated at the counter. Small-town life. Henry is there, and he mentions all the surgeries Jimmy had back in his playing days, trying to remember if four was the right number. It’s laying the groundwork a bit to learn about the gap so far from Jimmy as a young teen to Jimmy the family man/teacher/coach.
As they’re leaving, Hunter, who’s about 8 years old and played by the adorable Angus T. Jones, asks his dad if his arm hurts anymore. Jimmy quickly catches the audience up on why he’s not some big-shot pitcher in the major leagues. He tells his son that his arm never hurt in high school because they didn’t have a baseball team (score another point in the baseball v. football battle), and it didn’t hurt in junior college when he got drafted.
He leaves it with kind of a vague answer.
“Is that why you didn’t make it?” Hunter asks.
Jimmy replies: “It’s never one thing.”
The talk must have inspired him, because Jimmy is throwing a baseball against a chain-link fence while wearing his red T-shirt and black hat with the red Jiffy Lube logo. His pickup’s headlights illuminate the fence for him while Hunter is asleep in the cab.
At home in bed, Jimmy and Lorri awake to a baby crying and briefly debate who will get their daughter this time. Lorri goes and rocks the baby, telling a tired Jimmy to sleep when he comes in the doorway saying it’s his turn. What are we establishing here? Jimmy is a family man. He has a local job and responsibilities at home. Pretty standard stuff. 
The Rookie commentary, part 1: ‘What kind of baseball do they have? … They don’t.