The Rookie (2002)

A Texas baseball coach makes the major league after agreeing to try out if his high school team made the playoffs.

Director:

John Lee Hancock

Writer:

Mike Rich

Stars:

Dennis Quaid, Rachel Griffiths, Jay Hernandez

5 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Dennis Quaid	...	Jimmy Morris
Rachel Griffiths	...	Lorri Morris
Jay Hernandez	...	Joaquin 'Wack' Campos
Beth Grant	...	Olline
Angus T. Jones	...	Hunter Morris
Brian Cox	...	Jim Morris Sr.
Rick Gonzalez	...	Rudy Bonilla
Chad Lindberg	...	Joe David West
Angelo Spizzirri	...	Joel De La Garza
Royce D. Applegate	...	Henry
Russell Richardson	...	Brooks
Raynor Scheine	...	Frank
David Blackwell	...	Cal
Blue Deckert	...	Baseball Scout Dave Patterson
Danny Kamin	...	Durham Manager Mac (as Daniel Kamin)

Storyline

Jim Morris is a Texas high school chemistry teacher and coach of the school's baseball team. He's always loved baseball and as a way of motivating his players, he agrees to go to a professional try-out if they win the championship. He once had aspirations to be a professional baseball player but an injury brought that to an end. Sure enough, the 39 year-old father of three finds himself at a camp for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and he somehow seems to have regained his pitching arm, easily throwing a 98 mph fastball. Signed to a contract, he toils in the minor leagues while his supportive wife stays home raising their children. He soon finds himself called up to the big club and pitching for Tampa which is in Texas playing the Rangers. Based on a true story.

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Plot Keywords:

baseball | pitching | texas | coach | high school | 

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Taglines:

Sometimes dreams come back to life.

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Genres:

Drama | Family | Sport

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Certificate:

G

Details

Official Sites:

Disney

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 March 2002 (USA)

Also Known As:

El novato

Filming Locations:

Austin Studios - 1901 E. 51st Street, Austin, Texas, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$20,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$214,718 (Japan) (24 January 2003)

Gross:

$1,173,179 (Japan) (31 January 2003)

Company Credits

Production Co:

98 MPH Productions, Gran Via, Walt Disney Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

127 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The place they filmed the movie was not really Big Lake, Texas, but in Thorndale, Texas, northeast of Austin.

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Goofs

The Rawlings baseballs used when Jim Morris was called up to the Devil Rays have the dark blue Major League Baseball logo on them. The movie takes place in 1999, these balls weren't used until 2000. The baseballs Morris actually used would have been Rawlings American League baseballs with light blue printing.

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Quotes

Jimmy: Anybody wanna tell me how we lost that game? Hmmm? No? How about taking a look at the numbers on that scoreboard out there? What do those numbers tell you?
Joe David West: How to get ahold of Bo's Tire Barn?
[team laughs, Jimmy pauses, obviously not amused]
Jimmy: You quit. You quit out there. You quit on me and, worse, you quit on yourselves. Now, what is it? You think we don't care about baseball around here? Think the school's gonna drop the program? You're just making it easy for 'em. Sad part is, I see it and you...

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Connections

References Bang the Drum Slowly (1973)

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Soundtracks

"Truly Cooley"
Written by Paul Greenstein
Performed by The Radio Ranch Straight Shooters

User Reviews

Very good, and true, too...

A fine story about following your dreams and actually taking a stab at Doing something about them when the chance strikes. Nothing was easy for Morris either-he had a family, job, job opps elsewheres, a mortgage, etc-it wasn't like he could just drop what he was doing and blithely hop on the greyhound to play AAA ball for 4 months. It took guts. I am glad that they showed his indecision, almost up 'til he got the callup to the majors.

I can remember seeing him pitch against the Red Sox(I think...), it was a great story. Though Morris actually looks more like John Kruk or a Mills Watson than Quaid-that's okay.

Quaid does a very good job playing the man, the teacher, coach and 'oldest rookie'.... As someone who is in the the same age group, I certainly can ID with his plight. You're not Quite too old to do what you had dreamed of as a kid, but it's getting there. You have to do it sooner than lator.

Believably told, nicely edited, paced, acted, good to see the familiar faces of the late Royce Applegate, Brian Cox and Rachel Griffiths here.

Good job all around, glad to see it hit.

*** outta ****...who woulda thought that the Tampa Devil Rays woulda been the subject of such a good movie early on?