Mr. Baseball (1992)

Jack Elliot, once a great baseball player, is forced to play in Japan where his brash, egotistical ways cause friction with his new teammates and friends.

Director:

Fred Schepisi

Writers:

Theo Pelletier (story), John Junkerman (story)

Stars:

Tom Selleck, Ken Takakura, Aya Takanashi

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tom Selleck	...	Jack Elliot
Ken Takakura	...	Uchiyama
Aya Takanashi	...	Hiroko Uchiyama
Dennis Haysbert	...	Max 'Hammer' Dubois
Toshi Shioya	...	Yoji Nishimura
Kosuke Toyohara	...	Toshi Yamashita
Toshizo Fujiwara	...	Ryoh Mukai
Mak Takano	...	Shinji Igarashi
Kenji Morinaga	...	Hiroshi Kurosawa
Joh Nishimura	...	Tomophiko Ohmie
Norihide Goto	...	Issei Itoi
Kensuke Toita	...	Akito Yagi
Naoki Fuji	...	Takuya Nishikawa
Takanobu Hozumi	...	Hiroshi Nakamura
Leon Lee	...	Lyle Massey

Storyline

Although a one-time MVP for the New York Yankees, Jack Elliott is now on the down side of his baseball career. His batting average is low and one of his few claims to fame is that during the previous year, he led the team in 9th inning doubles in the month of August. With an up and coming slugger ready to replace him, he learns that he's been traded to the Chunichi Dragons of the Japanese Central baseball league. Elliott is set in his ways and quite inflexible, not only in accepting Japanese culture in general, but also with the way the baseball team is managed. When he meets his very pretty PR agent, Hiroko, he begins to gain a greater appreciation that he should accept his current situation. When he realizes her other connection to the team, his attitudes begin to change at an even greater pace

---

Plot Keywords:

male objectification | wrapped in a towel | man wrapped in a towel | taking a bath | bathing together | 

---

Taglines:

An inspirational baseball movie.

---

Genres:

Comedy | Romance | Sport

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sensuality and language

Details

Country:

USA Japan

Language:

English Japanese

Release Date:

2 October 1992 (USA)

Also Known As:

Basebalista

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$40,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$20,883,046

Company Credits

Production Co:

DENTSU Music And Entertainment,Outlaw Productions (I),Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

At one point in the movie, when the pitchers refuse to pitch to Selleck's character because they don't want him to break the home run record, Selleck turns his bat the other way around and challenges pitchers to pitch to him as a sign of protest. This comes from a real-life incident a few years before the movie in the Japan Leagues when Hanshin Tigers slugger Randy Bass was on the verge of breaking the single season home run record there and pitchers refused to pitch to him. Bass similarly turned his bat upside down to protest.

---

Goofs

When Jack and Uchiyama are drinking together, the amount in the bottle increases.

---

Quotes

Max 'Hammer' Dubois: Max Dubois. Around here they call me Hammer. Don't ask me why.
Jack Elliot: Jack Elliot.
Max 'Hammer' Dubois: Yeah. I know who you are. I've been in Japan, not dead.

---

Connections

Featured in Sports on the Silver Screen (1997)

User Reviews

I liked this movie

I liked this movie, not because Tom Selleck was in it, but because it was a good story about baseball and it also had a semi-over dramatized view of some of the issues that a BASEBALL player coming to the end of their time in Major League sports must face. I also greatly enjoyed the cultural differences in American and Japanese baseball and the small facts on how the games are played differently.

Overall, it is a good movie to watch on Cable TV or rent on a cold winter's night and watch about the "Dog Day's" of summer and know that spring training is only a few months away. A good movie for a baseball fan as well as a good "DATE" movie … Trust me on that one! *Wink*