BEFORE: It's a beautiful day, so let's play two...I'm a little late getting to baseball films this year, I watched a bunch of them last April, like "Fever Pitch", "Mr. Baseball", and "The Natural" - but since the Mets and Yankees are playing each other this weekend in interleague games, let's tie in with that.
THE PLOT: The story of a young boy's thousand-mile journey to help Babe Ruth and the New York Yankees win the World Series.
AFTER: So, Babe Ruth is everyone's hero? Not mine... Damn traitor to the Red Sox, and he kicked off this "trade-happy" mentality that's kept the best baseball players bouncing around the country ever since, with everyone in search of the biggest contracts.
I suppose things were different back in the 1920's, when baseball players were the biggest entertainers in America. Apparently things were so different back then that baseballs and bats could talk to kids...
See, I'm at a loss again with one of these animated films for kids - I have to either accept a talking ball and bat, or make up some excuse, like this kid has an overactive imagination, or has delusions about talking baseball equipment. The story has Babe Ruth's favorite bat, "Darlin'", being stolen by a Chicago Cubs pitcher, in the belief that without this bat, Ruth won't hit and the Yankees will lose the series.
The main character, Yankee Irving, is blamed for the loss of the bat, since his father was a security guard at Yankee Stadium who let him into the team's locker room that night. So his father gets fired, and Yankee goes on a quest to find the bat, re-steal it, and deliver it to Babe Ruth in Chicago.
Along the way, he learns a few life lessons, and some baseball tips as well. Heck, even the talking ball and bat learn some life lessons. So it's probably a fine movie for kids, but if you ask me to believe that a 10-year old kid could be dropped in to bat in a World Series game, well, then, I have to call "shenanigans". Everyone knows that a team's post-season roster has to be submitted and approved by Major League Baseball, and you can't just send in a pinch-hitter in a World Series game who hasn't been cleared. Yeah, the guy who ran the Cubs back in the day pulled all kinds of stunts like letting a midget bat (he had no strike zone, see...) but not in a World Series game, for chrissakes.
And today's twi-night double-header...er, double-feature, puts me three ahead on the count. So I can take a few days off for Memorial Day Weekend, and still be on track.
Starring the voices of Rob Reiner (as the baseball), Whoopi Goldberg (as the bat), William H. Macy, Richard Kind, Raven-Symone, Robert Wagner, Forest Whitaker, Mandy Patinkin, and Robin Williams (uncredited as the Chicago Cubs coach, but it was definitely him...)
RATING: 3 out of 10 bobble-head dolls
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