Posted by Jonathan Klotz | Published
Summer means going to the beach, pool parties, blockbuster movie releases, the Summer Song debate, and baseball. America's pastime takes center stage in early July when we don't have to share the spotlight with any other sport. Baseball movies haven't died in the last two decades, but in the 90s, they were everywhere. Angels in the Courtyard, The Sandlot, Little Big League, Major League II, Their Organizationand the one who took all primary schools by storm, Rookie of the Year. Now that it's on Netflix, a new generation is learning that if you break your arm in the right place, you too can help the Chicago Cubs win the World Series.
Rookie of the Year is Pure Wish Fulfillment
Rookie of the Year stars Thomas Ian Nicholas as Henry, a Little Leaguer who rides, hangs himself in the air, and then blows off his arm. The healing process improved his muscles and he can now throw a baseball over 100 MPH with incredible accuracy. Throwing a 12-year-old kid on a professional team is absurd, but this was 1993, and let's be honest, the real Cubs in Chicago would have done the same if he had put them in the World Series.
The plot of the film is a small paper with an important life lesson about family, but Thomas Ian Nicholas does a good job holding everything together with a surprised look on his face. Henry can't believe he's playing for the Chicago Cubs, along with his hero, Chet Steadman (Gary Busey). All that excitement ends when he realizes that the Cubs have a bad manager, played by the director, Daniel Stern, and his father conspires to send him to the worst team in Major League Baseball, the one place no self-respecting athlete should go, a team that everyone hated for good reason: the New York Yankees.
The Second Best Baseball Movie of 1993
Rookie of the Year it was a huge success at the box office, grossing $50 million and became a staple of bedtime and school movie days. The numbers aren't available, but as anyone who lived through the 90s will tell you, this movie was all over the place. It's still well remembered today, but it's not the best baseball movie of the 90s. It's not even the best baseball movie of 1993.
In April of 1993, just in time for the baseball season, Disney was released The Sandlot. The coming-of-age story set in 1962 feels deeper than the fulfillment of a pure desire to play for the Chicago Cubs. The Sandlot it didn't make that much money, it wasn't that popular with the elementary school crowd, but over time, it has been rightfully recognized as one of the greatest baseball movies, the best coming of age movies, and the best kids movies of the 90s.
Rookie of the Year is currently streaming on Netflix, where in the first week of its availability, it was ranked in the top 10 children's movies. Kids today don't get the same kind of sports movies that kids did in the 90s, but they can still enjoy the cool fun of a Little Leaguer throwing 100 MPH fastballs.
