Matthau gets caught up in the competitiveness, too, ordering his kids toĭeliberately get themselves hit with pitched balls, and telling a new recruit ( Jackie Earle Haley, playing a neighborhood juvenile delinquent and naturalĪthlete) to grab as many plays as he can away from his teammates.ĭirector Michael Ritchie has made a specialty of

If winning is the only point, how you win starts not to matter. We begin to sense how important, how really crucial, Little League is to the adults involved in it. There are obligatory scenes in which the Bears finally get their uniforms, Matthau finally shaves, the boys say they won't wear their athletic supporters until Amanda wears one, too. She's Amanda ( Tatum O'Neal), the 12-year-old daughter of one of his former girl friends, and over the years he'd developed her into a first-rate pitcher.Īll of this is pretty much as we'd expect it, and Matthau works with the kids, despairs with them, finds himself beginning to care in spite of himself andįinally goes out to recruit a ringer.

Unsentimental way, and lets them use the sort ofĭialog we'd like to think 12-year-olds aren't familiar with. The kids are good, too Ritchie sees them in a fairly tough and Matthau is, of course, an engaging performer, and the role's a good one for him as he sits in the dugout, hung-over and bleary-eyed, watching his Bears come out of the first inning 26 runs behind. The movie comes by most of its comedy fairly easily. He doesn't understand kids, he's a loner, and he mixes bourbon and beer right in the can and drinks it in the dugout. His choice is an alcoholic onetime minor leaguer played by Walter Matthau - the sort of man mothers warn their children about. The team's obviously so bad no self-respecting coach would have anything to do with them, so the councilman hires a coach, illegally.

The message 1976 review