Bad News

By Kim J. Harmon

 

I don’t really think I understood how much things have changed until I sat down last weekend and watched one of the great baseball movies of all time – The Bad News Bears.

Directed by Michael Ritchie and released in 1976, it stars Walter Matthau as down-and-out coach Morris Buttermaker who takes over a team of misfits – players that no other team wanted – in a competitive California Little League.

Tatum O’Neal also starred as the team’s best pitcher, Amanda Whurlitzer.

I sure loved this movie when I was 14 – especially with the kids cussing out their opponents and getting into trouble. And, hey, even 27 years later it still has its appeal … as I discovered while watching it with my son.

But – wow, have times changed.

Picture these three things:

 

1) In the championship game against the Yankees, Buttermaker is sitting on the bench nursing a beer.

2) The coach of the Yankees, played by Vic Morrow, comes out to the mound and slaps his kid.

3) When the game is over, and the Yankees have won, Buttermaker passes out beers to all the kids on his team.

Can you imagine any of those things happening today? People would be horrified just to see a coach drinking a beer at a Little League field, let alone in the dugout and in front of the kids. People would also be mortified – and would certainly call the cops – if a coach walked out to the mound and slugged his kid.

And if a coach handed out beer to a bunch of 10-year-olds? Not only would the SWAT team descend on the field, but the incident would no doubt be a subject of newscasts around the country … not to mention a scathing expose in Sports Illustrated.

With all of that, The Bad News Bears is definitely a dated movie, but it can still charm the socks off of you – especially when Ogilvie makes that miraculous catch in rightfield (miraculous only in the fact that he actually caught it).

“You should see the last 15 minutes of the movie. I couldn’t even see it.” – Yogi Berra

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Since we’re on the subject of movies …

I also looking in on The Babe, starring John Goodman, and I can honestly say I was not impressed. Besides making Babe Ruth out to be an utterly naïve child and/or complete dullard, the historical inaccuracies in the movie were appalling.

“Boxing is great exercise – as long as you can yell ‘cut’ whenever you want to.” – Sylvester Stallone

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Maybe the best sports movie I have ever seen – and it’s on all the time – is Hoosiers, starring Gene Hackman and Dennis Hopper. It’s about a coach with a checkered past taking over a small Indiana high school team and leading it to the state finals.

It is a wonderful pic ... even if you do know how it is going to end.