I have always liked sports movies, in fact I remember that as a child one of my favorite movies was Rookie of the Year; a somewhat silly movie, yes, but also very funny where we can see how a child's life changed unexpectedly after a simple accident gave him the fascinating ability to throw at incredible speeds, a skill that quickly put him in the magnifying scope of a professional baseball team scout allowing him to become a professional baseball player despite his young age. The film initially unfolds very quickly as we first have the child's accident and the next minute we see him throw a ball from the bleachers to the pitch mound of a major league stadium to get everyone's attention and become a professional pitcher. The funniest thing about this movie is to see how this child's life totally changes, since now everyone recognizes him, now he is seen as a kind of rockstar that everyone wants to imitate.

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During the development of the film we see how apart from being admired by the public for his incredible ability to throw, this child will also have to face the new dynamic that does not end in his life, a dynamic that makes him go through all kinds of fun and even emotional moments because we see how their relationship with their teammates do not end well, in addition to the fact that his mother pampers and overprotects too much.

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This is a film that typically develops but still manages to give us some moments full of simple fun where we see some of the situations that children have to face to excel in this new sporting world of which he is part, a world that shows the true face of a sport where adults constantly struggle to excel, something that also gives life lessons to a young man who long thought that everything was going to be served on silver trays. The film as I said is not perfect and in fact has very visible problems such as the quality of secondary characters who feel useless by constantly falling into the typical clichés of sports films, something that although I do not dislike I feel that could have been avoided by giving some originality to the performances.

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Beyond the notable failures in the development of the plot and the secondary characters, this is a film that creates memorable scenes that I still remember with a smile on my face, scenes that at the time made me laugh without stopping, after all as an MLB fan to see how a child could deceive at some point a group of professional players to put them out is simply fantastic and it makes us see that sometimes strategy can very easily beat talent.

The whole film is a portrait of the workings of a professional baseball organization seen through the eyes of a child who by fate manages to enter and become part of a super demanding sport.

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There is no doubt that this is one of those many films that marked my childhood, a film that even today I do not get tired of seeing and that despite the failures I do not stop liking; basically an entertaining film, fun and very well artistically for the time in which it was shown. This is another of those movies that I review from a more personal side because who can put a classification to the childhood of a child who was only looking for something that amused him and made him see part of a sport that passionates him enormously.

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