It has to be the smell of the grass made more potent when freshly cut.  Chalk mixed with red clay adhering to one's tightly fitting baseball pants, in the Summer, the boys come out to play, and they play baseball.  Young and old, they follow the game relating to it on every level. 

     Dennis Quaid's new film "The Rookie" is about baseball.  It is a real baseball movie in the vein of "Bull Durham" which next to "Bang The Drum Slowly" is one of the best sports films ever made.  "The Rookie" is not nearly as good as those films, but adequately and cleanly captures the feeling of the game, the smells, the sounds, the hard work, and some of the magic.

     Jimmy Morris (played well by a sensitive Dennis Quaid) was a real person.  He played two seasons in the big leagues, 1999 and 2000, in his mid-30s.  His stats were not as important as the fact that he actually made it into Major League Baseball after a 12 year hiatus from the game following a shoulder injury and an operation in his youth that seemingly ended his career.  The film about his amazing accomplishment tells us that he went from being a Texas high school chemistry teacher and baseball coach to a big league relief pitcher.  Its a fantasy that can be believed because, after all, it really happened.

     Dennis Quaid has made a lot of movies about athletes--football players, bicyclists, and runners.  With "The Rookie" he finds a role perfectly suited to his age and his attitude.  There is a sensitivity to his performance that sells even the most corny elements.  The film would not have worked without him.

     Rachel Griffiths (from HBO's neat little soap "Six Feet Under) plays his all Texas wife who stands reluctantly by him as he leaves her and his three children for a belated run at the bigs starting with a minor league farm team organization.  Griffiths never ceases to amaze me as an actress.  According to IMDB, she is Australian but handles various American accents and personas as though she is a native.  I argue with my wife about her looks which seem to be a happy concoction between Juliette Lewis and Helen Hunt.  In "The Rookie," she makes a believable Texas woman; she even manages to look the part--tough and wiry.

     "The Rookie" is the first live action rated "G" film I have seen on the big screen in some time.  I was pleasantly impressed by its wide appeal and effortless entertainment value.  Of course, baseball is a sport that can be watched and appreciated by all of us at any age.  Why shouldn't a film about it be available to everyone as well.

     Baseball season is here folks and "The Rookie" is a good opening day experience.

Jonathan W. Hickman, 2002