The kids on that Monterrey team had far more than baseball to worry about, which makes their accomplishments even greater. Barely surviving in the rundown burros of Mexico in 1957, the kids only real connection to baseball was through Padre Esteban's(Cheech Marin!) radio which occasionally was strong enough to pick up a signal. Yes, Cheech is a priest....of the "highest" order. Get it? *ahem* For most of these boys, there doesn't appear to be much to look forward to. Most of their fathers work in a factory smelting iron, and unless something changes that future is ahead for them as well. What they love is baseball, but Mexico doesn't have it's own Little League team. All seems hopeless.
That is until the appearance of Cesar Faz, played by one of the most underrated actors working today, Clifton Collins. Faz has just been let go from his gig with the St. Louis Cardinals. Expecting a promotion to coach, Faz finds himself on the unemployment line and soon back home to smelt iron in Monterrey. It's a crushing fall from grace that clearly has shaken his pride. The boys see his arrival as a sign from God. Surely this savior, who knows his way around the major leagues, was sent to help them, right? Maybe as a way of redeeming himself, Faz agrees to coach this rowdy group of misfits and gel them into a real team.
What follows next is a study in perseverence and faith, combined with plenty of running laps and fielding drills! If their problems were relegated only to completing double plays, it would've been smooth sailing. Instead, Faz and the team are met by obstacles at every turn: from lack of funding to making the dangerous trek across the border for their first away game. Racial and gender inequalities are brought to the forefront as well in the form of a spunky female reporter(Emilie de Ravin) and a former Negro League ballplayer turned groundskeeper(Louis Gossett). The team is constantly berated by a racist hicks who seem to be able to attend every single little league game the boys play in.
This is perhaps the film's biggest drawback, piling on too many broad ideas that are best explored elsewhere, not in a cheerful underdog story such as this. I understand what the story is going for, drawing parallels and finding commonality in all forms of prejudice. It's a great plan, and one that would make for a compelling film if it wasn't sandwiched in between the 3rd and 4th inning. There's just not enough time to spend building on it, mainly because this film spends a lot of time on the field. That's not a bad thing. In fact it's a great thing. The baseball scenes work beautiful, and we get to see the team really come together over all their adversities.
I had no idea at the time so many of the players are known actors from various Disney or Nickelodeon shows. I'm clueless to that sort of thing being an old fogey who watches nothing but cable news an pro wrestling all night. The kid actors are sometimes a little bit too enthusiastic in delivering their lines, but it's that youthful exuberance that helps the film rise above any shortcomings. Despite myself, I wanted to watch these kids win. When the town is gathered around to listen to their sons playing in that big game, I wanted to clap right along with them. Not that I did. That would've been rude.
The Perfect Game is a little bit The Sandlot, a little bit The Bad News Bears, with a hint of Touched by an Angel thrown in for good measure. If you can understand what it was like to truly fall in love with a sport as a kid, huddling around the radio with your Dad to catch the game of the week, then you're gonna dig this movie. Perfect for baseball buffs looking for a rarely told story of the national pasttime, and for families looking for a quality, wholesome moviegoing experience.
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