My review was written in August 1991 after watching the film on Paramount video cassette.
Paramount's baseball pic is an entertaining sport drama that the distributor tested in Florida last April with no further bookings. Pic will definitely please pay-cable and home video fans.
Similar projects have long been in the works. From 1980 through 1983, 20th Century Fox developed "The Scout" for Peter Falk to star as the discoverer of a Fernando Valenzuela-type pitcher. By 1989, that unrealized project had become a joint venture of Fox and Orion, to star Rodney Dangerfield and Sam Kinison, also never made.
This version takes a somewhat more serious tack, no surprise since filmmaker Robert M. Young and his frequent star Edward Jame Olmos favor pictures with something to say. Olmos is comfortably, non-ethnically cast as a scout for the California Angels whose job is being eliminated.
New billionaire owner of the club (oily Terry Kinney) is doing away with the tradition of field scouts to save money. Olmos' last chance is to sign a phenom and earn a front office job.
When his car goes kaput during a drive with girlfriend (and club exec) Lorraine Bracco, Olmos lucks into seeing a sandlot game in Idaho where 20-year-old Jeff Corbett is throwing amazing pitches. After a struggle with the boy's parents, Olmos takes him west to sign with the Angels.
Familiar story is as old as a Joe E. Brown baseball comedy or a boxing saga like "Kid Galahad", but Young invests the proceedings with infectious small-scale heroism. Evil Kinney forces the kid to immediately start in the majors as a publicity stunt. Olmos loses his cushy new job when he stands up for the boy's rights. Bracco quits in solidarity.
Film's climax is fanciful, but finale's clever irony sets it apart from more sentimental genre pics, such as the current indie release "Pastime". Olmos and Bracco do well with standard roles, as does tv star Jamey Sheridan as the equivocal buffer between them and the owner.
Corbett, who bears a striking resemblance to Paramount's recent wannabe karate star Jeff Speakman, is quite convincing as the fireballing pitcher. Tech credits are solid down the line.
