The Last Season

I had to conduct a pretty diligent search through the movie section to find where “The Final Season” is playing. Contrary to the LA Times ad, it’s not playing in theaters everywhere. However, it is playing in a theater nearby and at $3.50 a ticket. What a bargain. “The Final Season,” starring Powers Boothe and Sean Astin and based on a true story, is your typical underdog sports story. It’s 1991 and the Norway high school baseball team, winners of 19 out of 24 Iowa state championships, is playing its last season before the school closes. What’s remarkable about Norway’s record is the size of the town, 586 people, and the size of the school, 100 students. Yet year after year, the baseball team captures the state title under Coach Jim Van Scoyoc (Boothe). With pressure from the state to combine smaller schools into larger schools, the Norway school board allows the team its last season, to play for its 20th championship, not under Van Scoyoc, a vocal critic of the board’s decision to merge but under the guidance of novice coach Ken Stock (Astin). If you like baseball, you’ll like this feel-good movie although it’s nowhere near the caliber of “Field of Dreams” or even “Major League.” (10/14/07)