The Perfect Game - 3 smiles

Everyone likes an underdog story and what could be more underdog than a team of young Mexican boys making an impossible run to the Little League World Series in 1957? Sure the dialogue is cheesy, some of the dramatic moments a little awkward and the plot predictable, but this heart-warming story is one you shouldn’t miss. Directed by William Dear (“Angels in the Outfield”), this film isn’t just about the boys’ journey, but also the one taken by their coach, César Faz (Clifton Collins Jr.). César, once an aspiring major-league player and now a clubhouse attendant for the St. Louis Cardinals, has returned to the steel-mill drudgery in Monterrey. There we meet an embittered family man (Carlos Gomez) who forbids his son Angel (Jake T. Austin of TV’s ‘Wizards of Waverly Place’) from playing baseball and the Dodgers-loving town priest (Cheech Marin). Soon Angel convinces César to teach the boys the fundamentals of the game. The Monterrey Industrials, as they were called, come to the United States with three-day visas, crossing the border on foot, expecting to play a single game in McAllen, Texas. You see, César expects them to lose because they’re 30 pounds lighter and six inches shorter, not to mention they’ve never played against another team. But the Monterrey Industrials win and they keep on winning. Then they play the only perfect game in Little League Series history, becoming the first non-American team to take the title. (They also win the championship in 1958.)

The boys’ exploits as they journey to the final game is full of heart from their ecstatic rolling in the grass of their first ball field to their ignoring the unspoken color lines drawn in a local diner. There’s even a peripheral story of a Rosalind Russell-type girl reporter (Emilie de Ravin) dismissively assigned to follow the team across Texas and, then, to her editor’s embarrassment, all the way to Williamsport, Pa. Like other sports movies, “The Perfect Game” is about overcoming prejudice as well as adversity. Jingoism, racism and sexism are all acknowledged in ways that are fairly obvious but hardly out of place. What I want to know, though, is why I had never heard about this team and their exploits. This is a movie to see, even if you’re not a big baseball fan. 4/17/10