Whether audiences were tired of baseball movies or needed brand-name stars, Little Big League came and went without a whimper in the summer of 1994.
If you’re a baseball fan who hasn’t seen it, watch it. Treat yourself.
The plot is rather preposterous: 12-year-old Billy Heywood (Luke Edwards) inherits the Minnesota Twins from his grandfather (Jason Robards). The team is struggling, leading Billy to fire the hot-headed manager (Dennis Farina) and appoint himself.
“It’s the American League. They’ve got the DH,” one of Billy’s friends tells him. “How hard can it be?”
The players initially chafe at the idea of playing for a kid. But Billy reminds the Twins the game is supposed to be fun and nearly leads them into the playoffs.
Billy’s mother is played by Ashley Crow, mother of Pete Crow-Armstrong, star centerfielder for the Chicago Cubs.
Most critics scoffed at Little Big League, which has a 35% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But Roger Ebert gave the movie 3 ½ stars, and it earned a B+ from the hard-to-impress folks at Entertainment Weekly.
“Filled with baseball lore, trivia and cameos by major-league players,” the magazine’s Lois Alter Mark wrote, “this fable covers its bases with sincerity and humor.”
The early 1990s were saturated with family-friendly baseball movies. The Sandlot and Rookie of the Year hit theatres in 1993, and Angeles in the Outfield came out in ’94. Little Big League simply got overlooked.
“You never know what movies are going to be successful or connect,” Greg Pincus, the film’s original screenwriter, told the Kansas City Star’s Rustin Dodd. “It didn’t have any huge star names to draw on. And if you’re going to choose between baseball movies with your kids, who knows why you choose which one?”
Those who chose Little Big League found a movie with a relatable hero, outstanding baseball scenes and cameos from ‘90s stars like Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson, Sandy Alomar Jr. and Paul O’Neill, as well as then-Seattle Mariners manager Lou Piniella.
“I just said, ‘Why not?’” Piniella told The Athletic. “I still get a residual check once in a while.”
The charm of Little Big League comes from its deep appreciation of baseball’s strategy and history. It correctly points out that Moses Fleetwood Walker played major league baseball in 1884, decades before Jackie Robinson. And in one of the movie’s most memorable scenes, Billy proves his managerial knowledge by outfoxing Mac, the Twins’ pitching coach, while discussing a late-game scenario.
“The movie take baseball seriously,” Pincus said.
Little Big League made just $12. 3 million domestically. But heavy rotation on cable and the MLB Network helped it find an audience.
“I love the movie, and I think I’d love it if my mom wasn’t in it,” Crow-Armstrong said the night he was drafted by the New York Mets in 2020.
