‘The Perfect Game’ Proves That Baseball Fiction is Duller Than Truth

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CHICAGO – The 1957 Little League team from Monterrey, Mexico, was the first non-U.S. team to win that league’s World Series. That is a fact. “The Perfect Game” creates a story based on that fact that is as improbable as a team from Mars winning the big game.

Rating: 2.0/5.0

The story begins in the dusty Mexican town south of the Texas border that looks like it was last used for a Pancho Villa movie. But this is 1957, and the town’s boys are baseball crazy, seemingly knowing every statistic, including that Sandy Koufax is a rookie for the Brooklyn Dodgers. They have passion for the game, but no structure.

In a very strange sequence, a real baseball appears out of nowhere, which replaces the woven rags the boys were using before. If they can only find a coach, their team might be complete. It just so happens that one of the villagers used to be part of the St. Louis Cardinals. Cesar (Clifton Collins, Jr.) is convinced by one of the plucky boys that creating a Little League team is his destiny, which has also received the blessing of local priest Padre Estaban (Cheech Marin).

Through the prayers and the hopes of the townspeople, who are stuck in dead-end jobs working for the steel factory, the boys are formulated as a team and head north to Texas to compete in the Little League playoffs leading to their World Series in Pennsylvania.

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “The Perfect Game”

Cheech Marin (left) as Padre Estaban and Clifton Collins Jr. as Coach Cesar with the Little Leaguers of ‘The Perfect Game’ Photo Credit: © 2010 IndustryWorks Pictures

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “The Perfect Game”