Rookie of the Year

Play trailer

Rookie of the Year

PG

Released Jul 7, 1993

1h 43m

Kids & Family

Comedy

Play Trailer

Watchlist

Watchlist

Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

41%

Tomatometer

22 Reviews

53%

Popcornmeter

50,000+ Ratings

A freak accident causes 12-year-old Little League player Henry (Thomas Ian Nicholas) to become such a powerful and accurate pitcher that the Chicago Cubs sign the junior high student to a contract. Unprepared for such a high-pressure environment, Henry falters until aging fastballer Chet Steadman (Gary Busey) takes him under his wing and teaches him how to play in the big leagues. Meanwhile, his mother's venal boyfriend (Bruce Altman) tries to sell Henry's contract to a hated opposing team.

Watch on Fandango at Home

Buy Now

Critics Consensus

Rookie of the Year gets some laughs from its novel premise, but a high strikeout rate on jokes and sentimental fouls keeps this comedy firmly in the minor leagues.

Read Critics Reviews

Hollis Chacona

Austin Chronicle

Rated: 3/5

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

This movie is not likely to make my list of the year's best, but I can remember those miserable Little League games and so in a modest way I'm grateful for this film. It is pure wish-fulfillment, 40 years after I needed it.

Rated: 3/4

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Danielle Solzman

Solzy at the Movies

Rookie of the Year may feature a preposterous premise but it still remains an entertaining baseball comedy three decades later.

Rated: 4/5

Jul 23, 2023

Full Review

Preston Barta

Fresh Fiction

‘Rookie of the Year’ doesn’t deserve the critical bench after 30 years. It’s an ace family sports movie!

Mar 7, 2023

Full Review

Malcolm Johnson

Hartford Courant

Inning after inning, Rookie of the Year goes down swinging, ignominiously. It's strictly bush league stuff.

Jun 4, 2018

Full Review

Quentin Curtis

Independent on Sunday

If you don't know baseball, you won't understand the climax. If you do, you'll find it preposterous.

Dec 6, 2017

Full Review

Read all reviews

Stephen C

Funny in 1 hour and 43 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The USA grossed over $53,100,000.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

06/20/25

Full Review

Joey G

This is such an underrated movie! I loved it!

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

05/17/25

Full Review

Audience Member

Fun family movie and a timeless classic. It's been three decades since I first watched it and it's every bit as enjoyable to me now as it was when I was a kid.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/25/25

Full Review

Jacob B

Very much a film meant to appeal to young audiences with some of the overacting from Daniel Stern and some of the minor characters and its funky, buttlovin' dialogue as well as its premise but the acting is sincere, some of the jokes work and it isn't without its moments of charm. True, at the end of the day, Rookie of the Year is just a standard baseball film released back during that trend's early '90s heyday that's notable nowadays for having its star be one of the main characters from American Pie but it's still a more compelling watch than Angels in the Outfield.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/08/25

Full Review

Audience Member

Don’t y’all hate the “Main-character-gets-superpowers-but-loses-them-at-the-end-of-the-movie” trope? Because I most certainly do. Not only is the plot of this movie so insanely generic, but the movie itself is just so boring, especially when you factor in the fact that I myself am not a baseball fan. What’s worse is that Dreamworks Animation, almost exactly 2 decades later, decided to make a film that follows this exact same story structure, and that movie is Turbo. Which, by the way, is just as bad as this one. I highly recommend you don’t watch this film and instead watch something with more wit put into it than this mess.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

03/28/25

Full Review

Ed R

Classic nostalgia! Fun plot! Cheesy humor and a great movie for the family!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

10/05/24

Full Review

Read all reviews

Read More

Read Less

POST RATING

WRITE A REVIEW

EDIT REVIEW

Daniel Stern

Director

Thomas Ian Nicholas

Henry Rowengartner

Gary Busey

Chet Steadman

Albert Hall

Sal Martinella

Amy Morton

Mary Rowengartner

Dan Hedaya

Larry Fisher

Mrs. Doubtfire

71%

77%

Mrs. Doubtfire

Watchlist

TRAILER

for Mrs. Doubtfire

Baby's Day Out

24%

52%

Baby's Day Out

Watchlist

Dunston Checks In

17%

41%

Dunston Checks In

Watchlist

Undercover Kitty

64%

71%

Undercover Kitty

Watchlist

Garfield: The Movie

14%

38%

Garfield: The Movie

Watchlist

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

New on Prime Video and Freevee in September 2022

Rotten Tomatoes Predicts the World Series!

View more photos

Synopsis

A freak accident causes 12-year-old Little League player Henry (Thomas Ian Nicholas) to become such a powerful and accurate pitcher that the Chicago Cubs sign the junior high student to a contract. Unprepared for such a high-pressure environment, Henry falters until aging fastballer Chet Steadman (Gary Busey) takes him under his wing and teaches him how to play in the big leagues. Meanwhile, his mother's venal boyfriend (Bruce Altman) tries to sell Henry's contract to a hated opposing team.

Director: Daniel Stern
Producer: Robert Harper
Screenwriter: Sam Harper
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Production Co: 20th Century Fox
Rating: PG
Genre: Kids & Family, Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jul 7, 1993, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 25, 2015
Box Office (Gross USA): $53.1M
Runtime: 1h 43m

Most Popular at Home Now