Rookie of the Year

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Joey H. Released on July 7th, 1993, directed by actor and comedian Daniel Stern; with a score composed by Bill Conti, and co-edited by future director Raja Gosnell; Rookie of the Year tells the story of a young boy named Henry Rowengartner, who loves baseball and gets to live out his dream of playing in the Major Leagues and helping his hometown team achieve the impossible. Henry Rowengartner is an average 12 year old boy from Chicago living an average life. He goes to school, plays Little League despite being not great at it, hangs with his two best friends, is starting to notice girls, and has a great relationship with his mother, although he strongly dislikes her current boyfriend. One day at school, while attempting to catch a fly ball, Henry slips and falls on another baseball and ends up being put in a cast with a broken shoulder. Once his shoulder heels, Henry finds to his astonishment that he can pull his arm down with incredibly fast and great force. Later that day while attending a Chicago Cubs game, a string of events allows Henry to throw an opposing team’s home run ball, which he manages to throw from the bleachers all the way to home plate, astonishing everyone in attendance and on the field. The next thing Henry knows, he’s being recruited by the Cubs to be their new ace pitcher, which the owners of the team think and hope might help increase waning attendance and perhaps even help the struggling team make their way to the World Series. As the rest of baseball season goes on, Henry must find a way to balance between being a Major League star and still being a regular kid. Starring Thomas Ian Nicholas as Henry Rowengartner; Gary Busey as Chet “Rocket” Steadman; Amy Morton as Mary Rowengartner; Albert Hall as Sal Martinella; Eddie Bracken as Bob Carson; Dan Hedeya as Larry Fisher; Bruce Altman as Jack Bradfield; Robert Hy Gorman as Clark; Patrick LaBreque as George; John Candy as Cliff Murdoch, and Daniel Stern himself as Phil Brickma; and released at a time when sports films were being released to theaters by the bushel, this film is a heartwarmingly fun family sports comedy guilty pleasure. Being a Chicago born native myself, this is one baseball movie I always look forward to watching and is my second favorite baseball movie of all time. Filled with memorable quotes and plenty of heart, I give this film a solid 10/10 rating. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 08/11/25 Full Review Robert S I don't know why this is rated so low! This is one of my favorites when I was a kid. All the implausible (but who cares!) of a kid playing in the majors because of a freak injury is still awesome. Watch it for Thomas Ian Nicholas and Daniel Stern alone let alone a lot of cameos of actual baseball players and actors who went on to play bigger roles years later. The score from Bill Conti is criminally underrated, after Take me out to the Ballgame, nothing personifies the awesome wonderment of a baseball more. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 08/04/25 Full Review Its abe S I dont understand the hate! I didn't think it was that bad! Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 07/21/25 Full Review Jerod S It's a cheese-ball family baseball film where a kid gets a phenomenal arm for a few games. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 07/18/25 Full Review Stephen C Funny in 1 hour and 43 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The USA grossed over $53,100,000.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Starring Gary Busey as Chet Steadman!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 08/01/25 Full Review Joey G This is such an underrated movie! I loved it! Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 05/17/25 Full Review Read all reviews

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