Old Dude, Old Movies - "Big Leaguer"

I'm a sucker for a baseball movie. This one was released in 1953, and it's geared more for kids and adolescents. It was enjoyable nonetheless. It was "kinda/sorta" based on real people and real events. 

Edward G. Robinson stars as "John 'Hans' Lobert". The real-life Lobert was a major league baseball player and also managed the Philadelphia Phillies in 1942.

This fictitious story revolves around a baseball tryout camp in Florida, geared towards young guys from ages 18 to 22. The New York Giants run this camp, and they are looking for prospects worth grooming for possible service with the big club. Lobert is part drill sergeant, part father confessor, part coach and part cheerleader. He is willing to share his vast knowledge and perspective on the game to any who ask, but he demands the prospects respect the game first and foremost. 

The main conflict revolves around which prospects show enough potential & performance from drills/practice/scrimmages to warrant a) staying longer at camp, and b) eventually getting a contract offer from the Giants ($150 a month, to play baseball!).

Lobert's niece "Christy" (Vera-Ellen) is his clerical assistant and ready-made love interest for one of the ballplayers. She's cute, spunky and knows a bit about the game - a dream girl for any guy who loves or plays baseball. Richard Jaeckel ("The Dirty Dozen") has a role as a bantam pitching prospect with swagger to spare (think a younger, right-handed Whitey Ford). 

Jeff Richards is a hulking third baseman who struggles to reconcile his desire to play the game with his father's desire that he go to college & "make a name for himself" as a white-collar professional. Lalo Rios is "Chuy", a Latin prospect with tons of talent, but just enough "fish-out-of-water" positioning that allows forced comic relief.

I liked this movie. If I'd first seen it when I was a kid, it's the type of movie that would have had me sleeping with my glove and ball every night. No, the story isn't complicated or infused with subtleties that make you dissect every statement. It's straightforward, a valentine to the national pastime & the guys who dream about being  a part of it.