The plot of this film is indeed a typical American chicken soup film. Many film critics have criticized this point, but what I want to say is that this pot is not for the screenwriter and director, because the real experience of the protagonist is indeed like this, and the film basically does not add anything. something fictitious. Next, I will briefly introduce what is not mentioned in the film and has been slightly adapted.
1. The descriptions of his youth basically follow the experiences of real people. What is not mentioned in the film is that he played American football in high school as there was no baseball team at the school.
2. He's not your average amateur baseball fanatic. He started playing baseball at age 3 and was selected by the Milwaukee Brewers with the fourth overall pick in the 1983 MLB draft despite playing American football for a few years in high school. Unlike the 2-round 60-person NBA draft that Chinese people are familiar with, the MLB draft has 40 rounds. More than 1,000 players are selected every year, but not all the selected players will sign. Many players, especially those selected in the latter stages, will choose not to sign, and continue to hone in the university in order to be selected in a higher order in the next year, so that they can get more signing money and will be more valued by the team. Jim Morris himself entered the draft for the first time in 1982 and was selected with the 446th pick and gave up signing and was eventually selected in the first round of the following year. As the No. 4 picked out of more than a thousand people (not counting the undrafted players every year), Jim was by no means an ordinary amateur, but a talented teenager with information on every scout desk in the major leagues, and he was young The speed of the ball can never be at most 80 mph as claimed in the movie, and it is likely to be a monster-level high school student who can throw a ball speed of nearly 100 mph in high school. So in the movie, when he participated in the Tampa Bay Manta Rays (now renamed Tampa Bay Rays) test meeting, scouts quickly recognized him as the No. 4 rookie in the MLB draft that year.
3. His middle-aged life described in the movie is basically real. He is indeed a middle school science teacher and school baseball team coach in Great Lakes, Texas. He eventually joined the Devil Rays minor league team at the age of 35 through his amateur maintenance, and finally successfully entered the major leagues when the major league roster was expanded in September 1999. However, his success not only comes from not giving up for more than ten years, but the more crucial factor is his own baseball talent. It is impossible for ordinary amateurs to replicate his success. In addition, in order to highlight his efforts, the movie chose a strong and sturdy protagonist, but he himself looked like a slightly fat middle-aged uncle when he entered the major leagues (of course, the pitcher position in baseball is right Player athleticism requirements are low, see MLB evergreen Bartolo Colón's size). He also has a cameo in the movie, playing a referee in a minor league game.
4. His wife is not as selfless behind his back as in the movie. In fact, in the minor league baseball, even at the highest AAA level, life is very hard. The player's salary is not enough to feed himself, not to mention that he still needs to support 3 children in the family during his half-year career in the minor league. . In 2000, two months after playing for the Stingrays, he suffered a recurrence of an old injury and had to undergo another surgery, which resulted in the entire season being reimbursed. In 2001, he tried to make a comeback and went to Los Angeles to participate in the spring training of the Dodgers, but he was abandoned by the team after the spring training, and his wife finally chose to divorce him.
5. His grades in the minor league AAA level are actually very average. Although he has a fast ball speed, he has poor ball control and a lot of walks. But his story has already attracted media attention when he was still at the AAA level and received a TV interview (this is also shown in the movie), so the team promoted him to the major league when the major league expansion (the last one in the regular season every year). Each team can expand the roster from 25 to 40 by the end of the month. Most teams have missed the playoffs at this time, and will take this opportunity to train minor league rookies or give some older players who are still in the minor leagues. Dormant players a chance to prove themselves).
From the film itself, since Jim Morris was already a well-known inspirational figure in the baseball world when it was released, and his story was well known to the public in his own speeches and media reports, it is impossible for the film to add too much fiction to the screenwriter. In fact, there is very little room for free play, and he can only make more fuss about his persistence and hard work in baseball, and beautify his family's internal relationship. This movie can really make the hearts of many baseball teenagers surging, but it is important to remember that talent is the most fundamental determining factor in any sport to the professional level. A professional team is not a charity and cannot open its doors to an amateur who has been training hard day in and day out for decades and still isn't at the professional level.
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