Talent for the Game
Encyclopedia
Talent for the Game was a 1991
film about a baseball
scout, directed by Robert M. Young and starring Edward James Olmos
and Lorraine Bracco
in her first film after Goodfellas
.
It co-stars Terry Kinney
, Jamey Sheridan
and Jeff Corbett.
Scenes were filmed in the small town Genesee
, Idaho
, between Lewiston
and Moscow
.
Virgil hasn't discovered a great young prospect for quite a while. One day, when the car that he and girlfriend Bobbie (Bracco), who also is employed by the team, breaks down on a rural road, Virgil happens upon a country boy named Sammy Bodeen (Corbett) who has a pitching arm worthy of the major leagues.
Greeted back in Anaheim with considerable skepticism, Virgil arranges a tryout for Sammy. The boy is wild at first and Virgil's great find appears to be a big joke. Once he calms down, however, Sammy proves to have everything it takes to make it big.
Team management, desperate for a new star, immediately begins to overplay the arrival of Sammy with a wildly overblown hype. A public-relations blitz promotes the boy as baseball's next great star, even though he has yet to throw a pitch in a big-league game. By the time Sammy takes the mound for his first Angels game, expectations are so high that he cannot possibly live up to them.
He is roughed up by opponents in the first inning, humiliating the owner and making fans furious. But, gradually, with a surprise assist from Virgil on the field, Sammy settles down and begins to look like a star who's on his way.
1991 in film
The year 1991 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*April 28 - Bonnie Raitt marries actor Michael O'Keefe in New York* Terminator 2: Judgment Day, became one of the landmarks for science fiction action films with its groundbreaking visual effects from Industrial Light & Magic.*November...
film about a baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
scout, directed by Robert M. Young and starring Edward James Olmos
Edward James Olmos
Edward James Olmos is an American actor and director. Among his most memorable roles are William Adama in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, Lt...
and Lorraine Bracco
Lorraine Bracco
Lorraine Bracco is an American actress. She is best known for her TV roles as Dr. Jennifer Melfi on HBO series, The Sopranos, and Angela Rizzoli on the TNT series, Rizzoli & Isles...
in her first film after Goodfellas
Goodfellas
Goodfellas is a 1990 American crime film directed by Martin Scorsese. It is a film adaptation of the 1986 non-fiction book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi, who co-wrote the screenplay with Scorsese...
.
It co-stars Terry Kinney
Terry Kinney
Terry Kinney is an American actor and theatre director, and is a founding member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, with Gary Sinise and Jeff Perry.-Early life:...
, Jamey Sheridan
Jamey Sheridan
James Patrick "Jamey" Sheridan is an American actor. He was born in Pasadena, California.He has had a prolific acting career in theater, television, and feature film productions. Born to a family of actors, he made it to Broadway and earned a Tony nomination in 1987 for his performance in the...
and Jeff Corbett.
Scenes were filmed in the small town Genesee
Genesee, Idaho
Genesee is a city in Latah County, Idaho, United States. The population was 955 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Genesee is located at ., in the Palouse region, approximately south of Moscow, about halfway to Lewiston...
, Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
, between Lewiston
Lewiston, Idaho
Lewiston is a city in and also the county seat of Nez Perce County in the Pacific Northwest state of Idaho. It is the second-largest city in the northern Idaho region, behind Coeur d'Alene and ninth-largest in the state. Lewiston is the principal city of the Lewiston, ID - Clarkston, WA...
and Moscow
Moscow, Idaho
Moscow is a city in northern Idaho, situated along the Washington/Idaho border. It is the most populous city and county seat of Latah County and the home of the University of Idaho, the land grant institution and primary research university for the state...
.
Plot summary
Virgil Sweet (Olmos) is a veteran baseball scout for the California Angels. He is in danger of losing his life's work because the Angels' new owner, Gil Lawrence (Kinney), is unhappy with the farm system and threatening to eliminate the team's scouts.Virgil hasn't discovered a great young prospect for quite a while. One day, when the car that he and girlfriend Bobbie (Bracco), who also is employed by the team, breaks down on a rural road, Virgil happens upon a country boy named Sammy Bodeen (Corbett) who has a pitching arm worthy of the major leagues.
Greeted back in Anaheim with considerable skepticism, Virgil arranges a tryout for Sammy. The boy is wild at first and Virgil's great find appears to be a big joke. Once he calms down, however, Sammy proves to have everything it takes to make it big.
Team management, desperate for a new star, immediately begins to overplay the arrival of Sammy with a wildly overblown hype. A public-relations blitz promotes the boy as baseball's next great star, even though he has yet to throw a pitch in a big-league game. By the time Sammy takes the mound for his first Angels game, expectations are so high that he cannot possibly live up to them.
He is roughed up by opponents in the first inning, humiliating the owner and making fans furious. But, gradually, with a surprise assist from Virgil on the field, Sammy settles down and begins to look like a star who's on his way.
External links
- imdb.com - Talent for the Game