Gus an aging Baseball scout who is loosing his sight must make an important drafting decision. His daughter Mickey joins him in trying to help him, but also find out why he left her all those years ago.
I felt that I really had to see this film due to my love for Clint Eastwood, by the trailer he looks to be in the similar role to Million Dollar Baby and Gran Torino. You know the grumpy old man, who likes to growl at people, I am not saying that’s a bad thing he does it very well. He does it so well that you still cannot help but feel sorry for him even when he doesn’t really deserve it.
Gus is struggling to come to terms with the changes being made within baseball and the introduction of computer systems to place all the stats on players in one place, is the time for scouts really fading out? Can you tell everything you need to know about a player by numbers on a computer screen? This film is trying to answer that question and a lot of things really do go against the computers system.
Mickey is a lawyer and on the verge of becoming partner at the firm she is working in, this is all in the balance as she takes time off to help out her father. We slowly find out that Mickey’s real love is for baseball, she loves nothing more than baseball. She even wanted to work in baseball, she learnt from one of the best with spending time with her father at games when she was younger.
Throw in Johnny who just happened to be scouted by Gus and is now scouting himself after his career finished early due to injury. But he’s not just scouting the players in the end and because a love interest for Mickey. This isn’t a full on romance and I liked the way it was brought into the story, just seemed right.
We get to see that families really do have their problems and it can take something they both love to bring them together. Even if that means the truth coming out at a slightly too late time but I guess they say it’s better late than never. We want to see Gus and Mickey work it out, but not so she forgets about everything as that wouldn’t seem real enough for how this film went.
I have to admit that I seem to have a soft spot for baseball films as they always seem to have good stories to them. Showing that sport really can be used in different ways depending on the characters involved. This one goes towards the older guys in the game who have been around for so long. It also helps to show how things have changed with all the technology we have in sport now.
