What stood out for me was the first half of the film, which has collected a number of apocryphal baseball scouting stories (read "Prophet of the Sandlots" and "Dollar Sign on the Muscle" where some of them appear in print). Edward James Olmos is quietly effective as veteran scout Virgil Sweet, traveling across the country evaluating prospects in an assortment of the usual and unusual places. But the story becomes formulaic as Sweet finds the Holy Grail of scouting: a heretofore unknown pitcher with all the tools to become a superstar in the big leagues. Although Sweet is employed by the Anaheim Angels, the ending is all Hollywood. While not in the pantheon of great baseball movies, it is an enjoyable way to spend 90 minutes.

One of the better movies made involving the scout finds the "phenom" and takes him to the majors. Olmos is superb in this little movie. He brings that aura that he had in Stand and Deliver. Good supporting cast for such a low budget.

the appeal of this movie, aside from the standard cliché of the underdog and the principled hero, may be in its star, edward james olmos who gives a fine performance as baseball talent scout, virgil sweet. facing the possible end to a career and last brush with professional baseball, fate leads him to discover a great pitcher, sammy bodeen (jeff corbett) who he takes from an idyllic idaho town to playing for the California angels. of course, as the cliché goes, all of the odds are against sweet and especially bodeen, who everyone adores as the new hope for a poorly performing team, but in the end whom everyone doubts really has the talent for the game.

while a nicely acted little film held together by the strength of its star in particular, there is little substance to this movie for someone seeking a more action-packed baseball drama. the movie centers largely on sweet's dynamics and as such, takes a long time to generate something more than just sweet auditioning players on the one hand and contemplating the future of his career on the other. even the final stages of the film, in which the team's new owner threatens young bodeen's chances to really prove himself, hardly offer much of a real climax but instead feel like the point of a movie where you expected the events to occur as they did as though there were not any other real way to wrap up the movie.

it is a nice little time waster especially for olmos fans, but the film doesn't offer much meat on the bone.