#48: The Bad News Bears

Release Date: June 30th, 1976

Format: Streaming (Pluto)

Written by: Bill Lancaster

Directed by: Michael Ritchie

3.5 Stars

Were there child sports movies before The Bad News Bears? I can’t think of any. By definition that makes this a groundbreaking movie, despite its modest story ambitions. 

And this borders on a ‘70s hangout movie as much as it is a sports movie. As degenerative as Buttermaker is - you know you go hard when you pour a little Schlitz out of the can so you can add a glug of blended whiskey - you still kinda want to grab a bat and help hit some grounders to the Bears. And who are the Bears? A grab bag of little league leftovers that includes Tanner (a toe-headed, brawling whirlwind), Ahmid Abdul-Rahim (an inept, sensitive right fielder), Ogilvie (a lazy catcher who doesn’t fit into a uniform), and Lupus (“a booger-eating spaz”). What a crew. And Bill Lancaster’s script is smart enough to let the scenes with these kids breathe. They bicker, they laugh, they cry, they worry, they have fun…they mature? Maybe.

So how does the run-down, former ballplayer Buttermaker turn these Bad News Bears into little league contenders? Well, mostly he goes out and gets better players. He shrewdly recruits Amanda, the daughter of a former girlfriend who he taught a wicked curveball to and a “tantalizing” knuckler that “came to the plate and disappeared…like a ball of melted ice cream.”

He also gets Kelly Leak to play, the super athletic, motorcycle-riding bad boy and best athlete in the neighborhood. Like Buttermaker, Kelly is motivated to stick it to the first-place Yankees and their shallow, hypocrite coach. 

But this competitiveness gets the best of Buttermaker by the end of the movie, as he pitches Amanda until she’s at risk of blowing out her arm, and in the championship game, he instructs Kelly to run down any fly ball that he can from center field, no matter where it’s hit.

In a beautiful twist at the end of Lancaster’s script, it’s the loser Bears who end up teaching Buttermaker what’s important in little league baseball, and in a moment of clarity, he decides to empty the bench in the final inning to let everyone get some playing time. The Bears immediately give up four runs in the final inning, and are now down a seemingly insurmountable 3-7.

In the bottom of the 6th the Bears are now up to bat, and with two outs, they get a walk. Hey, that’s something. Then they get a second walk. Okay, okay. A third walk loads the bases for Kelly, who slashes a line drive to right-center field and clears the bases. Buttermaker waives Kelly home for the potential game-tying run. There’s a play at the plate.

Kelly is thrown out. The Bears lose.

There’s a disappointed hush in the Bears’ dugout, and then they mope out to home plate to receive their 2nd place, consolation trophy. One of the Yankees gives a half-apology for treating the Bears unfairly all year, but also says that he still doesn’t think they’re much of a baseball team. But they’ve got guts. 

The camera then rests on Tanner, holding the trophy. 

At this point, as a viewer, you’re not really sure how Lancaster is going to land this script, but he plays it smart and stays true to what this movie is. It’s a movie about authenticity. It’s a movie about giving a shit. It’s about caring, even in a wash of hopelessness. 

The final lines of the movie?

“Hey Yankees! You can take your apology and your trophy…and shove them straight up your ass! And another thing, just wait until next year!”

Roll credits on the first, and to-date, best, child sports movie ever made.