In the early to mid-1990s, the sports movie genre saw the explosion of a new branch: the family sports movie. Though the more serious "Rudy" or "Field of Dreams" types definitely have a place in my heart, it is this lighter, zanier sports film that I really remember and cherish from my childhood. In the past two semesters, I've written about a better ending for "The Sandlot" and the life lessons of "The Mighty Ducks" series, but I haven't really expounded on the FSM genre as a whole.
Through extensive research and multiple quote-saying sessions, I've come to realize the FSM follows a pretty straightforward formula that I have broken down into six categories: main character(s) and team down on their luck, outrageous or unbelievable catalyst for change, game action with professional athlete cameos, defining life moment, defining sports moment and redeeming ending.
To provide some concrete examples of these components, we'll use the 1993 classic "Rookie of the Year" as the main case study, since it premiered arguably at the peak of the FSM heyday. As always, if you haven't seen the movie yet, you should probably rent it before you continue reading since I have to ruin the ending to use it as an example.
The first element of the FSM is the down-on-their-luck main character(s) and team. "Rookie of the Year" definitely has this covered in the form of 12-year-old Henry Rowengartner (or Rosinbagger, Gardenhoser, Runnamucker, etc.) and the Chicago Cubs. Henry is an awful Little League Baseball player whose father has died and whose mother is dating the biggest jerk on the planet. His beloved Cubbies are the worst team in the league with aging stars and dismal attendance figures, in need of a miracle to save their season.
What really defines FSMs and sets them apart from your run-of-the-mill inspirational sports movie is the outrageous circumstances that help change the main character's fortune. For Henry, it was tripping on a baseball and breaking his arm. How could that possibly be a good thing? Well, obviously, after the fall Henry's shoulder tendons heal a little too tightly and he gains the ability to throw a baseball 100 mph.
If that wasn't enough, the Cubs sign Henry to a contract after he throws a home run ball from the outfield bleachers all the way to home plate on a line. That's like someone catching an errant field goal at Scott Stadium, tossing the pigskin 100 yards and Al Groh starting him at QB the next weekend. As I said, the FSM is a little crazier than "Hoosiers" or "Victory."
The defining life moment shows the main character coming down from Cloud Nine and realizing there are more important things than sports, fame, money, or whatever resulted from the unbelievable situation. Henry eventually recognizes that as much as he has loves living his dream as a Major League Baseball player, he just wants to be a regular kid again.
No defining life moment in an FSM would be complete without a defining sports moment, usually the climax of the film and packed with an unexpected twist. In "Rookie of the Year," this scene takes place in the ninth inning of the last game of the season. Having lost the ability to throw hard by tripping on another wayward baseball (truly awesome screenwriting), Rowengartner resorts to the hidden ball trick and daring the runner to run as he fake-throws the ball up in the air to amazingly record the first two outs of the inning.
The real kicker comes when Henry realizes on the mound that his mother was actually the great pitcher in the family and not his father. At his mom's suggestion, Henry throws underhand to the most dangerous hitter in the National League (who definitely would have mashed that ball) and incredibly strikes him out to win the division.
The famed "Float It" sequence is just about as good as it gets. The revelation was foreshadowed throughout the movie and its integration into the sports moment at hand was seamless.
After winning the game with the first floater pitch since Scruffy McGee, life returns to normal for Henry. He plays Little League again (all of sudden he doesn't suck at baseball anymore) and appears to have learned what matters most in life.
So that's the formula. "Rookie of the Year" stuck pretty firmly to the script, threw in a sick boat montage and some great fringe characters (such as Henry's friend, who asks, "Did he just say funky butt loving?" and Daniel Stern as the hot ice-touting pitching coach Brickman) and made it work. If you think back to other FSMs, you will see they generally include many if not all of the pieces to the puzzle.
Let's always remember the FSM, but also remember that a movie's a movie, and chances are that breaking an arm will not end as well for you as it did for Henry Rowengartner.
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