Every Millennial’s Second Favorite Baseball Movie Is Now A Netflix Hit

By Jonathan Klotz
| Published 18 seconds ago

Summer means going to the beach, pool parties, blockbuster movie releases, a debate over the Song of the Summer, and baseball. America’s pastime enters the halfway mark in early July when it doesn’t have to share the spotlight with any other sport. Baseball movies have fallen away over the last two decades, but in the 90s, they were everywhere. Angels in the Outfield, The Sandlot, Little Big League, Major League II, A League of Their Own, and the one that took every elementary school by storm, Rookie of the Year. Now that it’s on Netflix, a whole new generation is learning that if you break your arm in the right place, you too can help the Chicago Cubs win the World Series. 

Rookie Of The Year Is Pure Wish Fulfillment

Rookie of the Year stars Thomas Ian Nicholas as Henry, a Little Leaguer who trips, launches himself into the air, and busts his arm. The healing process enhanced his muscles and now he can throw a baseball over 100 MPH with amazing accuracy. Tossing a 12-year old onto a professional team is absurd, but this was 1993, and honestly, the real-life Chicago Cubs would have done the same if it got them to the World Series. 

The plot of the film is paper thin with an important life lesson about family, but Thomas Ian Nicholas does a great job holding everything together with a constant look of amazement on his face. Henry can’t believe he’s playing for the Chicago Cubs, and with his hero, Chet Steadman (Gary Busey). All that goodwill goes away when he realizes the Cubs have an incompetent manager, played by the director, Daniel Stern, and his own dad is conspiring to send him to the worst team in Major League Baseball, the one place no self-respecting athlete should go, the team everyone hated for good reason: The New York Yankees. 

The Second Best Baseball Movie Of 1993

Rookie of the Year was a huge hit at the box office, earning $50 million and becoming a staple of sleep overs and school movie days. The numbers aren’t available, but as anyone who lived through the 90s will tell you, this movie was everywhere. It’s still well-remembered today, but it’s not the best baseball movie of the 90s. It’s not even the best baseball movie of 1993. 

In April of 1993, timed with the start of the baseball season, Disney released The Sandlot. The coming of age story set in 1962 resonates deeper than the pure wish fulfillment of playing for the Chicago Cubs. The Sandlot didn’t make as much money, wasn’t as popular with the elementary school crowd, but over time, it’s been properly recognized as one of the greatest baseball movies, greatest coming of age movies, and best kid movies of the 90s. 

Rookie of the Year is currently streaming on Netflix, where the first week it was available, it was ranked in the top 10 Kids Movies. Kids today don’t get the same type of sports movies that 90s kids did, but they can still appreciate the breezy fun of a Little Leaguer tossing 100 MPH fastballs.