Angels In The Outfield

Angels In The Outfield

Right now, angels are the in thing. They’re popping up on magazine covers, Broadway is filled with angelic shows, and now comes a remake of the 1951 film “Angels in the Outfield,” about how they help a losing team turn around its season, all because of the faith of a little boy.

I’ve always been skeptical of divine intervention in games. Prayer may work wonders in many fields, but why would God want my team to win over the other one? Isn’t it impious to ask God to take an interest in baseball? Angels seem less problematic partly because their theological functions are murkier.

Milton saw them shaking the firmaments; we demote them to bit parts on greeting cards and oldies radio. It’s good for business.

The movie opens sadly with little Roger (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a foster child, in court hoping to be reunited with his father. But dad is a motorcycle loner who can’t fit a kid on his bike, so Roger goes back to stay with the kindly woman (Brenda Fricker) who runs his foster home. When will he ever be part of a “real family” again, he asks his dad, who laughs and says: “Not until the Angels win the pennant.”

He means California’s Angels, last place finishers at this point in their season (and bottom-feeders of the West Division overall), but Roger checks with fellow foster resident little J.P. (Milton Davis Jr.), then prays for divine aid with regard to the team’s fate. Sure enough and soon they start winning games they should have lost. There are plays so miraculous that they challenge not only belief but also gravity itself. And only Roger who can see angels both in right field and elsewhere knows why these wonders occur.

The team is managed by embittered old-timer George Knox (Danny Glover). One of its players is once-great pitcher Mel Clark (Tony Danza), who has been riding the pine for much of this campaign. When George’s team begins to win, he’s flabbergasted, until his young booster Roger informs him that angels are helping the squad. He doesn’t buy it, but he can’t argue with results. And when Mel takes the mound again, he gets a little angelic assistance and regains his old form.

After that, though, the movie settles into a rut alternating between baseball action (angels appear, do stuff and make announcer go nuts) and human redemption (manager becomes slightly more human). The former isn’t compelling because the angels (headed by Christopher Lloyd) fix things. And the latter is canned and unconvincing. The only character who ever quite rings true is Danza’s comeback pitcher.

“Angels in the Outfield” follows closely on another kids’-baseball movie, “Little Big League,” which had small boys manipulating destinies of major-league clubs. But while “Little Big League” was an intelligent film about a kid who really knew baseball, “Angels” is a dumb one about maudlin sentimentality.

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