Angels in the Outfield (1994) is a movie. It has…a surprisingly good cast, but I’ll say Joseph Gordon-Levitt, in it. It was okay.
This is a challenging movie for me to judge too harshly as it was my go-to family Disney film when I was younger. I am a massive baseball fan and for some reason this movie connected with me more than other films like Rookie of the Year (1993), Little Big League (1994), or The Sandlot (1993). I saw this film in the theaters multiple times. I remember my family attempted to see a double feature of The Lion King (1994) and this movie, however that had sold out so instead I saw this movie while my sister saw The Lion King separately and I never did regret that decision. (To be fair though, I did also see The Lion King in the theaters I just enjoyed baseball more than the Lion version of tamed down Game of Thrones.)
I also requested the film as a Christmas gift which someone came through and gave me, so for years I had the movie on VHS. This film recently became available for streaming on Disney+ so with that, I decided to watch the film one more time to see my thoughts.
As always, when watching film through a nostalgic lens it can be difficult to be objective but here’s my shot at doing so. The first thing with this film that I notice is that it has an extraordinary cast. Matthew McConaughey plays a side role along with Adrien Brody. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a child actor in what I believe was his first film. Brenda Fricker plays the boys’ foster mother. Taylor Negron is amusing as an assistant PR person played for comic relief. Neal McDonough plays one of the ball players and Danny Glover, Christopher Lloyd, and Tony Danza have more major roles. Danza isn’t an actor I associate much with strong films as I see him more as a sitcom actor or a host of a daytime talk show but I do think he holds his own in this role.
I think the film does a great job of giving the team very distinct personalities for each player and they really do feel like a baseball team who cares for each other have a strong bond for each other even in the early parts of the movie when the team is struggling. The manager George Knox played by Glover does go through a transitionary phase in the film where he starts as a jerk and becomes likeable but the team is a team you want to see succeed because the players personalities are so interesting even if they are a tad over the top.
Some of the characters do form relationships that work in the film. I love the foster mother, Maggie’s (Brenda Fricker) relationship with the boys and even the manager. The boys, Roger (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and JP (Milton Davis Jr.) have a great bond even if JP’s role in this film is just to say cute things and have catch phrases. The boys’ relationship with David (Taylor Negron) is played for comedic effect but it’s fun in this type of film and honestly, I did find it funny.
There’s stuff that I do think just didn’t work for me as well. I didn’t understand the point of announcer Ranch Wilder played by Jay O. Sanders being an unlikeable Skip Bayless type character but as a play-by-play announcer. They did mention he was a former player who had an issue with Knox as a player and it was used to build tension in the film but it seemed unnecessary. The owner of the team Hank Murphy (Ben Johnson) is clearly a Gene Autry rip-off and hiring two people who clearly dislike each other in such a well-known way just doesn’t seem to mesh with the folksy style of the character presented in the movie.
I thought it was silly to have the climactic scene of the film have George Knox potentially get fired due to thinking angels are helping the team win despite the fact that the team was one win from the “pennant.” Even if everyone thinks it’s crazy (and in reality I don’t see how this belief was even that crazy) to fire a manager one game before potentially winning the playoffs after the team in last place is even more crazy than believing that some cosmic force his helping the team win.
The entire reason that angels come to help the ballclub is the fact that Roger, a boy who is in foster care, is told by his father that they can be a family again if the Angels win the pennant. Roger prays for it and the Angels help but the film never goes into why this guy is giving up his kid. Yes, they mention that the mother has died by we never learn anything else about this person. It’s also annoying that we know absolutely nothing about the color commentator for Ranch Wilder.
Sure, we learn that Ranch is a narcissistic egomaniac who barely lets him speak and it’s a little amusing at times but is this guy a former player as most color commentators are? Is he just an intern or a news anchor? Do we even learn his name in the film? It’s kind of a weird situation where we just root for the guy because Ranch is a complete jerk but I would have liked to have known more of his story.
I also think the angels don’t make any sense. They come and help the team and ultimately it does help Roger get closer a father figure even if it isn’t his own father but at the end of the film it’s declared that they can’t help the team win a championship. What doesn’t make sense to that is this isn’t even a playoff game, the entire season is the competition meaning by helping the Angels win any game they are helping them win the championship. Plus, the prayer made it clear that the Angels have to win the pennant in order for them to be family, with that it seems to make zero sense to not help them win the clinching game of the pennant.
Also, we learn later in the film that one of the players is due to die in six months due to smoking. This adds a weird darkness to the end for no real reason plus it’s kind of messed up that this is placed on a foster kid who just learned his father wants nothing to do with him and who almost got his new father figure fired. Now the kid just gets to learn that another player, who seems to be yet another father figure, is going to die and he can tell no one about this. Quite frankly it seems as if the angels are kind of torturing Roger.
The baseball in this movie has some poorly written moments as well. For example there is a scene where a weak hitting infielder is able to round the bases due to numerous errors by the Oakland Athletics defense. In the film they are given an insane amount of errors and I get it’s done to be funny but there wouldn’t be that many errors given on a single play. George Knox later says that the hitter hit a home run….well, no he didn’t he rounded the bases because of a bunch of errors, the move made that very clear. I have a minor complaint too that the movie considers the team winning the division as winning the pennant. I can’t get too upset by this as this has been done before but, in my eyes, winning the pennant means going to the World Series. The Angels technically have to win a playoff round to get to that point.
The pacing of the baseball season is just weird, too. There’s too many ups and downs after very small sample size and the film just isn’t aware of the nuance of a full season baseball season. No one thinks they are on their way to winning the division after two games as a still in last place team following a 15-game winning streak. There is also an unrealistic level of surprise for the team winning a single baseball game. It’s a 162-game season, even the Chicago White Sox in 2024 who had the most losses in modern MLB history won still won 41 games. It’s going to happen at some point.
I do like the heartfelt, feel good moments of this film. They’re more on the sentimental side and I could see stuff being rather cringe to certain people and in reality I do kind of feel like this has some Hallmark movie vibes only with a strong cast and a Disney budget but it’s effective to me. I’m not sure if this film is really worth viewing for someone who wasn’t an 8-year-old baseball fan exactly when this thing came out and I do get the sense that this was an attempt on cashing in on the Mighty Ducks which is a different film about a grumpy coach who has a change of heart after coaching a band of misfits but I would love to see the thoughts of someone not watching this through such a nostalgic lens.
For more thoughts on all things baseball, check out Josh’s blog: WinterAndBaseball.com.
