Big Leaguer Reviews

Director Robert Aldrich's first film, BIG LEAGUER is replete with the usual baseball movie corniness, and true fans may well be asleep before the end of the first inning. Edward G. Robinson plays John Lobert, an aging former player who now runs the tryout camp for the New York Giants in Florida. His job is to sort the wheat from the chaff among a bunch of would-be big leaguers, and, actually, the plot here is not unlike that of AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN or THE D.I., with Robinson acting the role of the tough drill sergeant. Richard Jaeckel plays a "natural"; Lalo Rios is a Cuban hopeful; Bill Crandall secretly hates the game and is only trying out to please his father, a former major league star; and Jeff Richards is a sure thing. Onetime Giants great-turned-scout Carl Hubbell appears as himself, as does Al Campanis, the long-time Dodger general manager.