In his first at bat at the top of the lineup, Bernie Mac squeezes an extra base out of a slow roller in this chalk talk about the value of teamwork, modesty and accurate scorekeeping. It’s 1995 and Mac’s Stan Ross is a legendary me-first hit machine for the Milwaukee Brewers who, after collecting his 3,000th hit and virtually assuring himself a coveted spot in the Hall of Fame, immediately quits the game, hanging his contending teammates out to dry. Without looking back, the self-serving Ross constructs a mini empire (actually, a shopping mall in Milwaukee) upon the foundation of his 3,000-hit milestone. Nine years after his retirement a scoring error is discovered that subtracts three hits from Ross’s vaunted total, effectively torpedoing his chance for election to the Hall and his claim to immortality. So Ross decides to return to the game to regain his mojo. The last-place, attendance-challenged Brewers are more than happy to accommodate him, and after a rather tedious montage of the old boy trying to whip himself back into shape, Ross finds himself back in The Show. What follows is a predictable trek down the road to self-discovery in which Ross learns that selfishness is bad, Angela Bassett is good, and the distance from home to first is considerable. The mordantly mirthful Mac never seems all that comfortable in the sweet-tempered confines of this Disney flick, but he injects just enough piquancy to the part to elevate the middling material.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 17, 2004. Read the original PDF.