Little Big League

About Little Big League

Little Big League  is a 1994 film about an 11-year-old (later turns 12) who suddenly becomes the owner and then manager of the Minnesota Twins baseball team.

The start of the film explains about the life of Billy Heywood (Luke Edwards), a preteen son to a widowed single mom, Jenny (Ashley Crow). He and his two friends, Chuck and Joey, play on the same Little League Baseball team. Billy's grandfather is Thomas Heywood (Jason Robards, Jr.), owner of the Minnesota Twins. They are a last-place team (the real-life Twins finished second in the American League West in 1992 and were World Series champs in 1991, but finished poorly and began an eight-year slump in the spring of 1993), but Billy and his grandfather absolutely love each other, the Twins, and the game of baseball. When Thomas dies, it is revealed that he wanted Billy to inherit the franchise and specified that if Billy was still a minor, Thomas' aides would help him along until Billy was old enough to run the team himself.

Eventually, after firing current manager George O'Farrell (Dennis Farina) (because Billy thought O'Farrell was too hard on the players) he decides to name himself the new manager after one of his friends points out, "It's the American League! They have the DH! How hard can it be?" The players are very skeptical of Billy as manager, but Billy promises that if he does not improve the team's standings within a few weeks, he'll resign as manager. But the team improves considerably and moves up to division race contention. Unfortunately, not all is going smoothly for Billy, as his friend and star first baseman Lou Collins (Timothy Busfield) takes a romantic interest in Billy's mother. Billy picks up bad habits on the road, is ejected from a game (and later given a one game "suspension" by his mother) for swearing at an umpire, and must release his personal favorite Twins player, Jerry Johnson (Duane Davis), who is "past his prime". He ends up making Jerry feel worse about it when Billy immaturely tries to illustrate his own distress by pointing out he has his baseball card. Furthermore, Billy's friends do not like how Billy's managerial responsiblites are keeping him away from being with them--even when he's there. Lou goes into a slump and the jealous Billy benches him, sending the Twins into a losing skid. Billy later tells his mom that he's tired of being a "grown-up" and decides to quit as manager after the end of the season.