Angels in the Outfield commentary, part 1: ‘I’d say when the Angels win the pennant’

Back by popular demand, I’ve got another sports-movie commentary for everyone. OK, so maybe it’s back because I wanted to write about another movie. Though I do appreciate the nice feedback I received this summer when I wrote about A League of Their Own and The Rookie.

This time around, I’m dipping into the Disney well again for a baseball movie: Angels in the Outfield. Straight out of the summer of 1994 starring Danny Glover, Tony Danza and the ever-so-dreamy tween Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Here’s the premise as told by the film’s IMDB page: When a boy prays for a chance to have a family if the California Angels win the pennant, angels are assigned to make that possible.

Buckle up. If you read any parts of my first two movie commentaries, you know I dig deep into the details and my own personal takes.

Riding around the stadium
We start out in the clouds surrounded by blue sky and the movie’s musical theme in the background. The standard “Walt Disney Pictures Presents” comes across with the Angels in the Outfield graphic, followed by names in the opening credits flash across the sky, mixed in with baseballs flying around in slow motion.

The clouds start to break away, revealing the baseball stadium down below as the baseball from the sky sails toward the earth and presumably to the pitcher’s mound in Anaheim, Calif.

The young J.P. and Roger (Gordon-Levitt) are riding their bikes – J.P. has the big, arching handlebars – around on the street, and it’s J.P. who utters the first line of the movie: “Roger, do you believe in Heaven?” What comes next is the writers wasting absolutely zero time giving viewers background on these two kiddos. So if you arrived late to the theater (if you saw this in a movie theater, which I did not, having caught it on the Disney Channel and via the VHS player at home), you might have missed this early plot point.

Roger responds to J.P.’s question by saying that he guesses he believes in Heaven, because that’s where people say his mom went. Point 1: Roger’s mother is deceased.

The answer gets J.P. excited for a second, saying that maybe his dad and Roger’s mom are friends “up there,” in Heaven. Point 2: J.P.’s dad is also deceased.

Then the two make it a point to explicitly say that they’re best friends, in case we’re wondering.

The boys continue to ride their bikes with shots of the Major League stadium in the background as some more opening credits roll. Here are a couple of things that I only realized watching the movie later. Matthew McConaughey and Adrien Brody are in this movie. Big Hollywood stars, kind of before they were big Hollywood stars. We’ll meet them later.

Do they have to change their name to “Foster?”
J.P. isn’t done hitting viewers with the plot points here. Not only are these boys without at least one parent, but J.P. randomly asks Roger why Maggie’s house is called a “foster home.” Roger has no idea and makes something up, then adds that they won’t be there a long time because “something good’s going to happen.” Point 3: They’re foster kids who presumably live together.  

J.P. is quite the optimist and agrees about something good before uttering what will become his catchphrase in the movie: “It could happen.”

The end of the credits run as a few random kids run past what we come to know as Maggie’s house as Maggie walks out the front door toward the clothesline in the yard. A passerby wearing jeans, shades and a sleeveless white tee carrying a boom box (very 90s) strolls by on the sidewalk. 

Listen carefully, and you’ll hear he’s listening to a baseball game, as the announcer says that the Angels are trying to break a 14-game losing streak during their game against the Toronto Blue Jays this afternoon at Anaheim Stadium.

Roger and J.P. return from their bike ride, though apparently, they weren’t back by 5 p.m. when they said. Maggie flashes her watch in front of their faces for evidence, but J.P. says he can’t tell time yet. He politely asks if they’re back by 5. Exasperated Maggie, who must be their foster mother, says “close.”

Make room for daddy
Maggie tells Rogers to go inside and see his visitor. There must only be one person he’d expect because he drops his bike in the yard like a hot potato and scampers up the porch steps inside. The camera pans to a motorcycle parked right in front of the house as Roger calls out “Dad?”

Behind a puffy cloud of cigarette smoke, we’re introduced to Roger’s dad. He’s seated in the living room portraying the classic, bad-boy, biker stereotype wearing a black leather jacket, white t-shirt and slick, black hair with cool-guy sideburns. This actor is Dermot Mulroney. He’s another one I didn’t recognize until many years later. He’s gone on to do a bunch of rom-com work, and he had a guest-star arc as Rachel’s co-worker/crush in season 9 of “Friends.”

Anyway. Daddy-o asks Roger if he’s surprised to see him, then remarks on how “scrawny” Roger looks while reaching out and poking at his abdomen. Roger assures him that he’s getting fed. Dad demands to know where Roger was and seems miffed that his son wasn’t a mind reader about his visit and kept him waiting. Roger tells him he was “riding around the stadium.”

Then, for some reason, dad feels the need to dump all over the Angels being Roger’s “team,” a fact that Roger tries to contain and hide his enthusiasm for his fandom.

“They’re in last place,” Pops says.

Roger agrees, looking dejected. Way to bond with the boy, dad. He then goes on to say a family “that likes losers” runs in the blood, as we get a close-up shot of him wiping cigarette ashes on his blue jeans. At this, Roger turns away disgusted, though also looking like he’s seen this maneuver dozens of times. To be honest, the line his dad says here never really stuck in my mind. And I’ve seen this movie enough times that I have a lot of lines committed to memory. But that’s how powerful the cigarette ashes and the reaction are.

A sad, brief reunion
As pops eases his way out of the chair amid another blow of smoke, he tells Roger he’s going up north (wherever that is, because I’m only familiar with “up north” as it relates to lake country in Minnesota). Here’s where daddy really starts to break his little boy’s heart. Apparently, he promised that when he returned, it would be to get Roger, which is evidently why the boy ran into the house to see him like it was Christmas morning. But here, Roger simply stares up at his dad with these oh-so-sad puppy-dog eyes.

Dad tells Roger that things aren’t working out, meaning to take care of his son, I guess. He says he’s signed a “release thing,” which I’m sure is the legal term for it, adding that they have to go to court to make it final.

“I did what I could with you. Maybe if your mom was alive it’d be different. … You understand what I’m saying, don’t ya?”

Actually, no. For as blunt as the dialogue was at the start of the movie, pops isn’t exactly doing a great job of spelling out this legal stuff for junior. Is he saying he doesn’t want to be Roger’s dad anymore, ever? Or does he need a break or something? It’s a little confusing, except that the main thing we can gather is that dad is still going to leave Roger behind at the foster home. Roger, who also looks confused, manages a “yeah” in response.

Dad seems satisfied with that answer and is glad to have that awkward exchange out of the way, which is rather cold. He heads out the front door with a fresh cigarette hanging from his lips. At the curb, the motorcycle is predictably his dad’s, though he had a pick-up truck before but tells Roger the bike is better for traveling.

A pie-in-the-sky promise from dead ol’ dad
Then Roger, still crushed from the brief conversation inside, asks when they’re going to be a family again.

“From where I’m sitting,” dad says, as he flicks something (a match?) in the direction of the visible baseball stadium off in the distance. “I’d say when the Angels win the pennant.”

And boom. We have our main plot for this movie, folks. Dad is basically telling this kid they’re never going to be a family again because as we know, the Angels are in last place. But Roger, though a pre-teen, is still a vulnerable child in this instance and definitely doesn’t see this as the final brush-off his dad means it to be. What a douchebag thing for the dad to say, knowing his kid is a big Angels fan.

Pops puts on some cool-guy sunglasses, starts up his hog and tells his “son” to stay out of trouble as he rides away from the curb and down the street, leaving a bewildered Roger what just happened in their very-brief visit.