"The Rookie"

Hollywood hath decreed baseball shall be venerated. Hallelujah! If some slob buys a corndog and a beer, his experience at the concession stand sure as hell better be as profound as Moses receiving the Ten Commandments from God. If minor-leaguers talk about getting to �The Show,� there better be golden light cascading on their upturned, enchanted eyes.

To its credit, �The Rookie� mostly avoids the hackneyed baseball-as-religion approach to filmmaking. Director John Lee Hancock and screenwriter Mike Rich instead chose to focus on the humanity of Texan Jim Morris (Dennis Quaid), a high school science teacher and baseball coach who landed in the pros a dozen years after a severe shoulder injury stifled his pitching career.

The middle-aged Morris is dumbfounded when discovers he can consistently throw 97-m.p.h. heat. The players on his rag-tag team also find out, and a bet is struck: If the guys win the district championships, Morris must try out for minor league ball, which, given his arm, will probably usher him into the pros. If it weren�t a true story it would be patently ridiculous.

There are many enjoyable and well-rendered moments in �The Rookie.� Morris� relationship to his parents, particularly his father, is touching, and his marital tensions are portrayed in an emotional, empathetic and believable way. And apart from a handful of scenes in which the temptation was obviously too juicy for Hancock and Rich to resist, the sappy adoration of baseball doesn�t rear its sugary head.

Other than Morris� shoulder, the only really sore point is the 127-minute running time. Audiences love an against-all-odds sports yarn. But let�s face it, such tales are not normally the stuff of celluloid art. Hancock and Rich thought they could exalt the clich� with scenes that would have been better served by less dialogue and generous application of the editor�s blade. Still, if you have the time �The Rookie� is a sure bet for feel-good, if not inspirational, family entertainment.