Alfred Lutter III

The Bears, a ragtag San Fernando Valley youth baseball team, reconvene without their former coach and star pitcher (Note: no mention is ever made to the absence of Coach Morris Buttermaker or Amanda Whurlizer). A new, austere coach, Mr. Manning (Dolph Sweet), prepares the team for a big game to be played at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas; the winner will travel to Japan to play a Japanese team. Appalled by the team's lack of discipline, Manning fires catcher Mike Engelberg (Jeffery Louis Starr) before they take the field. The team's motorcycle-riding star, Kelly Leak (Jackie Earle Haley), disrupts practice, leading the Bears to walk out and effectively ending Manning's tenure as coach. Three of the players, Engelberg, Ogilvie (Alfred Lutter), and Tanner Boyle (Chris Barnes) visit the home of teammate Timmy "The Big Looper" Lupus (Quinn Smith), who is laid up with a broken leg and will not be making the trip to Texas. Ogilvie points out that none of them will be going to Houston if they cannot find a competent coach and a decent pitcher. Later, Kelly finds a new pitcher, Carmen Ronzonni (Jimmy Baio), who has moved from the East Coast. Kelly rejoins the team and introduces the local park's elderly and senile groundskeeper, Lester Eastland (Fred Stuthman), claiming that the man is the Bears' new coach. The players trick their parents into thinking that Lester will accompany them to Houston, then depart without a chaperon in a possibly stolen van procured by Carmen Ronzonni and driven by 13-year-old Kelly. The team stops for the night at a motel where they pile into a double room. Kelly goes off to smoke cigarettes and pulls a photograph of a man from his pocket. When Kelly returns, Tanner is watching Knute Rockne-All American on television, just as Pat O'Brien delivers his "Win one for the Gipper" speech. The next day, the Bears reach New Mexico and a group of Native Americans kids challenge them to a game in a vacant lot. At first, pitcher Carmen cannot get the ball over the plate and then when he does, he cannot get the other team out, resulting in a disastrous loss. Arriving in Texas, the Bears spot the Astrodome and speculate that their opponents, the Toros, are dirt farmers. At a practice field, the Toros drill with military precision as the game's sponsor, Sy Orlansky (Clifton James), impatiently waits for the Bears to arrive. Morrie Slaytor (Pat Corley), the Toros' coach, instructs his assistant to see if the El Paso Falcons team is still available. Kelly sets the Bears up in a dirty hotel, but the police show up and inquire about the van parked out front. Plainclothes Officer Mackie (Lane Smith) wants to know who drove the van, who it belongs to, and who their chaperon is? Kelly says their coach is not there and leaves for a nearby plant, where he waits for the shift to end, and greets the man in his photograph, his divorced estranged father Mike Leak (William Devane). Kelly asks Mike to be the Bears' coach and he reluctantly agrees. At the hotel, Mike introduces himself to Mackie as 'Coach Leak'. Mackie says as long as the van checks out, everything is fine. On a practice field, the boys tell Mike that they do not need a coach, they just need an adult to go on the field with them, so Mike watches their inept play from the sidelines. When Carmen hits Tanner with a pitch, triggering a minor brawl, Mike takes the team for pizza and they read about themselves in the local newspaper. Sometime later, the Bears arrive at the field to find the El Paso Falcons are already there. Mike introduces himself to Sy, who mistakes the Falcons for the Bears, but Mike points out the real Bears. Sy challenges Slaytor over the confusion, telling him that he wants the team from the newspaper because they have a great story. After checking in at the Houston Hilton with expenses paid by Sy's company, the Bears head back to the practice field where Mike teaches the boys fundamentals and Ogilvie gets a detailed scouting report on the Toros from a local girl. Mike tells Carmen to stop impersonating major league pitchers and just throw like himself, which turns out to be pretty good. Mike confronts Kelly about his smoking and Kelly storms off. He bumps into some of the Toros and one of them repeatedly uses a gay slur to describe the Bears and their coach and a fight ensues, but Kelly is separated from his rival. Now angrier, Kelly runs away. Back at the hotel, the team cannot find Kelly, but watch themselves in a television news report. When Mike finds Kelly in a pool hall, his son is upset that Mike did not recognize him immediately at the plant. Mike left eight years earlier, when Kelly was five, after giving the boy a bicycle. Kelly tells Mike that he never rode the bike because he saw it as a bribe and never accepted the deal. Mike asks if Kelly would have looked him up if he had not needed a coach? On game day in the locker room, the team worries that Kelly will not return, but Tanner gives a "win one for the Big Looper" speech, and Kelly arrives at the last minute. Between games of the doubleheader, a scaled down field with shorter baselines is set up. The Toros quickly take a 5-0 lead, but due to a time limit an official calls the game after only two innings. Mike argues that they deserve to finish the game, as Tanner refuses to leave the field and is chased by two officials. A member of the Astros, Robert J. Watson, shouts "Let them play," and Mike and the Bears get the crowd to join in the chant. The officials reverse their decision and the game continues. The Bears chip away at the Toros' lead. With two out in the bottom of the fourth and the score at 5-2, Carmen steps to the plate and hits the ball to the fence for a bases-clearing double. He takes off for third, the Toros throw the ball away, and Carmen slides home safely as the Bears win, 6-5 and are going to Japan. Alone in the runway to the locker room after the game, Kelly tells Mike that he would have found him even if they did not need a coach. In the final scene back in California, Kelly stops by the ball field and gives Lester Eastland a silent nod of thanks.

Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau), an alcoholic and former minor-league baseball player, is recruited by a city councilman and attorney who filed a lawsuit against an ultra-competitive Southern California Little League which excluded the least skilled athletes (including his son) from playing. In order to settle the lawsuit, the league agrees to add an additional team - the Bears - which is composed of the worst players in the whole Little League. Buttermaker becomes the coach of the unlikely team, which includes (among others) a near-sighted pitcher, an overweight catcher, a foul-mouthed shortstop with a Napoleon complex, an outfielder who dreams of emulating his idol Hank Aaron, and a motley collection of other "talent". Shunned by the more competitive teams (and competitive parents), the Bears are the outsiders. They play their opening game, and do not even record an out, with the score at 26 to 0 before Buttermaker forfeits the game. Realizing the team is nearly hopeless, he recruits a couple of unlikely prospects: First up, is sharp-tongued Amanda Whurlizer (Tatum O'Neal), a skilled pitcher (trained by Buttermaker when she was younger) who is the 12-year-old daughter of one of Buttermaker's ex-girlfriends. At first, she tries to convince Buttermaker that she has given up baseball, but then she reveals that she had been practicing "on the sly". Before agreeing to join the team, Amanda makes a number of outlandish demands (such as imported jeans, modeling school, ballet lessons, etc.) as conditions for joining. Upon hearing her demands, Buttermaker asks, "Who do you think you are, Catfish Hunter?" Amanda responds by asking, "Who's he?" Rounding out the team, Buttermaker recruits the "best athlete in the area," who also happens to be the local cigarette-smoking, loan-sharking, Harley-Davidson-riding troublemaker, Kelly Leak (Jackie Earle Haley). With Whurlizer and Leak on board, the team starts gaining more confidence, and the Bears start winning games. Eventually, the unlikely Bears make it to the championship game opposite the top-notch Yankees, who are coached by aggressive, competitive Roy Turner (Vic Morrow). As the game progresses, tensions are ratcheted up as Buttermaker and Turner engage in shouting matches, directing their players to become increasingly more ruthless and competitive against each other, going as far as fighting, spiking on slide, or the batter getting hit on purpose. The turnaround point of the game comes after a heated exchange between Turner's son (and Yankees pitcher) Joey (Brandon Cruz) and the Bears at-bat catcher Engelberg (Gary Lee Cavagnaro). Turner orders his son to walk Engelberg, the only Bears hitter he cannot overcome, despite Joey's wish to give it a try. In response, Joey intentionally throws a wild beanball nearly striking Engelberg in the head. Horrified, Turner goes to the mound and slaps his son. On the next pitch, Engelberg hits a routine ground ball back to Joey who exacts revenge against his father by holding the ball until Engelberg has an inside the park home run. Joey then leaves the game dropping the ball at his father's feet. Buttermaker - realizing that he has become as competitive as Turner - puts the benchwarmers on the field, thus giving everyone a chance to play. In spite of this, the finish-up brings up the best team-play from the Bears. After loading the bases with smart tactics (two walks and a bunt) they nearly recover a four run difference, with the last runner getting taken out at the last moment. Having narrowly lost the game at 7 to 6, Buttermaker gives the team free rein of his beer cooler. Although they did not win the championship, they have the satisfaction of having come a long way. The condescending Yankees congratulate the Bears (in a sarcastic tone implying that they really not mean it) telling them that although they are still not that good, they have "guts." Tanner, the shortstop, replies by telling the Yankees where they can put their trophy. The Bears cheer and Lupus overcomes his chronic shyness enough to yell "Wait 'til next year!", then they spray their beers all over each other. The movie ends with a field celebration by the Bears that makes it look as if they won the game.

It is 1947. An 8-year-old girl named Alice is growing up on a farm near Monterey, California, and has dreams of being a singer. The background is all ruby red, a deliberately theatrical and artificial feel of classic cinema, indicating satire of "Gone With the Wind" and "The Wizard of Oz." Flash forward to the summer of 1974, present-day when this was filmed. A view of the town of Soccoro, New Mexico with Mott the Hoople's All the Way From Memphis blasting on the soundtrack. Inside a tacky, blue-collar home is Alice trying to sew and she turns down her son's record player. Alice is clearly a bright and witty woman that clowns around with her son, but stuck with a bored, uncommunicative husband that works as a Coca Cola truck driver. He berates and threatens her for her son's bratty antics and behavior. One day while Alice and her friend Bea are hanging out together, she receives a phone call that her husband died in a vehicle accident while at work. Soon afterwards, she practices her piano and singing and has a sale of her household belongings and sells the house Alice and Tommy leave Soccoro for Monterey. They first stop in Phoenix, where she is trying to get a job singing in a bar, but the first time she's checked out by the owner and offended, but soon finds work in another bar. Soon afterwards, she meets the younger and charming Ben. Alice's son is forced to fend for himself and constantly complaining about them being stuck where they are, but she insists on staying. One morning, a woman Alice doesn't recognize comes to Alice's motel and reveals herself to be Ben's wife. Alice assures her she knew nothing about Ben being married. Ben comes to the door screaming for his wife to get out, breaks in, and beats her to get out. He threatens Alice for telling him to calm down. Alice and her son leave immediately. Alice and Tommy are in the car and Tommy seems indifferent to Alice's situation and trying to tell her a "Shoot the Dog" joke, despite her breakdown. They settle into a motel room in Tucson. Alice gets a job as a waitress at Mel and Ruby's Cafe, which is walking distance from them Alice is at work for the first day at the cafe, for which she and the staff were the basis for the hit TV series "Alice", in the late 1970's and early 1980's. It is a backbreaking job for her at the extremely busy and chaotic greasy spoon diner. There's the owner and short order cook Mel, the sassy and foul-mouthed Flo, and the strange and neurotic Vera. Flo introduces Alice to the customers as the new girl and makes references to her body and Alice is offended and does not want anything to do with her personally. She also meets David, a divorced, soft-spoken rancher who is a regular customer. He takes an instant liking to her. Alice reluctantly takes up a relationship with David and her son Tommy takes a liking to him as well. Meanwhile, Tommy forms a friendship with the tomboyish Audrey, whom he takes guitar lessons with. One day at the diner, Flo has an outburst with Mel when he's trying to find Vera spilling ketchup all over several customers. Alice is believed to have been hurt at the outburst, but it turns out she's laughing uncontrollably and begins a friendship with Flo. They hang out together in between shifts and Flo tells her how she can make more money at the job Alice's son celebrates his 12th birthday at David's ranch and has an outburst over his music choices and David spanks him for it and corrects Alice for having such a bratty son. They both leave the house. Alice and Tommy have a fight and she drops him off the side of the road. Alice receives a call that Tommy is at a juvenile detention center drunk and that he and Audrey were getting drunk on ripple. She oversleeps the next day Alice is unable to function at work and Flo takes her to the ladies room for a chat. Alice tells her about how she's depended on men her whole life, her late husband, and broken relationship with David. Flo also tells her of her single parenting and about dental work her daughter needs that will cost hundreds. Vera is in the diner alone trying to break up a fight going on. Alice and Flo return to work and publicly, she and David work out their differences and reconcile. Afterward, Tommy tells her it's okay if they don't go to Monterey. At the same time, a Monterey Hotel is in front of them while they're walking.