Erin Blunt

The hapless American Little League baseball team, the Bears, see the Japanese junior baseball champions on television. The Japanese team has invited Americans to play them, but no team has accepted the challenge. The Bears decide to answer the call and go on a local morning talk show to generate support. Meanwhile, local hustler and con artist Marvin P. Lazar (Tony Curtis) contemplates his debts, sees the Bears on television, and gets an idea that he later pitches to his associate, Louis the Gambler (Lonny Chapman): For $10,000, Louis can invest in Marvin's plan to take the Bears to Tokyo and broadcast the game nationally on American television. Louis declines because Marvin already owes him money. After Louis leaves, the Bears arrive to meet Marvin at his office, who falsely implies that he has already raised the money. Giving the children contracts, Marvin claims that their parents have approved and explains that he can promote the game and make them famous as both their manager and new coach. One team member, Ahmad Rahim (Erin Blunt), informs Marvin they have to take his six-year old little brother, Mustapha (Scooty Thornton), with them. Several days later, the Bears arrive in Tokyo and meet the Japanese team and their coach, Shimizu (Tomisaburô Wakayama), before proceeding to their hotel. Marvin gives the hotel two credit cards. After setting up an exhibition practice inning with the Japanese team for the next morning, Marvin tries to find a TV network to cover the event and a company willing to make an endorsement deal. At the exhibition, Marvin suggests different ways to write the Bears' story to Eddie (Jerry Ziesmer), an American television network journalist. The Bears' star player, Kelly Leak (Jackie Earle Haley), hits a home run, but the rest of his teammates play terribly and Japan scores ten runs to the Bears' one. Eddie tells Marvin that he will try to promote the game but warns that no one in the U.S. wants to see an American team get beaten. On his way back to the hotel, Kelly sees a beautiful Japanese girl (Hatsune Ishihara), and follows her to her music lesson. He approaches her afterwards but she speaks only Japanese. He follows her home and continues his attempts to communicate with the help of a Japanese-English dictionary. Kelly asks the girl to dinner and learns her name is Arika. Back at the hotel, Marvin finds it more difficult to promote the game than he anticipated and he is forced to confront his lies. Hotel management figures out that Marvin has no money, cuts up his credit cards and insists that he pay in cash. Meanwhile, the Bears realize Marvin misled them; he has not set up any games or television coverage. Disappointed, the Bears berate Marvin for lying but Mustapha says he still likes the coach. With the team stuck in Japan, Marvin is determined to make money. He bullies his way into a wrestling match with Japanese champion Antonio Inoki; although Marvin tries to dive from the wrestler, Inoki throws him around the ring. Concerned for Marvin's safety, Mustapha intercedes in the match by jumping on Inoki's back and biting his leg. The boy's teammates join in and they overcome Inoki. Marvin is declared the winner and earns enough money to cover their hotel stay. The unusual wrestling match is reported in the press and the Bears start garnering media attention. As the Bears and the Japanese team ride the train to their game location, Marvin realizes Kelly is missing. Back in Tokyo, Kelly and Arika walk around the city and get to know each other, despite the language barrier. After the two teams arrive at their destination, Shimizu observes Marvin's efforts to generate media interest and expresses disdain for Marvin's artifices despite his lack of speaking English. Later, Marvin concedes that he can be obnoxious, but argues that he doesn't want to miss out on the opportunity; if his efforts to court the media are successful, Shimizu and his team will benefit, too. When Marvin points out that he and Shimizu don't have to like each other to work together, Shimizu gives in. Shimizu and the Japanese all-stars win a nationally televised amateur talent game show and secure an endorsement deal with a baseball bat company. Meanwhile in Tokyo, Kelly and Arika share their first kiss. Sometime later, Marvin announces that the Bears are making money and presents them with new uniforms, ignoring protests that they are happy with their current outfits. As the Bears leave to watch a baseball game, Mustapha stays behind to be with Marvin, but Marvin shoos the little boy away to keep a private appointment. Marvin emerges from a massage parlor to find Mustapha waiting for him. When the boy asks Marvin why men and women kiss and how babies are made, Marvin answers as best he can. In Tokyo, Kelly finds Arika at pinball arcade and meets her disapproving father, who forces Arika to send Kelly away. Later, Ahmad calls Marvin an unscrupulous, manipulative and unfeeling "loser," and Marvin considers the accusations. The next day, Marvin runs into Louis. The gambler introduces him to his boss Locke (Robert Sorrells), who is in town with three teenage baseball superstars from Texas that could play for the Bears and help them win. Louis and Locke offer to place a $5,000 bet on the Bears for Marvin in Las Vegas, Nevada; since the odds are 25 to one for the Japanese team, Marvin could make a lot of money. On game day, Marvin introduces the three Texas players, but the Bears don't want help, claiming that Marvin pushed them to be underdogs and now they have something to prove. However, Marvin wields his authority and predicts that with the Texans on the team, the Bears will win the game and be national heroes. If the Bears lose, they will get nothing. As the team heads to the dugout, Ahmad admonishes Marvin. The game begins with the Texans batting and pitching well, but the Bears shun Marvin in the dugout. When Mustapha tries to comfort him, Marvin yells at the boy to leave him alone. Soon, the Texans exhibit unsportsmanlike behaviors and a fight ensues, involving the Bears, the Japanese team and audience members. After police end the brawl, stadium officials cancel the game. However, the television network director informs Marvin he will leave the cameras rolling until 4:00 p.m., so Marvin can still get another game on the air. Learning that Shimizu left his team because the players participated in the fight, Marvin finds his fellow coach and they commiserate in a hotel, but they look out the window to see their two teams playing for fun in a neighborhood lot. The coaches join their players and everyone enjoys himself except Kelly, who is having trouble concentrating. Suddenly, Arika arrives and Kelly hits a home run. The two teenagers run into each other's arms and kiss. When the network director (George Wyner) sees the game, he insists that the players return to the stadium, adding that Marvin is contractually obligated to deliver a game, but Marvin does not consent. Although Marvin suggests that the director ask the boys directly for their approval, the man threatens to sue the coach for breach of contract. Unfazed, Marvin announces that he is done promoting and the boys cheer. Taking Shimizu aside, Marvin suggests that the teams play together in Cuba next year.

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.