Movie review: 'The Perfect Game', a historic and memorable true story!

I was 11 years old when this historic event took place in 1957! Being born and raised on Chicago’s south side automatically made me a Chicago White Sox fan. On the north side of course, were the Chicago Cubs fans. I barely remember the event as my dad and others at the time followed the little league team.

“The Perfect Game”, based on a true story, follows a rag-tag, shoeless, poor group of kids from Monterrey, Mexico, who shocked the world by winning 13 games in a row and the Little League World Series, and in the final game, is the only perfect game ever pitched in the Championship!

The pace of the movie is very easy going, much like attending a baseball game, as the personality of the coach (Clifton Collins Jr.) is established, the young ‘would-be’ baseball players, and the priest (Cheech Marin) who would become the motivational ‘glue’ to guide, foster, and inspire the team to pursue a dream, against all odds.

There’s a multitude of lessons to be learned from “The Perfect Game” as the film brings forward social circumstances that were in place at the time such as racial prejudice, the early immigration situation, and class structure. The upside is that they’re treated as historical circumstances and not overtly put ‘in your face’ which gives the movie a ‘time-capsule feel’, as if we had the privilege of looking through a time portal to witness history in the making.

A real treat for me is watching the work of Cheech Marin. A number of us ‘boomers’, and yes, I’m one, admired the work of the comedy duo “Cheech & Chong”. The duo consisted of Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong, who through their ‘stoner’ movies of the 70’s & 80’s, who presented the views and inequity of society on various levels under the ‘stoner’ comedy guise. The successful transition to the big screen of their comedy act in the form of stories with lessons, are among my favorites. In feature films as an actor, my favorite of Cheech Marin is “Born in East L.A.” (1987) and his character of Rudy who’s a U.S. citizen trapped south of the border because he lost his I. D. and can’t prove his citizenship. Another favorite is the TV series “Nash Bridges” which ran for 6 seasons in the late 90’s starring Don Johnson (“Miami Vice”) and Cheech Marin as two inspectors with the San Francisco Police department’s Special Investigations Unit.

In “The Perfect Game”, demonstrates once again, that comedy and drama can be used to educate, entertain, and remind us of the past, and set in motion, the social consciousness to succeed in the future…

“The Perfect Game” Starring Clifton Collins Jr., Cheech Marin, Moises Arias, Jake T. Austin, Gabriel Morales, Ryan Ochoa, Carlos Padilla, Jansen Panettiere, Mario Quinonez Jr., Anthony Quinonez, Alfredo Rodríguez, Louis Gossett Jr., Bruce McGill, and John Cothran Jr.

Directed by William Dear. Written by W. William Winokur (from his book). IndustryWorks Pictures release. Rated PG for some thematic elements.

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