‘Situations and Tendencies’: The Minnesota Twins, the Hero’s Journey, and the Unsung Magic of ‘Little Big League’

 

Twelve-year-old Billy Heywood has a dream job in Little Big League. Or so he thinks. Billy’s grandfather, Thomas Heywood, owns the Minnesota Twins in this 1994 film. When Thomas dies, Billy inherits the team, fires the volatile manager, persuades the Twins front office to let him take the job, confronts disrespect from players who don’t want to take orders from a kid, wins their respect but loses his friends because of an oversized ego, gets a comeuppance, regains their friendship, and receives a massive show of appreciation from Twins fans.

Billy’s voyage exemplifies “the hero’s journey,” a common Western storytelling template popularized by Joseph Campbell in his work The Hero With a Thousand Faces, found in ancient works such as The Odyssey and in films such as the original Star Wars. Little Big League does not have the typical Hollywood ending where the team wins the crucial game, but it does have a feel-good quality, mostly because of the tests that Billy endures, the lessons he learns, and the growth that he experiences. There are various interpretations of the hero’s journey and the number of steps involved. Campbell’s analysis included 17 steps, but most Hollywood screenwriting guides identify 12 that we will use here.

STEP 1. THE CALL TO ADVENTURE

Billy has baseball in his blood. His passion for the game is evidenced by conversations with his grandfather where they test each other on baseball trivia. When three runners on his Little League team are on the same base, the umpire asks Billy what the ruling should be; Billy references a similar incident happening to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1926 and makes the appropriate call on who is out and who is safe.

Thomas’s son was Billy’s father, who died before the events depicted in the film. When Thomas passes away, his attorney shows Billy and his mom, Jenny, a videotape declaring that the Twins have been bequeathed to Billy. George O’Farrell manages the ballclub, but he’s got the fiery temper of Earl Weaver, Billy Martin, and Leo Durocher. He berates the players. Billy doesn’t believe that O’Farrell’s style of managing is effective, so he fires the skipper. To fill the role, Billy’s friends say he should appoint himself as the manager.

STEP 2. THE REFUSAL OF THE CALL

Although Billy loves baseball and knows the intricacies of strategy and tactics, he initially declines to make managing the Twins part of his responsibilities. Then, he reconsiders. But his approach is neither brash nor boastful. Billy believes that his knowledge will help the ballclub.

STEP 3. MEETING THE MENTOR

Twins pitching coach Mac MacNally dismisses the proposal, though he doesn’t disrespect Billy. He explains that baseball is made up of “situations and tendencies.” He doubts that Billy will know what to do in a game, so the young baseball savant suggests that Mac give him a situation. Mac creates a simple one involving the Twins batting against the New York Yankees. Billy asks for more information, including the inning, who’s in the bullpen, whether the game is home or away, and who’s up next for the Yankees.

After Mac supplies the requested details, Billy gives a concise solution. Mac doesn’t buy it and offers an alternative, which Billy easily refutes. His reasoning is sound. Mac acquiesces.

STEP 4. CROSSING THE THRESHOLD

The commissioner must agree to this plan for a kid to manage a Major League Baseball team. Twins general manager Arthur Goslin calls up the commissioner and says that “the kid is for real.” When asked about Billy’s mom, Billy whispers a response for Arthur: “His mother said it’s okay with her if it’s okay with you.” In a bit of subterfuge, Billy reverses the answer when Jenny asks if he’s sure the commissioner approved him managing.

STEP 5. TESTS, ALLIES, AND ENEMIES

Most of the players do not take Billy seriously. Catcher Mark Hodges ignores a sign for a hit-and-run when he’s at bat, which leads to the baserunner on first getting caught trying to steal second base. Mike McGrevey, a starting pitcher, disregards Billy adding any value to the team; John “Blackout” Gatling, a relief pitcher, screams at his diminutive manager when he gets removed from the game. One ally is Lou Collins, the first baseman, who also begins a romance with the widowed Jenny.

STEP 6. THE APPROACH TO THE INMOST CAVE

Slowly, Billy gains the players’ trust and respect by focusing on baseball rather than cowering to them. A pivotal scene takes place in the clubhouse, where Billy appeals to the notion of baseball as an ideal. Their photos are on baseball cards. They play at historic sites like Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park. “From now on, let’s stop worrying about winning and losing. Just go out and play and have fun,” he says. “If you make an error, forget it. If you strike out, who cares, just as long as you hustle.”

STEP 7. THE ORDEAL

Billy faces tough opposition in the American League. He implements a play against the Oakland A’s that he claims Ty Cobb and Wahoo Sam Crawford often used. With Mickey Scales on third base, Pat Corning draws a walk. But instead of stopping at first base, he heads for second. Oakland’s catcher fires to the shortstop, who catches the ball in front of the base; Corning is safe. This allows Scales to dart home and beat the tag when the shortstop throws back to the catcher.

STEP 8. THE REWARD

The Twins start winning. They’re less tense and more focused. Billy’s leadership, creativity, and passion for baseball have affected the players.

 

 

STEP 9. THE ROAD BACK

Challenges on the field are not Billy’s only problems. He’s naturally curious about the adult films that he can purchase on pay-per-view when the team is on the road. Inexplicably, the 12-year-old manager has his own room without a chaperone. When his mother finds out because she got the hotel bill from the GM, she admonishes him but does so with minimal anger and maximum compassion.

Further, Billy’s idea of baseball as a noble, romantic profession dies when he realizes that he must release Jerry Johnson, one of his idols. Jerry simply cannot hit like he used to; Billy cannot afford to be a fan at the expense of the team’s chances for the pennant. Once an idealist, Billy realizes the most challenging part of baseball is making difficult choices without regard to the emotional consequences.

STEP 10. THE RESURRECTION

Further, Billy benches Lou for being up late with Jenny in the Heywood home; gets suspended by his mom for one game when he curses at an umpire; causes friction with his friends for focusing on the team rather than hanging out with them; and fines Lonnie Ritter $500 for not running out a groundball.

Lou reveals that Lonnie is playing hurt with two busted ribs and reminds Billy that the game needs to be fun.

Billy walks around Chicago during a road trip and meets up with a bunch of kids playing stickball in a vacant lot. They think he’s the manager of the Twins, but he denies it. Billy has fun for the first time in a while and realizes that he’s not handling things very well, which leads to him repairing his relationship with his friends and Lou resuming his position as starting first baseman.

STEP 11. THE RETURN

The Twins are competing with the Seattle Mariners at the end of the season for the wild-card slot in a game at the Metrodome. Lou gets robbed of a game-winning home run when Ken Griffey Jr. races to the wall, leaps high, and makes the catch.

STEP 12. THE FREEDOM TO LIVE

After the game, the players sulk in the clubhouse. The season is over. “It’s the most fun I ever had,” says Corning. “It’s the only fun I ever had,” echoes McGrevey.

Billy announces that he’s retiring from managing. Instead, he’ll focus on school. The players who once disrespected him are saddened by his departure. Blackout says, “Billy, you can’t leave, man.”

He’ll be gone from the dugout but won’t disappear. Billy assuages their mourning by assuring them that he’ll still be around because he’s the owner; Mac will take over as manager and Jerry will be the third-base coach and hitting instructor next season. But the players aren’t the only ones to honor Billy. A security guard comes into the clubhouse and informs him that the crowd hasn’t left yet. They want to show their appreciation for the young skipper as well.

Billy triumphantly doffs his cap to reflect his appreciation for them and a very special season for Minnesota’s baseball fans.

CONCLUSION

Because Little Big League does not follow a typical storyline ending in a victory, it may disappoint fans of sports films. But that’s a result of avoidance or ignorance regarding the film’s premise—Billy’s journey is the destination, not a victory determining a championship or another important reward. Little Big League is in good company. The Bad News Bears did not culminate with the group of misfits sponsored by Chico’s Bail Bonds winning against the Yankees in the North Valley League, nor did the North Dallas Bulls beat the Chicago Marauders in North Dallas Forty.

Little Big League depicts a childhood fantasy with a dose of reality. Not all dreams come true. But the promise of a better future for Billy and the Twins provokes imagination of a sequel that could have featured cameos by Twins greats Harmon Killebrew, Tony Oliva, Rod Carew, Kent Hrbek, Bert Blyleven, and Jim Kaat as the Twins bring a World Series championship to the land of 10,000 lakes.

Reboot, anyone?

DAVID KRELL is the Chair of SABR’s Elysian Fields Chapter. His books include The Fenway Effect: A Cultural History of the Boston Red Sox and 1962: Baseball and America in the Time of JFK.