The Perfect Game

     This film is based on real-life events of 1957 when a Little League Baseball team came from Monterrey Mexico to play against American teams.  Cesar Faz was a 1950’s baseball player and he was never given a chance because he was from Mexico.  He went back to his own country and even though it wasn’t his choice, he became the coach of a Mexican team.  He worked in the steel mill with the fathers of the players to make a living.  This time was the period when white people had separate bathrooms, black people had their own bathrooms and they sat by themselves.  Unfortunately, there was a lot of unfairness and prejudice during this time in life and in sports.  Cheech Marin plays a priest!

     There is also a much older version of this film.  The players came from very impoverished backgrounds.  The village is shown as a two-burro village.  The children are shown playing ball in the dirt along with pigs and chickens serving as bases?  This is probably not a true portrayal of the area?  Monterrey has been one of the leading industrial centers and largest cities in Mexico for over 100 years.  The scenes of the players crossing into Texas from Mexico are not accurate too.  The river between Texas and Mexico is not shown and also the automotive, pedestrian and rail bridges spanning the river?  In Texas, the scenes seem to come from the 1940’s instead of the 1950’s?  The clothing styles and hairdos for the women seem a decade older?  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

117 min, Drama directed by William Dear with Clifton Collins, Jr., Cheech Marin, Jake T. Austin, Emilie de Ravin, Bruce McGill, Jansen Panettiere, Moises Arias, Ryan Ochoa, Gabriel Morales, Carlos Padilla, Tony Revolori, Alfredo Rodriguez.

Note:  Imdb 7 out of 10, 57% critic 68% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 3*, Amazon 4.8* out of 5* with 766 reviews, Metacritic 42out of 100, 7.8 out of 10.

Special Note:  Filmed in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico; Los Angeles and San Bernardino, California.  Real Monterrey players Jose “Pepe” Maiz and
Angel Macias along with La Mesa player Joe McKirahan made cameo appearances as fans watching the game.  Clifton Collins, Jr. originally turned down the role of Cesar because he didn’t want to be typecast as a Latino actor.  Another actor was cast but the producers were dissatisfied and asked Collins again to take the role.  The original 1957 Monterrey Industrial Little League had fourteen players and two coaches, Cesar Faz and Jose Gonzales.  They received their charter in 1955 with four teams.  There was a funding problem and the film had to shut down just a couple of weeks into filming.  They restarted three-four months later and some of the boys had grown so much that all the scenes with them had to be re-shot.