''The Winning Season'' is a 2004 television film with elements of a fantasy drama. It chronicles a young boy's dream in 1985 with playing with the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

' great Honus Wagner. The film follows the dream to the point where the boy is assisting Wagner in his

1909 World Series The 1909 World Series was the championship series in Major League Baseball for the 1909 season. The sixth edition of the World Series, it featured the National League champion Pittsburgh Pirates against the American League champion Detroit Tiger ...

duel with fellow hall-of-famer

Ty Cobb Tyrus Raymond Cobb (December 18, 1886 – July 17, 1961), nicknamed "the Georgia Peach", was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) center fielder. He was born in rural Narrows, Georgia. Cobb spent 22 seasons with the Detroit Tigers, the las ...

. It is adapted from the 1997 children's novel ''

Honus & Me ''Honus & Me'' is a children's novel by Dan Gutman, published in 1997, and the first in the ''Baseball Card Adventures'' series. It was rejected by many publishers before HarperCollins finally accepted. The made-for-television movie ''The Winning ...

'' by

Dan Gutman Dan Gutman (born October 19, 1955) is an American writer, primarily of children's fiction. His works include the '' Baseball Card Adventures'' children's book series that began with '' Honus & Me'', and the '' My Weird School'' series. Early li ...

. The film premiered on TNT on April 4, 2004.

Production

The film was made by TNT and first broadcast on April 4, 2004. Modine prepared for his role as Wagner by playing with a minor-league team, the IronBirds in Aberdeen, Maryland, owned by

Cal Ripken Jr. Calvin Edwin Ripken Jr. (born August 24, 1960), nicknamed "Iron man (sports streak), The Iron Man", is an American former baseball shortstop and third baseman who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Baltimore Orioles (1981� ...

Critical reaction

''Variety'' condemned the film as "schlocky" and sentimental. Their critic found Modine's performance started to wear and Davis brought "little conviction", but director John Kent Harrison was praised for the performance he got out of Rendall.

Cast

Matthew Modine Matthew Avery Modine (born March 22, 1959) is an American actor and filmmaker, who rose to prominence through his role as U.S. Marine Private/Sergeant J.T. "Joker" Davis in ''Full Metal Jacket''. His other film roles include the title character ...

- as Honus Wagner * Kristin Davis - as Mandy *

Mark Rendall Mark Rendall (born October 21, 1988) is a Canadian film, television and voice actor whose roles include the lead in the 2004 film, ''Childstar'' and Mick in season 1 of the Canadian television drama series ''ReGenesis''. He played Bastian Bux i ...

- as Joe Stoshack *

William Lee Scott William Lee Scott (born July 6, 1973) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as high school student Stanley "Bullethead" Kuznocki on the WB sitcom ''The Steve Harvey Show''. Additionally, he appeared in the films '' Gone in 60 Second ...

- as

References

External links

*
''The Winning Season'' at Yahoo! Movies
2004 films 2004 television films 2004 biographical drama films 2000s sports drama films TNT Network original films American biographical drama films Sports films based on actual events American baseball films Films directed by John Kent Harrison 2004 drama films 2000s American films {{sport-film-stub

Production

Critical reaction

Cast

See also

References

External links