A good movie ... let's play ball
The Final Season is based on a true story that took me back to the days when I was a kid playing hard ball with my friends in the large lot behind our parish church. I'm a city boy born and raised but this movie brought back some good memories. I liked that it wasn't just about baseball but more about what a community will do when faced with an issue that has no resolve. In this case a small high school in Iowa faces closure and with that closure will come the end of nearly two decades of state championship baseball. It is 1991 and Norway High School is facing closure because of a state mandated merger even though it has an amazing record of 19 state baseball championships. Sean Astin, Powers Boothe and Rachael Leigh Cook make up a fine cast that makes this true story a gem of a movie. A majority of the film takes place in an around the small farming community of Norway, Iowa population 500. Norway High School has a student population of 100 so the pool of talented players was small. However, that didn't stop Norway High's baseball coach (Powers Boothe) from amassing an incredible record of 19 state high school baseball championships. Unfortuntately, that record had no real value when the school board made its final decision. When the decision is made the Principal decides to fire Boothe and hires former assistant coach Kent Stock (Sean Astin). The Principal believes Astin will fail miserabley and the final season for the Norway High Tigers will be a losing one. The Principal underestimated Stock's coaching ability and you'll have to see the movie to watch the final 20 minutes.
It's unfortunate this movie didn't get more promotion because it certainly ranks with some of the best sport themed movies of the last few decades. I would put it on the same list as Hoosiers, Remember the Titans, Rudy etc...
Final Season doesn't make me want to move to a small town but it certainly makes me appreciate small town living and how small town communities maintain a cohesiveness you don't find too often in larger cities.