The Rookie

The Rookie (2002)

12 corrected entries

(2 votes)

Corrected entry: In the scene where the Owls are practicing in the gravel yard and Dennis Quaid is pitching for the team's batting practice and Jay Hernandez almost hits the ball, you can see when he throws the ball that the ball is actually still in his glove.

Correction: True, but any baseball player knows that when you pitch batting practice you hold more than one ball to avoid continuously bending over to get balls. You can also see that he has a ball in his hand so the scene was accurate.

Corrected entry: When the game at Arlington Stadium starts you hear the announcer calling the name of the first Ranger's batter. He says "leading off for the Texas Rangers: John Whetland." John Whetland is the Ranger's closing pitcher. He would not be batting in the first inning. The Rangers also use a pinch hitter, so NONE of their pitchers bat at all.

Correction: The name said is Tom Goodwin. He played center field for the Rangers. Also the American League Teams, including the Rangers, use Designated Hitters, not pinch hitters, to bat for their pitchers.

Corrected entry: At the beginning of the movie when Dennis Quaid is wearing a ballcap, it just has the emblem of Jiffy Lube but not the words. Later in the movie when you see him wearing that hat, the words Jiffy Lube are on it with the emblem.

Correction: It's not intended to be the same cap.

Jeff Swanson

Corrected entry: When Jim Morris is measuring the speed of his fastball on an empty road, the two LED segments on the sign that malfunction were working fine just a few shots before.

Correction: That's the whole point of the scene. The sign is mounted on a trailer. It's possible for there to be an intermittent short due to the jolts the trailer takes when being hauled around. This scene was shot for dramatic purposes - Quaid mentions in the commentary that it's not real.

StevenJ

Corrected entry: In real baseball games, there is no running commentary by the announcer. Usually there is the announcing of the home teams starting lineup and defense, the opposing teams starting lineup and defense, the battery, and the batter. I guess they just added this in to clarify what was going on for non-baseball fans.

Correction: The running commentary is being done on the radio by Eric Nadel. It can be heard at the stadium in the suites and concession stands, as well as on any radio a fan could have with them in the stands. [Yes, it was added for clarity.].

StevenJ

Corrected entry: In the game at the end, there is a shot of the scoreboard. If you look closely, you will see that the numbers on the scoreboard don't add up right.

Correction: The numbers on the scoreboard don't add up right, showing the Rangers scoring two runs in the first, two in the second, and one in the fifth, for a total of eight runs. But the bottom of the sixth, which was still active at the time of the shot of the scoreboard, (it's also the inning Jim Morris gets into the game) yielded three runs, which was included in the eight totals runs column but not yet in the inning-by-inning columns.

Correction: When I paused the movie on the scoreboard, Tampa Bay scored once in the 2nd and four in the 3rd. The Rangers scored once in the 1st and three in the 3rd. The announcer says "Rangers 3, Devil Rays 1 here in the bottom of the sixth." The scoreboard also shows its only the 3rd inning when the announcer says it's the 6th.

Correction: The Rangers were actually up 6-1 with two outs in the seventh. They won game by the same score.

The problem is the scoreboard shows Rangers up 8-1 at the bottom of the 8th, even though the runs only add up to 5-1. And when we're told it's the 6th inning, long shots of the field, the scoreboard shows its still the 3rd inning.

Bishop73

Corrected entry: The scene where a series of Owls players are at bat and hitting the ball. One player, #25, his foot touches home plate. Baseball rules say that if a batter at any time touches home plate with his foot when he hits the ball, he is automatically out.

Correction: The final arbiter on the field is the Umpires. They are not robots they do not see everything and they do make mistakes. Many times players will hit a ball with one foot completely out of the batters box and are not called out.

Correction: He could have had 2 hats that were different colors.

Bowling255

Corrected entry: Jim Morris' first big league game, a 7:30 p.m. start, was in Arlington, Texas. His fan club - his former high school ballers - scheduled a 2 p.m. meeting time (to go watch in the game) in Big Lake, Texas. The players arrived at the ballpark's upper deck just before the bottom of the first. Big Lake is a 7-hour, 19-minute drive from Arlington. There is no way the people could have left Big Lake shortly after 2 p.m., driven to the stadium, parked, bought tickets, entered the stadium and climbed to the upper level by about 7:45 p.m., which is approximately when the bottom of the first would have began.

Correction: Mapquest says it is 336.62 mile from Big Lake to Arlington with a travel time of 6.2 hours. That makes an average speed of 53.62 mph. Drop the time to 5.75 hours and the average speed only jumps 5mph to 58.54mph. I'm pretty sure they could break the law and speed all the way there; 165.1 miles of the trip is on the interstate.

Rlvlk

Corrected entry: After Jim Morris finds out he is being called to the big leagues he calls his wife and asks her to bring the blue sports jacket to Arlington. The next scene shows him carrying the jacket into the park. Then, when he is in the bullpen before the game his wife comes up and they obviously haven't seen each other in a while. How did he get the jacket?

Correction: All deliveries to Major League Baseball stadiums (and most Minor League ones) are done during the day and a runner takes the package to the clubhouse. I work in baseball, it's a very secure area. This is not a mistake but one of Disney's few brilliant captures of real life in major sports.

Corrected entry: Not sure why they decided to change this for the movie, but the player who moved up to the majors with Jim Morris was not named Brooks - his real name is Steve Cox.

Correction: Several players were called up to the Show with Jim Morris. "Brooks" was used because of a likeness arrangement with Major League Baseball, Disney would've had to have coughed up the money to use the actual player (can't use someone who looks like him).

Corrected entry: In the scene where Jim debuts in the major leagues he blows into his hands. That is only allowed when it is cold out. It wouldn't be cold enough in Texas for him to be allowed to do that.

Correction: The real Jim blew into his hands in real life, even in Tropicana Field, I was there for his Devil Rays, St. Petersburg debut.

Continuity mistake: When the Owls are playing for their district championship, the other team's best batter comes up in the last inning. As he is walking to the plate, he is wearing Nike shoes, but when he digs into the batter's box, his shoes are Reebok.

More mistakes in The Rookie

Jimmy: Frank, isn't it a little late to be playing this song?
Frank: It's only 8:30.
Jimmy: It's March.

More quotes from The Rookie

Trivia: When Jim is making his debut at The Balkpark in Arlington, the Devil Rays are wearing their current jerseys. Their current jerseys came out in the 2000 or 2001 season. The movie was shot in 1999 when they had different jerseys. However, at the end where the shot is of Jim's D- Ray's jersey is hanging at the high school, it is a 1999 hat and a 2000 or 2001 jersey. Tampa Bay never had that jersey combo.

More trivia for The Rookie

Question: What happened to Jimmy's brother in the movie?

Answer: It's never fully revealed, it seems David and his brother were playing, probably doing something that requires parental supervisor and was unable to save him. Again, probably David was the older one and his father believed he should have known better.

More questions & answers from The Rookie

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