The success this underdog comedy from director Michael Ritchie almost single-handedly spawned the kids' sports film boom of the 1980s and '90s. When beer-breathed ex-minor-league ball player and professional pool cleaner Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau) agrees to coach a little league team in the San Fernando Valley, he soon finds he's in over his head, having inherited an assortment of pint-sized peons and talentless losers. They play well-organized teams and lose by tremendous margins, and the parents threaten to disband the Bears to save the kids (and themselves) any further embarrassment. Buttermaker refuses, though, and brings in a pair of ringers: Amanda (Tatum O'Neal), his ex-girlfriend's tomboy daughter, and Kelly (Jackie Earle Haley), a cigarette-smoking delinquent who happens to be a gifted athlete. With their help, the Bears manage to change their losing ways and qualify for the championship, where they face their arch-rivals, the Yankees.~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide

GENRE: Comedy
MPAA RATING: PG
RUN TIME: 1h 42m
RELEASE DATE: April 07, 1976
STARRING: Walter Matthau, Tatum O'Neal, Vic Morrow, Chris Barnes, Ben Piazza
DIRECTOR(S): Michael Ritchie
PRODUCER(S): Stanley R. Jaffe
WRITER(S): Bill Lancaster
STUDIO: