Young foster child Roger Bomman and his friend, J.P., love to sneak into baseball games of the struggling California Angels. Still in limited contact with his widowed father, Roger asks when they will be a family again. His father replies sarcastically, "I'd say when the Angels win the pennant". Taking his father's words literally, he prays for God to help the Angels win. In a game against the Toronto Blue Jays which Roger and J.P. attend, he sees a group of angels led by Al helping the team. Although he can see them quite clearly, everyone else can only explain the seemingly impossible acts as freak occurrences. Roger's unique ability to see which players are receiving help from angels leads their skeptical and flamboyant manager George Knox (who hates children) to keep him around as a good luck charm and consultant. Due to the much-needed help, the Angels start to win games and make a surprising second-half surge to the top of their division.
As the Angels advance to the division championship, Roger has to miss the first championship game because of a court hearing only to find out that his father has permanently given up custody of him. As Roger laments his loss, J.P. accidentally reveals to antagonistic sportscaster Ranch Wilder that Roger has the ability to see angels, and that Knox has been winning through the advice Roger gave him. When Roger returns home from his court hearing with his caretaker Maggie Nelson, Knox returns J.P. home from the game, Maggie tells Knox what happened at the court hearing, Knox tells Roger that when he was his age his father barely spent time with him and his brothers because he could never take care of himself and if Roger continues to think other people would let him down, Roger would dislike children when he becomes an adult.
Hoping to permanently end Knox's career in baseball since their days as players, Wilder informs the press of what J.P. said to him and their owner Hank Murphy threatens to relieve George of his management responsibilities. Roger comes clean to Maggie about his special ability, and at a press conference, they and the entire team defend Knox in front of the press. Moved by their faith, Murphy allows him to remain as the Angels' manager.
During the final game of the season against the rival Chicago White Sox, none of the angels show up to help the team. Later on, Al appears to Roger and explains that championships have to be won on their own without the angels interfering. He also says that he is there to check on pitcher Mel Clark, who only has months to live due to his years of heavy smoking and will become an angel himself. Mel struggles in the ninth inning but perseveres after encouragement from Knox, his team, and the fans in attendance. The Angels ultimately win the game on their own and clinch the division title and the pennant, while Murphy fires Wilder for insulting the team on the air. Knox adopts Roger and J.P., as he wants to try to be a father. J.P. sees Al and says, "I knew it could happen". Al flies off and says, "We're always watching".
In July 1993, Caravan Pictures reached an agreement with director William Dear to helm screenwriter Holly Goldberg Sloan's remake of MGM’s 1951 baseball picture Angels in the Outfield.[2] Unlike the original, which focused on the Pittsburgh Pirates as the team in heavenly need, the film focuses on the California Angels, who did not exist when the original was released in 1951; in addition to the name coincidence, The Walt Disney Company, which distributed the film, was a minority owner of the Angels at the time. The film did, however, premiere at the Pirates' home stadium at the time, Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.[3][4]
Reception
The film has a rating of 31% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 29 reviews, with an average rating of 4.5/10. The site's consensus reads: "A queasy mishmash of poignant drama and slapstick fantasy, Angels in the Outfield strikes out as worthy family entertainment".[5] On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 44 out of 100, based on 23 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[6] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[7]
Box office
The film opened at #4 at the North American box office, making $8.9 million USD in its opening weekend. It went on to gross $50.2 million at the box office domestically.[1]
^Webster, Dan (January 1, 1995). "In Year of Disappointments, Some Movies Still Delivered". The Spokesman-Review (Spokane ed.). p. 2.
^"Vid Song Brings Cindy Suit; Return of Winnie The Pooh". Billboard (The International News Weekly of Music, Video, and Home Entertainment ed.). December 2, 1995. p. 74.
