Journal-News.com

Grade: C+

Verdict: Despite some hustle, Grisham grounds out.

"Mickey" is a throwback to the kind of family-oriented movies Disney produced in the 1960s. More than anything else, though, it's a pitch-by-pitch, inning-by-inning story about Little League baseball. And unless you're a serious baseball dad or a youngster who dreams of making it to the Little League World Series, it's going to take tenacity to stay focused until the closing credits.

If it weren't for the persistence, high profile and deep pockets of best-selling novelist John Grisham Ñ who wrote the screenplay, produced and financed the movie and hand-picked the director, Hugh Wilson (ÒThe First Wives Club," "Blast From the PastÓ) Ñ "Mickey" probably wouldn't have made it to the big screen.

It opens with the voice of Grisham proclaiming, "What every baseball dad wants is just one more season." But for Tripp (Harry Connick Jr.) and his extraordinarily talented son, Derrick (Shawn Salinas), that dream season is pulled from a string of lies that keeps getting longer and longer, like Pinocchio's nose.

Facing financial ruin after the illness and death of his wife, Tripp cheats on his taxes. When the IRS comes after him, he flees to Las Vegas, where he takes on a new identity. Derrick, who is really 13 and ineligible for Little League, becomes 12-year-old Mickey and is suddenly playing ball again.

Problem is, Mickey's 70 mph-plus pitching prowess is so great that he becomes a superstar, thus drawing attention to his on-the-lam father.

Grisham can't quite stay with such a straightforward plot, though, so he throws in some off-the-wall political and international intrigue concerning a team from Cuba. There's also a bit of a love story. And, of course, the requisite IRS-bashing.

"Mickey" is supposed to be a morality movie. But in the end even the simple platitude that cheaters never win gets muffed like an easy grounder. And after way too much time spent on balls and strikes, the fact that it was obviously a labor of love for Grisham doesn't mean we have to like the final score.