Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Mr. Baseball Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman April 1, 2021

It's springtime again and that means the boys of summer are through with their training stints in Florida and Arizona and are ready to delight fans -- however many fans can actually attend ballgames in 2021 -- with all of the on-field heroics, the big hits, the improbable strikeouts, and the pursuit of the pennant that give shape to every baseball season. So what better time to take a look at the always enjoyable 1992 baseball film Mr. Baseball about an aging player who finds a fresh start, and opens up his heart, in the most unlikely of places. The film offers little of intrinsic artistic merit or high yield drama -- it ranges from generically tender to mildly lowbrow with some fun character confrontations and baseball action along the way -- but has plenty on tap to delight fans looking for a simple movie about life, love, and culture shock in the guise of a baseball film.

Jack Elliot (Tom Selleck) is a longtime star in Major League Baseball. He’s been the face of the Yankees and a rock at first base but in recent times age has been catching up to his game. He’s struggling at the plate and his career may be winding down. Worse, there’s an up-and-coming rookie who can absolutely mash the ball breathing down his neck and making the front office’s decision to sell his contract to a Japanese team, the Chunichi Dragons (at least it’s not Cleveland!), all the easier. Jack is understandably reluctant to fly halfway around the world to play ball in a foreign land. He’s a Major Leaguer and a man of his stature, credentials, and talent just doesn’t do this sort of thing.

But he has no choice. It’s Japan or it’s career over. When he arrives, he finds himself struggling to fit in. Not only is he at least a head taller than everyone else, but he has no idea how to acclimate to Japanese culture or to the unwritten rules of Japanese baseball. And he doesn’t exactly want to learn, either. He won’t shave his moustache and he refuses to do the team’s unorthodox exercises (and implements a comical routine of his own). The team is lucky that he’s willing to respect some parts of the culture, like leaving his shoes at the clubhouse entryway. Worse, he clashes with his manager, a one-time megastar in Japanese baseball, Uchiyama (Ken Takakura), who believes Jack has a hole in his swing. He does find a connection with another washed-up American Major Leaguer named Max (Dennis Haysbert) who is also on the Dragons and is hoping beyond hope that a Major League club will figure out that he’s still got what it takes to play in the bigs. As Jack struggles to blend into the culture, his struggles at the plate only intensify. Meanwhile, he finds himself drawn to the lovey Hiroko (Aya Takanashi) whose interest in him may extend a little further beyond romance.

Mr. Baseball (so titled for the nickname Jack earns in Japan) is less about the game of baseball and more about the game of life. It's essentially a "fish out of water" film in which the character must adapt to not only a new culture but a new way of playing ball. Certainly the core basics of the game remain unchanged, and Jack is well capable of playing with his his new teammates and against his opponents, but it's some of the unwritten rules of Japanese ball that get the best of him. He doesn't have the leeway he had as an established star in the Majors. In Japan, he's a presence on the field but he's also childlike in his approach to his new circumstances and surroundings. The story is not so much whether Jack can hit a bunch of home runs for the Dragons, it's about if he can find a new perspective on life through a fresh lens.

Selleck makes Jack a larger-than-life character. It's not that he's a physical specimen and stands much taller than most of his Japanese teammates and opponents, it's that he brings a personality to match, one that is equal parts gruff, overly confident, and extremely irritated with his situation. Selleck is well cast in the part. He looks the part of an aging MLB star and the has that swag about him to back up his confidence in his game and himself, which he puts forward even when he knows deep down that he's struggling. But he knows he's well capable of mashing the ball. He's just got to get his head and his heart in the game. He's no longer good enough to rely on raw talent alone. He has to be a complete ballplayer now, which is exactly what his manager tries to get out of him. Selleck is simply delightful in the lead. He's believably machismo and he really looks like he knows what he's doing at bat. Support performances are strong, too, particularly from Ken Takakura as his new Dragons manager.

Mr. Baseball Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mr. Baseball swigs onto Blu-ray with a decent, though certainly less than ideal, 1080p transfer. It's immediately clear that the Blu-ray presentation is sourced form an older master, probably the same from previous DVD releases. The opening titles wobble and wave in a rather inauspicious beginning. There's some mild processing in play. Grain is a little clumpy and digitized-looking and less organic. Some mild edge enhancement remains in play as well. There's a feel of mild artificial sharpening and some noise reduction as well. But the 1080p resolution allows the image to hold serve. Details have not been scrubbed so intensely as to render skin looking like wax. Some solid essential details remain, on skin for sure but also uniforms, odds and ends around the locker room, and details on and around the field of play. It's sharp, in general, and while somewhat inorganic still pleasing at a base level. Colors are fairly stout, nicely vibrant (particularly Dragons blue), and well saturated. Nuance is lacking but for an image that was clearly prepared for a lower resolution display, things aren't at all bad here. Skin tones are a little pasty, particularly as they show mild signs of the noise reduction. Blacks are OK. There are a few pops and speckles but nothing egregious. There are no obvious compression artifacts of note.

Mr. Baseball Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Mr. Baseball's DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack is at least the audio equivalent of a hard-hit single. The track is relatively strong in the aggregate, presenting music and score with commendable vitality and front stage stretch. Clarity is never perfect but there's something to be said for the raw energy and enthusiasm the track has on display. Crowd din at baseball games can be disappointing, sounding more muddled and packed together -- even as it's stretched along the front -- where there's little separation to the various elements. Here is where a more finely engineered original sound design, as well as one with additional channels at its disposal, would have created a more filling and immersive baseball environment. Dialogue drives most of the film and it's presented with fine foundational clarity and center imaging.

Mr. Baseball Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplemental content is included. The film begins playback upon disc insertion. There is no "top menu" screen. The "pop up" menu only offers options to toggle subtitles on and off. No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

Mr. Baseball Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Mr. Baseball is one of the more fundamentally fun baseball films out there. It's not as biting as Bull Durham, not so funny as Major League, not so dramatically satisfying as Field of Dreams, not so narratively effective as The Natural, but it's a solid picture that blends together character growth, romance, and some baseball action to fine effect. The Blu-ray is featureless, the video is decent, and the audio is passable. Recommended.

On a complete and total random personal note, Mr. Baseball was the first movie I ever ordered on pay-per-view waaaay back in the day. It required a phone call to the cable company to get it working properly and I missed the first third or so of the movie. Irrelevant to the review but still a fun little nugget from my personal movie memories and history.