Bad News Bears

From Wiki Gonzalez

The Bad News Bears was a landmark 1976 comedy (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0074174/combined) about a hard-luck group of Little League players in Southern California. Its success led to two sequels (The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0075718/combined) and The Bad News Bears Go to Japan (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0077199/combined)) and "The Bad News Bears" TV series (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0078566/combined).

The lineup in the first movie included pitchers Amanda Whurlitzer and Rudi Stein, brothers Jose and Miguel Agilar in the infield, speedy outfielder Ahmad Abdul Rahim, scrappy SS Tanner Boyle (who told the Yankees what they could do with their trophy), rotund catcher Mike Engelberg, and all-star juvenile delinquent Kelly Leak (who no doubt got to be so tough by beating up kids who made the inevitable jokes about his name). Walter Matthau (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000527/) played Morris Buttermaker as a grumpy ex-minor-leaguer drunkard who got roped into the job of managing the Bears.

The second movie was filmed in the Houston Astrodome and gave baseball culture the immortal chant, "LET THEM PLAY! LET THEM PLAY!" The movie also had cameos by several Astros players, including Bob Watson, Cesar Cedeno, Enos Cabell, and Manager Bill Virdon.

The third movie was set in Japan, and really sucked because you couldn't tell who won the final game (among many, many other reasons).

It is thought the original film's success at the box office stemmed from Hollywood injecting sexuality, profanity, and drug humor into the sanctified arena of baseball movies -- Little League baseball movies, at that.

A remake (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0408524) of the 1976 original was released in summer 2005. The new Bad News Bears movie was directed by Richard Linklater (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000500/) and stars Billy Bob Thornton (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000671/) as Buttermaker. Greg Kinnear and Marcia Gay Harden also have starring roles. Despite the talent in front of and behind the camera, the film received a decidedly mediocre 46% on the Rotten Tomatoes scale (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bad_news_bears/).