Jim Morris came of age in a West Texas town, which means the locals didn\u2019t need to use street addresses to tell where they lived.<\/p>\n\n
All he had to say was that his house was one block from Wood Creek Baptist Church and a vacant lot away from the Camp Bowie Sports Complex. That would cover the essentials, out where nobody talks much about the separation of church and sports.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe first thing you need to understand about West Texas is that even local video stores have announcement boards out front with messages like, \u2018Keep Christ in Christmas,\u2019 \u201d said Morris, in the first line of \u201cThe Rookie,\u201d the book about his middle-aged ascent into major-league baseball. \u201cThe second thing to understand is that, if Jesus Christ himself were to show up on a Friday night in the fall, he\u2019d have to wangle a seat in the high school stadium and wait until the football game ended before declaring his arrival.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Naturally, a whole lot of praying and Bible reading vanished when Walt Disney Pictures got a hold of this story. But the good news for fans of old-fashioned movies is that God wasn\u2019t totally written out of the plot when the \u201cThe Rookie\u201d moved to the big screen. It\u2019s hard to drain the faith out of a West Texas tale full of baseball, babies, wedding rings, tears, tough love and nuns appealing to the patron saint of impossible dreams.<\/p>\n\n
Morris was natural athlete who almost reached the big show as a youngster, before his body broke down. So he got married, settled down, started teaching school and coaching a little baseball.<\/p>\n\n
Then the kids on his ragged high school team make him promise to give baseball one more shot, if they won the district championship. The team won district. Morris went to a free-agent tryout and discovered that his blown-out shoulder was serving up 98 mile-per-hour fastballs \u2014 light years past what he threw in his prime. With the stunned blessing of his wife and three kids, Morris headed to the minor leagues and then, at age 35, to the big leagues.<\/p>\n\n
Roll out the clich? No Hollywood ink slinger would dare concoct such a story.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt was God,\u201d said Morris, who is busy as a motivational speaker in both religious and secular settings. \u201cWhat other explanation could there be for what happened?\u201d<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe Rookie\u201d has already passed $70 million in ticket sales, which means Disney succeeded in creating a feel-good hit for baseball season. But the movie also raised eyebrows with its G rating, which is often box-office death with adults.<\/p>\n\n
The key is that \u201cThe Rookie\u201d is basically an updated version of one of old Hollywood\u2019s most popular products \u2013 the inspiring story of a good man who beats the odds and wins big. Moviemakers used to tell this kind of story all the time and they almost always included a healthy dose of faith and family.<\/p>\n\n
As it turns out, this formula still works \u2013 if the story is good enough.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cQuite frankly, faith played a big role in my life, so it would have been impossible to have left that out of the movie,\u201d said Morris. But the producers of the movie \u201cdidn\u2019t draw much attention to the religious side of the story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
They didn\u2019t have to. It was shocking enough to watch Hollywood tell a simple story about grown-ups and kids chasing their dreams, while keeping their vows and saying a prayer or two. But those who read the book will wonder, in particular, what happened to its major theme \u2014 which is the pitcher\u2019s ongoing efforts to fathom \u201cGod\u2019s mysterious ways\u201d of working through both the agony and the triumph of his life.<\/p>\n\n
Nevertheless, God remains in the details, soaked into the images of family and commitment. Morris said his story makes \u201cno sense whatsoever\u201d without faith.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThey just sort of hit it, then back away a little,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought that was appropriate, to tell you the truth. They didn\u2019t try to jam anything down anybody\u2019s throat. You didn\u2019t want people sitting in theaters saying, \u2018What are you trying to do here?\u2019 \u2026 This is a movie. You really can\u2019t preach at people.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jim Morris came of age in a West Texas town, which means the locals didn\u2019t need to use street addresses to tell where they lived. All he had to say was that his house was one block from Wood Creek Baptist Church and a vacant lot away from the Camp Bowie Sports Complex. That would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[349,1542,821,847],"class_list":["post-1176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-family","tag-movies","tag-sports","tag-texas"],"yoast_head":"\n