
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 1, 1994                   TAG: 9407020019
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RITA KEMPLEY THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

`LITTLE BIG LEAGUE' IS STUCK IN THE MINORS

The Minnesota Twins are in a slump when 12-year-old Billy Heywood (Luke Edwards) becomes the team's new owner-manager in ``Little Big League,'' a torpid fantasy aimed at pre-adolescents obsessed with baseball. At first the Twins resist the chirpy youngster's tutelage, but eventually they give in to his philosophy - baseball is supposed to be fun - and put together a winning season.

The debut of director Andrew Scheinman and screenwriters Gregory K. Pincus and Adam Scheinman, the movie is a collection of hardball highlights with an occasional timeout for plot development as brave little Billy trades words with umps and offers his players tips on ball-playing mechanics.

But as time passes, Billy finds that the job is coming between him and his buddies (Billy Sullivan, Miles Feulner). There's just too darn much paperwork. Like the grown-ups around him, the boy has lost contact with his inner child.

The ballplayers themselves are a well-drawn, enjoyably kooky bunch, but it's absolutely impossible to believe that they would accept Billy's leadership. And of all the child actors in the movie, the scrawny 13-year-old star shows the least presence.

The film also stars ``thirtysomething's'' Timothy Busfield as the all-star first baseman who romances Billy's mother (Ashley Crow). In a fit of jealous pique, the boy benches the baseman, with results that are as predictable as Billy's eventual change of heart. But why go on? ``Little Big League'' goes to the bottom of the standings.

Little Big League: A Columbia pictures release, playing at the Salem Valley 8. Rated PG for occasional vulgar language, mature themes. 19 minutes.

by CNB