It's no secret that I love baseball. It's no secret that I love baseball movies. So, I finally got around to checking out Hardball. I wasn't expecting much, but I certainly expected more than what I got here. Hardball is disguised as a 'Projects' Bad News Bears. But that couldn't be further from the truth as there is no connection between the two other than it taking place in a "Little League" division. The team, other than the first game, never sucked like the Bears did, so there was none of that 'Rocky' feeling of rising to the top in the face of superior teams in the league.

The baseball scenes were okay, but nothing memorable, which I didn't really have a problem with. My biggest peeve is with both the writing and more specifically Keanu Reeves HORRIBLE acting. You think you have seen him act bad in other movies? Think again. This is the lowest ever. His whiny, petulant line reading is embarrassing. Diane Lane is wasted here with a thankless role as well. The only cool thing and a surprise for me was seeing a very young Michael B. Jordan as one of the kids. I had no idea he was in this movie and I'm a fan of his. He doesn't have much of a role here, but it was fun to see him none the less.

The movie gets a half star bump for the flashback sequence remembering G-Baby and his game winning hit. This was surprisingly a very moving and very emotional scene that will leave everyone teary-eyed, which I was. Best 5 minutes of the entire movie. G-Baby does steal every scene he is in, that much is a fact. As for the rest of the movie, it's a Skip.