The Rookie

Jim Morris (played by Dennis Quaid) injured his shoulder 12 years before the movie's events begin, thereby putting an end to his pitching career in Minor League Baseball. Since the injury, he turns to a career as a chemistry teacher, head baseball coach, and assistant football coach at a Texas high school. His baseball team finds it impossible to hit his pitching when he first throws batting practice. Hoping for some degree of mutual motivation, his struggling charges offer him this agreement: if they reach the state playoffs, he will attend a tryout camp for Major League Baseball.

The team performs well and makes it to the playoffs, forcing Jimmy to meet his end of the bargain by attending a nearby tryout. When he does, the professional scouts discover his ability to repeatedly throw the baseball at 98 miles per hour, a feat that fewer than 10 professional baseball players at the time could accomplish. This ability affords him the opportunity to play professional baseball and he signs on with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays organization. He is initially assigned to the minor league Class AA Orlando Rays (now the Montgomery Biscuits) but quickly moved up to the AAA Durham Bulls, later to be called up to the "bigs" during the September roster expansions.

A brief epilogue states that Jim Morris spent two seasons in the Major Leagues.