Log Line
Down and out baseball team discover an old bag of equipment used by the 1928 World Champion Yankees and start to win again.
Script Info
Script Type: Feature
Genre: Sports
Length: __ pages
Est. Budget: Less than $2M
Screenplay Synopsis
Open on small-town main street Bisbee, Arizona circa 1927, where children happily race past red brick buildings, their bright reflections and laughter etched across plate glass windows, now reaching a large baseball stadium where the enthusiastic crowd loudly cheer for their local team, the Copper Kings, young boys of summer playing an exhibition game against the powerful World Champion New York Yankees….
Modern day. Loud rap music fills the air, group of middle aged late thirty and early forty-something misfits stand on the field against a much younger rival team from Tucson. Pitcher/manager Ray Billings releases another fast ball. Hear the loud THUNK of aluminum against rawhide, as the opposing batter smacks another homerun and two more runs score, the thirteenth and fourteenth of the day. Half a dozen older octogenarians sit in the stands sucking on oxygen and barely notice. This is the Copper Kings of today. No wins in over five terrible years. Fourteen year old Tyler Walsh, the team’s scorekeeper, shouts the only encouragement from his usual spot behind the foul ball net: “Hey, you guys stink! I wanna go home!”
Later that night, we meet Tyler’s single mom, Sue Walsh, the local fire chief. Tyler’s dad Scott, a former Triple A baseball player, left them when Tyler was only three. Sue and pitcher/manager Ray soon begin to date, which bothers Tyler. The team is still losing. Patricia Dodge, the team’s uncaring owner, who hates baseball, announces that she’s selling the Copper Kings historic stadium before the end of the season to an investment group. The copper mines in Bisbee closed years ago and most of the older residents are dying off, the stadium property is needed for a new cemetery. The Copper Kings are down to their last out. Bones, the stadium’s ancient janitor, tells Ray they have a major water leak under the grandstands that needs fixing right away, it can’t wait. Bones leads Ray and some of the team players into the bowels of the old stadium to make repairs, Ray and the others rip out chunks of old plaster and wainscoting....then as if waiting to be found, the team discover an old bag of baseball equipment -- soon realizing it was left there years earlier by the 1927 World Champion Yankees -- names like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Tony Lazzeri, Earl Combs, and Joe Dugan are on the line up sheet inside the bag....
Most of the team wants to sell the equipment on Ebay and save the stadium, manager Ray feels the bats and gloves belong in Cooperstown. Patricia Dodge learns of the find and tells Ray she’s the rightful owner. Ray decides to use the old gear as a publicity gimmick. The team will use the bats and gloves for one game. An old timer’s game. Big Louie, the team’s right fielder, who hasn’t had a base hit in almost three years, comes to the plate and smashes a 500 foot home run over the centerfield fence. The rest of the team watches in amazement then quickly grabs the old equipment and start hitting and fielding like their possessed by the Yankee ghosts of past years. The team starts wining and becomes unstoppable, the media now gets wind of the story. It’s an amazing story. Rumors fly around the baseball parks that the equipment is magic. ESPN is on hand to watch the Copper Kings qualify for the semi-pro National Championships, where Patricia Dodge now manages to steal the equipment just before the big game. The Copper Kings takes the field without their magic equipment and play like the losers of the past. Until Tyler, tired of the fiasco unfolding, gives them a pep talk in the seventh inning and the team begins to play like a winning team again, realizing it was their talent, enthusiasm, and hard drinking that got them to the championship game in the first place. It all comes down to the last out with Ray now at bat. He’s ready to make a difference….if only he can just get around the bases and score the winning run….
Modern day. Loud rap music fills the air, group of middle aged late thirty and early forty-something misfits stand on the field against a much younger rival team from Tucson. Pitcher/manager Ray Billings releases another fast ball. Hear the loud THUNK of aluminum against rawhide, as the opposing batter smacks another homerun and two more runs score, the thirteenth and fourteenth of the day. Half a dozen older octogenarians sit in the stands sucking on oxygen and barely notice. This is the Copper Kings of today. No wins in over five terrible years. Fourteen year old Tyler Walsh, the team’s scorekeeper, shouts the only encouragement from his usual spot behind the foul ball net: “Hey, you guys stink! I wanna go home!”
Later that night, we meet Tyler’s single mom, Sue Walsh, the local fire chief. Tyler’s dad Scott, a former Triple A baseball player, left them when Tyler was only three. Sue and pitcher/manager Ray soon begin to date, which bothers Tyler. The team is still losing. Patricia Dodge, the team’s uncaring owner, who hates baseball, announces that she’s selling the Copper Kings historic stadium before the end of the season to an investment group. The copper mines in Bisbee closed years ago and most of the older residents are dying off, the stadium property is needed for a new cemetery. The Copper Kings are down to their last out. Bones, the stadium’s ancient janitor, tells Ray they have a major water leak under the grandstands that needs fixing right away, it can’t wait. Bones leads Ray and some of the team players into the bowels of the old stadium to make repairs, Ray and the others rip out chunks of old plaster and wainscoting....then as if waiting to be found, the team discover an old bag of baseball equipment -- soon realizing it was left there years earlier by the 1927 World Champion Yankees -- names like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Tony Lazzeri, Earl Combs, and Joe Dugan are on the line up sheet inside the bag....
Most of the team wants to sell the equipment on Ebay and save the stadium, manager Ray feels the bats and gloves belong in Cooperstown. Patricia Dodge learns of the find and tells Ray she’s the rightful owner. Ray decides to use the old gear as a publicity gimmick. The team will use the bats and gloves for one game. An old timer’s game. Big Louie, the team’s right fielder, who hasn’t had a base hit in almost three years, comes to the plate and smashes a 500 foot home run over the centerfield fence. The rest of the team watches in amazement then quickly grabs the old equipment and start hitting and fielding like their possessed by the Yankee ghosts of past years. The team starts wining and becomes unstoppable, the media now gets wind of the story. It’s an amazing story. Rumors fly around the baseball parks that the equipment is magic. ESPN is on hand to watch the Copper Kings qualify for the semi-pro National Championships, where Patricia Dodge now manages to steal the equipment just before the big game. The Copper Kings takes the field without their magic equipment and play like the losers of the past. Until Tyler, tired of the fiasco unfolding, gives them a pep talk in the seventh inning and the team begins to play like a winning team again, realizing it was their talent, enthusiasm, and hard drinking that got them to the championship game in the first place. It all comes down to the last out with Ray now at bat. He’s ready to make a difference….if only he can just get around the bases and score the winning run….
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