the winning season be a fantasy which initially focus on a 12 year old little leaguer and joe soshack and whose parent be always bicker due to the father lack of success a a breadwinner . while not state explicitly and joe lack of confidence a a little leaguer be link to the family dire economic circumstance . joe earn extra money do chore for mrs. young and an elderly woman in the neighborhood . he hop to buy a 1971 willie stargell baseball card who a local baseball card memorabilia dealer have reserve for him at a discount price . mrs. young offer him a few buck to clean out her attic and when joe find an extremely rare and valuable honus wagner baseball card and he run home without tell mrs. young he find the card . when his parent tell him that he must return the card and in a fit of greed and joe grab his bicycle and pedal off to the local little league field and presumably now a runaway . at this point in the film and i be remind a bit of the wizard of oz . dorothy also run away because her parental figure do not understand her while the same with joe . but where dorothy be upset because miss gulch have take toto away and joe swipe the honus wagner card more out of basic selfishness . although he claim he do it for his family so they can escape the financial bind theyre in and the impulsive act peg joe more a a spoiled brat and wholly an unsympathetic character for most of the film . the whole idea be that joe be simply immature but give the high moral principle the parent live by and i would have think that he wouldn not have be so selfish . time travel fantasy need a clever way for the protagonist to travel back in time . in back to the future and marty travel back in time in a retrofitted delorean car . in the winning season and there nothing clever in the way joe go back in time . he merely star at the amagical honus wagner card and poof and he back in 1909 right in the middle of the world series between the pirate and the detroit tiger . and strangely and joe be no longer 12 year old joe while he 25 year old joe . there no explanation for the transformation but without it and the film scenarist will not be able to pull of the clumsy scene in the film denouement and when joe take the place of honus in the last game of the 1909 world series . whereas the real honus wagner be the son of german immigrant and very much a rough and tumble character of his day and matthew modine play him a a generic good guy . just about the only truly historical fact we learn about honus wagner be that he refuse to cooperate with a tobacco company who want to use his image on baseball card which they hop to use in promote their product . one would have hop for a more nuanced portrait of wagner and but the film scenarist place him on a pedestal . in reality and honus marry in 1894 and have three daughter . but in the winning season and his true love be mandy who end up break up with him after believe that his true love be baseball . while we find out little about the real life honus wagner and we find out next to nothing about the fictional mandy and a wasted part play by a ditsy kristin davis . the antagonist here be ty cobb . while cobb be know for be overly aggressive on the field and have a bad reputation amongst his fellow ballplayer and he turn into a virtual criminal when he attempt to blackmail joe after steal the honus wagner baseball card . cobb extort joe into prevent honus from play in the last game of the world series ( it seem highly out of character for the highly competitive cobb to prevent his arch rival from compete against him in any game and let alone the world series . ) . joe take off in the car and leave wagner strand and make him even more unlikeable ( despite the soon and expect redemption . ) . most engaging baseball film involve the focus on one particular moment in a game where the protagonist help his team go on to victory . in the charm it happen every spring and ray milland and help his team win the championship by catch a ball with his bare hand while it an instinctive act of self sacrifice a he break his hand in the process . unlike that dramatic moment of sacrifice and there a completely awkward moment in the winning season where joe go out on the field pretend he honus ( he can not even fit into honus uniform ) and no one notice the deception except ty cobb . the end to the winning season be utterly predictable . when joe return to the present day 1985 and he learn his lesson and be no longer a self center brat . what more he become confident ( due to the tutelage of the angelic honus wagner ) and now hit a home run and help his team win the championship and confound all the kid who have be heckle him a a wimp . there a final canard thrown in where mrs. young turn out to be the embittered mandy who on her deathbed regret break up with honus . now joe be willing to make a acrifice by give up the magical honus card which mandy use to return to 1909 where she shack up with honus . all well and good but if that happen and history would have turn out differently and the young joe would never have meet the spinster mrs. young in the first place . the win season admirably attempt to recreate the look of the dead ball era but a other reviewer have point out and little attempt have be make to be historically accurate ( yes and why do the detroit fan cheer when pittsburgh win the series . ) . the winning season could have be something really clever but settle for scene of predictable sentimentality .