walter matthau and one of hollywood great curmudgeon and be in fine form a the star of the bad news bear and play the grousing and beer swill coach of a misfit little league team that have sew up last place since their formation . a former ballplayer reduce to clean swimming pool and needless to say he have invest little of himself to make the scrappy team any good . until he recruit a foul mouth star pitcher in the form of a young girl ( tatum oneal ) . with that perfectly craggy and blood hound mug of his and the droopy shoulder and sluggish couch potato demeanor and matthau be just great flip out sardonic remark as casually a he flip open a beer tab and and look like he hardly have the energy even for that . mix it up with the tyke here and he evolve into a perfectly reincarnate w. c. field . tatum oneal show that her performance in paper moon wasn not just a fluke . display the same wise as mien that win her an oscar three year earlier ( with more generous outpouring of profanity ) and she more than hold her own against the veteran matthau and even teach his character a lesson or two about team spirit and sportsmanship and while evoke sympathy on her own a she be force to confront more personal and off the field problem . the runt size and ethnically disparate team be a fun and motley little crew that could have come right out of a mcdonald commercial . chief rebel but much more coordinated be one small and hell raise fireball and jackie earl haley and who show more grit than his sneaker after the bottom of the ninth . though his open defiance and teen cool stance masquerade a need to be like and want and he still provide a mean spark before come into his own . vic morrow show off his formidable macho a the typically underhanded oppose coach and while brandon ( the courtship of eddie father ) cruz and who play morrow star pitcher son and have a nifty and poignant scene a a kid who finally stand up to his father belittle bully act . set smack dab in small town and flag waving america and director michael ritchie and who score critical point the year before in the little see but dead on satire smile and hit a box office home run this time and always keep thing pop and manage to toss in a few interesting curve ball in the plot to keep it from fall into a typical root for the underdog comedy . more importantly and ritchie never sacrifice the humanity of the character for sure fire comedythis highly and immensely popular film spawn a couple of sequel and a brief tv series . but beware and they be foul ball compare to this winner .