Mickey | |
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Directed by | Hugh Wilson |
Produced by | John Grisham |
Written by | John Grisham |
Starring |
Harry Connick, Jr. Mike Starr Michelle Johnson Hugh Wilson John Grisham |
Music by |
Guy Moon Craig Sharmat |
Distributed by |
Anchor Bay Entertainment Mickey Productions Slugger Pictures |
Release date
|
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Running time
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90 min |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $6 million |
Box office | $294,758 |
Mickey is a 2004 American baseball drama film that stars Harry Connick, Jr., directed by Hugh Wilson, and written by best-selling novelist John Grisham.
Mickey was filmed in 2004, at baseball fields in Colonial Heights, Richmond, and Petersburg, Virginia, and also South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, home of baseball's Little League World Series (LLWS).
Grisham played Little League in his home state of Mississippi. He wrote the first for Mickey in 1995, inspired by his Little League experience as a coach. Grisham and director Wilson live in the Virginia area where much of the filming took place.
Mickey was only the second film, after 1994's Little Giants, to receive permission to use the Little League trademarks.
Tripp Spence (Harry Connick, Jr.) is a widowed Virginia-based lawyer who becomes the focus of an intensive IRS investigation regarding false bankruptcy claims he filed during his wife's fatal illness. Realizing his case against the inevitable criminal charges is hopeless, he takes his 13-year-old son Derrick (Shawn Salinas), who loves playing Little League baseball and is competing in his final year of eligibility due to age restrictions, and flees from the investigation, moving out west to Las Vegas, Nevada. Through a corporate connection, Tripp acquires new identities for the two of them, with Tripp becoming Glen Simon Ryan and Derrick becoming Michael "Mickey" Jacob Ryan, whose fictional backstory is that they recently moved into town from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Derrick's new identity makes him a year younger, which enables him to play another year of Little League, an endeavor both of them look forward to since their spontaneous move forced Derrick to miss his All-Star team's participation in the official Little League qualifier tournaments. Tripp researches the local Little League operations and discovers that the most successful league's top team is coached by Tony (Mike Starr). Tripp contacts Tony and convinces him to give Mickey a private tryout session by reciting the Fort Lauderdale story (Florida is known as a major "hotzone" for youth baseball). Tony is impressed with Mickey's pitching velocity and ultimately drafts Mickey once the real tryouts roll around. Glen also begins dating Patty, who works at Mickey's school.