LeVar Burton stars as Ron LeFore.  After growing up on the hard streets of Detroit and getting addicted to heroin, Ron is arrested for armed robbery and sentenced to four years in prison.  It’s in prison that Ron starts playing baseball and proves himself to be so good at the game that he’s offered a contract with Tigers.  (Manager Billy Martin plays himself.)  Out of prison, Ron proves himself on the field but he worries about his younger brother (Larry B. Scott), who is still trying to survive in Detroit.

This movies was made for television and no one’s going to mistake it for anything other than a television movie.  When the movie was made, Ron LeFore was still playing in the Major Leagues.  Several players appear as themselves and the movie feels pretty sanitized.  None of the other players give Ron a hard time about being a baseball player on parole.  Instead, they’re all supportive and encouraging from the minute he arrives.  They’re the nicest jocks around!  I like baseball players.  I still light up whenever I think about the way Elvis Andrus would smile when he was playing for the Rangers.  But even I know that players like to give each other a hard time.

I still liked the movie because it was about second chances and one of the things that I love about baseball is that it’s a game that gives second chances.  There is always another chance to hit the ball.  There’s always another chance to make a game-saving catch.  There’s always another chance to throw a strike.  A player who struggles on one team can become a star on another.  While the rest of the world gave up Ron LeFore, his family believed in him.  The city of Detroit believed in him.  Baseball believed in him.

LeVar Burton isn’t the most convincing baseball player that I’ve ever seen but Ron LeFore’s story still moved me.  After this movie aired, LeFore went on to set franchise records for stealing bases.  After playing a few seasons with the White Sox, he retired from the game in 1983.