I have a couple of queries about this film from 1993 starring Thomas Ian Nicholas as Henry Rowengartner, the titular rookie:
First, when Henry fails to show up until long after his commercial auditions, his friend George says words to the effect of “Well, look who finally decided to show up,” therein treating Henry’s absence as a deliberate choice and not as an unavoidable circumstance of his fame. Why did he say that?
Also, why was it that when Henry broke his arm the second time and lost his magical power, why did everyone boo him for walking the first batter he faced? After all, he didn’t want to break his arm again, so why did they boo him for not throwing as hard as he once did?
1 - because kids can be self centered jackasses. Obviously George felt that Henry could do whatever he wanted because he was a baseball star, so he should have ditched the commercial session and come hang out.
2 - no idea. Facetious response, because it was in the script.
Good response! They also booed Chet for walking the next-to-last batter he faced, so I think it’s all relative. As regards George getting mad at Henry for not showing up to work on the boat until long after his audition, I think that he should have been more understanding and realized that being a baseball star is not all fun and games; heck, even Chet understood that much and warned Henry not to take his fame too seriously.
They didn’t know he lost his magic. I don’t think even the manager or coaches knew. They were expecting fastballs blowing hitters away, not silly junk pitches.
I don’t remember the exact setup - but had Henry made a promise/statement about when he’d be there? They’re both kids, neither of them are going to have much experience with things running way long. IIRC, Henry had been doing a bit of the stereotypical “act like a jerk and then redeem himself” thing - so not an unreasonable assumption for George to think Henry had blown them off to have fun with his entourage (so to speak).
