AllMovie

Filmmakers Louis Alvarez and Andrew Kolker follow the baseball season with a group of kids who have big dreams and bigger challenges in this documentary. Aptos, CA, is home to a Little League baseball team featuring some talented youngsters and better-than-average guidance -- one of the team's coaches is Mark Eichhorn, who played major-league ball for two decades. Most of the boys on the team have been playing together since they were five years old; now, with most of the squad 11 or 12, this is the last year they'll be able to compete in Little League, and they're hoping to bring home a championship trophy. With hard work, encouragement, and a bit of good luck, the kids move past the regional and state championships and find themselves in the running for the 2002 Little League World Series. Small Ball: A Little League Story was screened in competition at the 2003 South by Southwest Film Festival, and was later shown on PBS.