The scene where Jimmy walks out to the mound for the first time at The Ballpark in Arlington was filmed during the seventh inning stretch of a real Texas Rangers game. All of the pitching shots were done after the game.

When Jimmy says to Brooks, "You know what we get to do today? We get to play baseball," it is a reference to a deleted scene, where Brooks tells Jimmy how his father said the same thing before every game he would play as a boy.

Dennis Quaid did much of his own pitching, but he was doubled in shots that required truly fast pitches, by former minor league pitcher Jeff Dowdy. No special effects were used to enhance the speed of the pitches; however, some camera tricks, such as "whip pans," were used to make Quaid's own pitches appear faster.

Brian Cox who plays the father of Dennis Quaid in this film is actually less than eight years older than Quaid.

Jim Morris was 35 when he was signed with the Devil Rays organization. Dennis Quaid was 47 when the film was shot in 2001.

Continuity

The number of people in the stands at The Ballpark in Arlington. This is because the scene where Jimmy makes his first walk to the mound was filmed during the seventh inning stretch of a real Rangers game, but all of the pitching shots were done after the game. When Jimmy is on the mound looking around, you can see the stands behind him are empty.

When Jim Morris attends the try-outs, the collar and armpits of his t-shirt are sweat-soaked immediately after he pitches. Moments later, the t-shirt is dry.

When Jimmy is trying out for the first time the angle and length of the shadows change throughout the many shots and at times there are no shadows at all.

At The Ballpark at Arlington, the bat used by the batter prior to Jim Morris coming in to pitch, changes between shots. It starts black, but changes to natural wood. The batter gets a hit with the natural wood bat but when the runner scores he steps over a black bat.

The Tampa catcher is wearing grey shin guards and a grey chest protector in every shot up to and including Jimmy Morris taking the mound in Texas. However, when he begins pitching, the catcher is wearing a black chest protector and shin guards.

Factual errors

When Jimmy is pitching in the pros, a close up is shown of his feet as he prepares to deliver a pitch. The cleats shown around the rim of his shoe are the hard rubber type used in youth leagues or recreational ball---not the metal cleats used in pro ball.

The newspaper clipping about the Tampa Bay Devil Rays says that the tryout is at San Angelo State University---there is no such university. Angelo State University is in San Angelo, Texas.

It actually took Jim Morris four pitches to strike Royce Clayton out. Clayton managed to hit one foul.

There's more to the speedometer scene than a guy who can be seen changing the numbers: his first pitch is slow to test that the speedometer works. It immediately pops up '42' without any electronic error/hesitation. So, if the first/left number can show a '4', it should be able to show a '9'.

When warming up for his first big game, Jimmy is shown in the right field bullpen with a large SONIC advertisement behind him. At the Ballpark in Arlington that is the home bullpen. The visitors bullpen is in left field. The movie was probably filmed in the right field bullpen because it is closer to the stands. The visitors bullpen is set far away from the stands, making the scene with his family impossible from this bullpen.



Incorrectly regarded as goofs

During Jim Morris' pitching tryout there several close-ups of his hand holding the baseball. One close-up shows his right hand holding the ball even though he is a left-handed pitcher. But pitchers will often remove their gloves and rub the ball with the opposite hand to remove sweat or rosin from the ball.

As the taxi carrying Morris and Brooks arrives at the Home Plate entrance to the Ballpark in Arlington, the driver is southbound on the northbound side of the Nolan Ryan Expressway. There is no other visible traffic, suggesting that the roadway was intentionally blocked off by the filmmakers to set up a direct angle of approach for the POV shot.



Revealing mistakes

While pitching toward the camera at practice at the gravel yard, you can see the ball never leaves Jim Morris' mitt, and once you can see him drop the ball before "throwing" it (This is done so he doesn't hit the camera).



Miscellaneous

When the family is relocating to Texas, a train is shown with enclosed auto racks, those did not start appearing until the late 1980's.

As four of his students enter the concourse at the Ballpark In Arlington to watch the first game of Jim Morris' major-league career, the public address announcer says, "Leading off for the [Texas] Rangers, the center fielder, number 24, Tom Goodwin!" The camera splits the actors to a full view of the playing field, where a runner is standing at first base. This is impossible if the lead-off hitter is coming up to bat.

When Jim and Brooks arrive at the stadium the morning of the game, he goes to the locker room to find his blue jacket. There is no way Laurie could have gotten it there and in the hands of the teams equipment manager that fast.



Anachronisms

The 1999 Texas Rangers are shown in uniforms with blue lettering, a style they did not adopt until the 2001 season.

The Rawlings baseballs used when Jim Morris was called up to the Devil Rays have the dark blue Major League Baseball logo on them. The movie takes place in 1999, these balls weren't used until 2000. The baseballs Morris actually used would have been Rawlings American League baseballs with light blue printing.

Several of the players seen in the Rangers game (including the Rangers' Alex Rodriguez and the Devil Rays' Tanyon Sturtze) were not with their respective teams when Jim Morris made his major league debut on September 18, 1999.

Major League Baseball Umpires are seen with wearing black shirts. In 1999, American League Umpires wearing blue shirts would have officiated the game.

The bat that all of the high school players were using was a 2000 Connexion; however, the movie takes place in 1999.



Crew or equipment visible

When Jim Morris is throwing past the speed reader, you can see a man faintly in the background messing with the wires to make the numbers change.



Errors in geography

The story takes place in Big Lake, Texas, which is in west Texas. However, the area is too green to be west Texas. This is because it was shot in Thorndale, which is northeast of Austin.

In the movie, Jimmy Morris makes his triumphant walk to the mound from the right-field bullpen in The Ballpark in Arlington. However, the visitor's bullpen at The Ballpark is in left field.

Jimmy tries out for the farm team in San Angelo, but the water tower in the background shows the town name of Taylor.

In Texas, signs showing distance to towns ahead do not carry the "mi," just the number of miles.

In the background of the field at Big Lake High School, there is an advertisement for a tire barn on the scoreboard. The telephone number listed includes the area code of 512. The area code for the real Big Lake is not in the 512 area, but the 325 area code. This part of the film was filmed in Thorndale, Texas, north of Austin and in the 512 area code.



Character error

When the MVP player of the Roughnecks is batting as the last batter of the big game and hits the 1-1 pitch a mile but foul - he starts waving his arms "Carlton Fisk style"---but he's waving them in the direction (his left) as if he is wanting the ball to go foul and obviously would want it to go fair.