Hardball

         One of my favorite movies of all time is "Hardball" starring Keanu Reeves.  This may be the movie I've seen the most in my life and I can still watch it over and over again without it ever getting old.  It is an emotional movie about a gambler in debt in Chicago who is in trouble with two bookies and needs to make money quick in order to pay them back.

          Keanu Reeves character,  Conor O'Neill, needs $5,000 to pay back his bookies and his friend tells him he will pay him $500 a week to coach a little league team of inner city kids.  These kids come from bad neighborhoods and have seen nothing but violence, drugs, and gang activity.

         At first, Conor does not care about these kids at all and is doing the bare minimum just so he can collect his $500 a week to pay back his bookies.  After seeing how much these kids go through and that they are truly good kids he begins to care for them and the team.  He turns the losing trouble maker kids into a winning team that gets close with each other.

         The low point of the movie is when the youngest character G-baby gets shot and killed walking home from the fields the one day.  He was in the wrong place at the wrong time and when a drive by happens he gets hit with one of the bullets and does not make it.  This not only effects the team but Conor as well as it was a key point in the movie that shows how much he has changed from the beginning where he was a loser who only cared about himself but is now a truly good person.