8/10
A warm "sleeper" about a widower struggling to raise a little girl
10 November 2004
This is the rare golden nugget found while panning through 150 channel steams of cable TV. No mega stars, no explosions, no big budget. It wasn't at the multiplex and it wasn't a hot topic around the water cooler.

A 30 something auto mechanic in Columbus, Ohio is struggling to raise his 9 year old daughter several years after losing his wife in a car accident. A local legend for his baseball prowess he is struggling to tone down his macho ways to be both father and mother to his daughter.

His daughter is everything to him and his sacrifice of a promising minor league career with the Yankee Triple A Columbus Clippers to be there for her shows his priorities are in order.

A somewhat older next door spinster aching for love and family offers to provide the daughter with the lacking feminine touches. The contest between the father and the neighbor pit nice people against each other trying to help a 9 year old girl.

The neighbor picks up the slack taking care of the daughter, giving dad another shot at baseball and slowly awakening to the interest of a pretty divorced mom who idolized him in high school.

The slow evolution of father, daughter, neighbor supported by a small but significant cast and the script's warmth without wallowing make this movie work on several levels.
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