The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training

This film picks up the Bears' career a year after their infamous second-place finish in the North Valley League. However, after winning this year, they are left reeling by the departure of Buttermaker as their coach, Amanda as their pitcher and an injury to outcast-turned-hero Timmy Lupus (Quinn Smith). Faced with a chance to play the Houston Toros for a shot at the Japanese champs, they devise a way to get to Houston to play at the famed Astrodome, between games of a Major League Baseball doubleheader. In the process, Kelly Leak (Jackie Earle Haley) reunites with his estranged father (William Devane), who is recruited to coach them. The Bears, as a whole, have trouble during practice; Kelly becomes increasingly angry and resentful at his father before ultimately storming off, while pitcher Carmen Ronzonni has trouble finding his own unique style and resorts to imitating famous pitchers instead. The team soon becomes a more cohesive and athletic unit under Coach Leak's guidance. Kelly has a heart to heart with his father at a local restaurant and returns to the team before the game. The game gets called half way through, but Tanner refuses to leave the field. Coach Leak rallies the crowd with a “Let them play!" chant, which eventually persuades the venue to continue the game. The Bears pull off an upset win and Kelly makes peace with his absentee father, telling him if the team didn’t need a coach he still would have looked him up.