“No drinking. No cervezas in the casa. No chicas in the bedroom.” – Earl Higgins, Sugar

Over time you will realize that I am a huge baseball fan. Every summer I take a baseball-themed trip or two and hit up a cluster of ballparks to take in some of our National Pastime. I am going on one of those very trips this weekend, and while I usually stick to Major League ballparks, I am mixing it up a bit this time around.

It will be an interesting three day trip as I make a progression from one stop to the next as the size of the stadiums and standards of play are raised. The first stop will bring me to St. Paul to watch the St. Paul Saints (American Association) for an independent league game. The next stop will be in Des Moines for an Iowa Cubs (Triple-A Pacific Coast League) Minor League game. The final stop will take me to Minneapolis to watch the Minnesota Twins (MLB).

I have been to plenty of Major League and independent league games in my lifetime. However, this will be the first time I will have ever attended a Minor League Baseball game, which is odd considering Iowa is a haven for the minors. The Minor Leagues is something that has always been intriguing to me, though, especially after reading some great books (Odd Man Out, The 33 Year Old Rookie) on the subject.

There are also a few great movies about the Minor Leagues. Of course, everyone has probably seen, or at least heard of, Bull Durham, but there is one that is even better than that one in my mind, and it is simply called Sugar.

Unlike most sports related dramas, Sugar isn’t based on a true story, but that doesn’t mean it could have been. As a matter of fact, Sugar plays out like a blueprint for many up and coming international ball players who have dreams and aspirations in playing in and making it big in the Major Leagues.

In Sugar, Miguel “Sugar” Santos is a young up and coming pitching phenom from the Dominican Republic. He finally gets his big break by signing with a Major League team and is sent to a small town in Iowa to play in the minors. Even with his raw talent, Santos is in for a culture shock as he barely speaks any English and is placed in an unfamiliar situation and surroundings in the Midwest, all while chasing his dream.

If you love feel good sports movies with the underdogs rising against the odds like Rocky, Invincible or The Rookie, you may be disappointed with how Sugar plays out. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t watch it, however, as it is far from disappointing. Fair warning, though, this movie uses a mixture of English and Spanish, so if you cannot speak Spanish you will be spending a good portion of the movie reading subtitles.

At any rate, if you are a baseball fan, you owe it to yourself to check out this movie.

Find. Watch. Discuss.

Rated R
Run Time: 120 minutes
Released: January 21, 2008
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0990413/