THE BAD NEWS BEARS

IN BREAKING TRAINING

William Devane, Clifton James

Paramount; Directed by Michael Pressman

Rated PG; 97 minutes; 1977

THE BAD NEWS BEARS IN BREAKING TRAINING is the comic and poignant second-in-the-series of adventures with the pint-sized sandlot ballplayers initiated with the smash success, THE BAD NEWS BEARS. The picture picks up the Bears career a year after their infamous second-place finish in the North Valley League. Faced with a chance to play the Houston Toros for a shot at the Japanese champs, they devise a way to get to Texas to play at the famed Astrodome. On their pilgimage to Houston, the Bears gain a new coach; dump that coach; add a new pitcher who can't get his fastball over the plate; find another coach who shows him how it's done, and go on to a come-back victory with all eyes on Japan.