Film / Angels in the Outfield

"Even though you can't see us, we're always watching."

— Al the Boss Angel, 1994 remake

Angels in the Outfield is a film released in 1951 and remade in 1994.

The 1951 film was directed by Clarence Brown and stars Paul Douglas and Janet Leigh. It's about Pittsburgh Pirates manager Guffy McGovern (Douglas) being visited by invisible angels who will give his team miracles, as long as he stops swearing and controls his violent temper. A girl from the local Catholic orphanage can see the angels, and a woman reporter, Jennifer Paige (Leigh) who's been covering the Pirates prints the story. McGovern's bête noire is Fred Bayles (Keenan Wynn), a snarky sportscaster who wants to get something on him. When the manager is beaned by a fastball he lets slip about "talking to angels", and a sanity hearing ensues. Meanwhile, the angels let McGovern know that his veteran pitcher Saul Hellman (Bruce Bennett) is about to be "signed up" in Heaven, and McGovern resolves to give Hellman one more turn on the mound. Naturally, the Pirates eventually take the NL pennant, and the reporter and McGovern ultimately get together and adopt the little girl.

The 1994 Disney remake, directed by William Dear and starring Danny Glover, Tony Danza, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Christopher Lloyd, is about a boy praying that the California Angels will win the pennant, mistakenly believing that if they do, he will reunite with his Disappeared Dad. Roger Bomman (Gordon-Levitt), currently in foster care, asks his dad (Dermot Mulroney) when they will be a family again, to which his father replied sarcastically, "I'd say when the Angels win the pennant." Taking his father's words to heart, Roger prays for God to help the hapless, last-place Angels win. After he prays, a star unseen by Roger twinkles in the sky. Then, in a game attended by Roger and his foster brother JP (Milton Davis Jr.), Roger sees a group of angels led by boss angel Al (Lloyd) helping the team. Although Roger can see the angels quite clearly, everyone else can only explain the seemingly impossible acts as freak occurrences. Roger's unique ability to see which players are receiving help from angels leads the Angel's skeptical manager, George Knox (Glover), to keep Roger around as a good luck charm/consultant. Due to the much needed help, the Angels start to win games and make a surprising second-half surge to the top of their division, led by the angel-aided resurgence of washed-up pitcher Mel Clark (Danza).

Both versions are standard kids' movies — the original has appeal to adults as well — but feel-good ones ultimately about the power of faith wrapped around a sports story. The 1994 version was followed by two Made For TV sequels, 1997's Angels in the Endzone (Same thing as Outfield, but with high school football, and replacing the orphan/foster child plot with two boys coming to terms with their father's sudden death) and 2000's Angels in the Infield which replaced Christopher Lloyd with David Alan Grier as the head angel.

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Angels in the Outfield (1951) provides examples of:

• Angrish: Guffy's foul, filthy mouth is depicted by cutting the audio to pieces, sticking it back together at random and playing it backwards.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: The nuns discount angelic assistance on the ballfield and Sister Edwitha loudly denies it to the press, insisting that Bridget had "been out in the sun too long." She later has the child hospitalized and brings in a psychiatrist. Bridget is completely cognizant of what's going on: "Sure. You want to find out if I'm wacky."
• Children Raise You: Guffy learns a lot from Bridget and becomes more of a Reasonable Authority Figure as he begins to ease into a fatherly role.
• Crazy Enough to Work: You never see the angels in the original film. It's all done subtly and explained as the angels inspiring Guffy and his players to make better decisions on the field. At one point Guffy tells the batting coach "Tell him to bunt — No. Let him hit away." The batter socks it over the left field fence and the coach asks how he knew, since this man isn't much of a longball hitter. Guffy says he just "had a feeling", but his hat is knocked off seconds later and we're to understand one of the angels did it in affection.
• Determinator: In the final game, Hellman is clearly tiring and Guffy wants to take him out, but he says he wants to continue.
• Down to the Last Play: Bottom of the Ninth version; New York has three men on base (meaning one home run could tie the score and two players reaching home plate could win the game for New York) and two outs, with Saul Hellman visibly tiring. He ends up striking out the New York batter, winning the game.
• Good Luck Charm: Guffy has a "good-luck piece" he loses, and it's when he goes out on the deserted infield to find it that he first hears the angel (whose first words to him are "Oh, shut up!"). When the angel departs, a feather floats down onto third base; he finds his good-luck piece there.
• Guardian Angel: It's implied the unnamed angel who talks to McGovern in the original is his guardian angel.
• God Is Good: All the orphans and the nuns are huge Pirates fans and Bridget's been praying for the team ever since they hit the slump. Her prayers are answered by angels descending from Heaven to help The Team.
• Happily Adopted: Bridget ends up adopted by Guffy and Jennifer.
• Heartwarming Orphan: Bridget White, eight years old. She has lived in the orphanage all her life.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Seems to be a prerequisite for seeing angels, in this film. Guffy never sees the angels even after he completely reforms, and out of all the children, only Bridget sees them, reasoning that it's because she's been praying for the team.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Guffy, obviously. He's foul-tempered, but is good to and for Bridget.
• Jerkass: McGovern starts out as one, and Bayles isn't much better.
• Magic Feather: The angels tell McGovern that they're withdrawing their aid before the final game, since he lost his temper during a sanity hearing. But then they add that "You've been on your own a lot of times this season without knowing it."
• Mean Boss: Guffy starts off as this, constantly berating his players for their failures. He gets better though.
• No Antagonist: The original version lacks any villains.
• No Indoor Voice: Guffy McGovern has a loud and exuberant voice to match his personality.
• Orphanage of Love: St. Gabriel's Home for Orphan Girls is this and it's run by pleasant, practical-minded Hollywood Nuns.
• Our Angels Are Different:
  • The angels fit the standard good-guys-with-wings image, who work mostly by influencing the players' and manager's intuition. They also don't influence every play of every game, as noted when one says that "You've been on your own a lot of times this season without knowing it."
  • The angel who originally exhorts Guffy to change his ways is a pretty tough but clean talker and hints he and the other angels (the "Heavenly Choir Nine") are former ballplayers.
  • At one point, when he's been told to change his ways, Guffy reminds his angel that he has to be able to argue with the umpires; the angel tells him there's plenty of clean language he can use. He begins by reading Shakespeare and using Flowery Elizabethan English epithets:
    Umpire. Fair!
    Guffy. (stalking out onto the field) Fair? Fair? Fair ball? Why, thou knave, thou dolt! Thou hast eyes but seest not!
    Umpire 2. You heard him, he said fair.
    Guffy. Fie, fie upon you and a pox upon you too. Thou art blind, thou black-livered bat!
• Parental Abandonment: We are never told what happened to Bridget's parents, only that she's lived at the Home her entire life.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: After losing yet another game, McGovern yells at his players for doing so, starting off a speech with "I would like to say a few words about today's endeavour with the Cincinnatis. OF ALL THE..." [the rest is gibberish, but Jennifer's shocked expression tells us what he's saying]
• Secretly Dying: Hellman, and he probably knows it.
• Wham Line: In the climax, the lead angel reveals that Saul Hellman is dying:
  "That won't make any difference, he won't be around next season. We're signing him up in the spring."

The 1994 version contains examples of:

• Actually Pretty Funny: Maggie is asked in the press conference if she believes the (lower-case) angels play baseball. Her reply ("Since the All-Star break, yes!") sounds like it could refer to the upper-case Angels as well, whose play before then was a poor imitation of the sport. The players themselves join in the ensuing laughter.
• Adrenaline Time: "Some moments in sports you remember in slow motion, and Hemmerling's infield ground ball was one of them... because the ball was actually traveling in slow motion."
• And Starring: Christopher Lloyd is credited with this.
• Angrish: Knox is said to be profane, but to keep the rating appropriate for small children the audience just hears Knox muffled and from a distance. Roger covers up J.P.'s ears and then suggests to Knox that the angels might not like to hear so much cussing.
• All Bikers are Hells Angels: Roger's dad downplays this trope. Despite being a biker who happens to be a sleazy single parent and a Lower-Class Lout who gave up full custody of his son without warning, he's more deadbeat than huge and scary.
• Ambiguously Absent Parent: Why Miguel is in foster care is never revealed.
• Arbitrary Skepticism:
  • Team owner Hank Murphy is outraged with Knox's "hogwash" story about real angels helping the team, which is how anyone would respond — except that the entire country has been watching miracles occur on the field hundreds of times over the course of the season. Now, granted, angels are still a far-fetched explanation, but is it all that crazy an explanation?
  • The whole "Real Angels" deal being rejected might seem ludicrous since this is set in the USA, where the overwhelming majority of people are Christians. Christians not believing in heavenly help might just look silly, but many actually do not believe in that level of direct intervention and certainly not in sports as opposed to, say, natural disasters where people inexplicably survive.
  • The arbitrary distinction is lampshaded by Maggie at the press conference before the final game:
    Maggie: When a professional football player drops to one knee to thank God for making a touchdown, nobody laughs at that. Or when a pitcher crosses himself before going to the mound, no one laughs at that either. It's like you're saying it's okay to believe in God, but it's not okay to believe in angels.
• Angst? What Angst?: In-Universe example; the Angels are largely nonchalant about the fact that they are on a fifteen-game losing streak, and after just watching their coach and pitcher resort to fisticuffs on the mound are much too quick to blow it off before Knox comes in and gives them a damning putdown of their embarrassing performance. It's only after the real angels have given them a real shot at the pennant that they take their next loss a lot more seriously.
• Artistic License – Sports: In 1993, the American League was divided into two divisions of seven teams each. The Angels would still have to go through another seven-game series against the Eastern champion to win the pennant.^note The American League realigned into three divisions in 1994, the year of the film's release, so had the 1994 alignment been used in the film the Angels would have to win two playoff series instead of one.
• Big Brother Bully: Miguel is a light, foster version of this to J.P., such as telling him that "you could drop dead after dinner" because of poisoned Jello.
• Billed Above the Title: During the opening credits, Danny Glover gets his name in before the production company.
• Bowdlerize: In one of his early scenes, George Knox accuses his players of having their "heads up [their] butts." TV airings change this to "screwed on backwards."
• Bittersweet Ending: Downplayed. Roger doesn't reunite with his birth father as he wanted despite the Angels turning things around and Roger is informed that Mel will die in six months due to his smoking habits. However, the Angels manage to win the finals on their own and take the World Series. Knox finally eases up and learns to coach his team better and, in the end, he adopts Roger and J.P. finally allowing the three to become an official family.
• Bookends: Early in the film, Knox gives his team "The Reason You Suck" Speech for losing yet another game. Near the end, he gives them a Rousing Speech about how proud he is of them.
• Break Them by Talking: Ranch Wilder seems to have made it his goal to do this to Knox and his team, as his only involvement with the team is calling their games and subsequently interviewing the players and coach, constantly mocking them throughout both the announcements and interviews, which doesn't help their confidence.
• Brick Joke: When Roger and Knox are having their picture taken, the photographer comments that "It looks like a prison photo." Later, when Knox delivers the pictures to Roger, J.P. says almost the exact same thing.
• Broken Pedestal: Roger becomes crushed after learning his father gave him up to the state without a fight.
• Butt-Monkey: Angels team assistant David Montagne exists so funny things happen to him and the audience can laugh at his reaction.
• Career-Ending Injury: George Knox is still deeply resentful of announcer/former player Ranch Wilder, who ended Knox's career with a cleats-up slide into him.
• Cassandra Truth: First Roger, then Knox when trying to convince people about the angels. It nearly costs Knox his job.
• Character Catchphrase: J.P.'s "It could happen!"
• Children Raise You: Knox, by surrogate parenting Roger and J.P..
• Cloudcuckoolander: Pitcher Whitt Bass. The announcers even run down several crazy things they've seen him do during the season. This also makes him the butt of jokes by the team; the Latino players trick him into thinking "The Star-Spangled Banner" is about a guy named Jose.
• Crazy Enough to Work: When an angel shows up besides a player, Roger has to convince Knox to use him even if it goes against all common sense. For instance, Roger suggests that Knox have his light-hitting bench player pinch-hit for his cleanup hitter in the bottom of the 9th because of an angel presence.
  Knox: I can't substitute my WORST hitter for my BEST hitter!
• Crazy-Prepared: David becomes this after the boys ruin the first of his many linen suits, as he starts wearing plastic sheeting over his clothes.
• Crisis of Faith: Roger suffers one after his dad gives up custody even after the Angels start winning, heading towards the path of atheism. The kicking line comes the night after the court hearing (Roger is sullenly throwing a baseball into his glove over and over):
  J.P.: Look, it's God's thumbnail!
  Roger: That's just the moon, J.P.. No God up there. (Roger's throw misses his glove and the ball rolls away from the porch.)
• Combined Energy Attack: A mundane variety; in the final game, the entire crowd does the "An Angel is Here" signal to inspire Mel Clark.
• Cue the Flying Pigs: Roger's dad's quip of him and Roger getting back to becoming a family again "maybe when the Angels win the pennant" was meant to be the equivalent of "when pigs fly", seeing as how at the All-Star Break (a little after the mid-point of the season) the Angels were dead last and mired in a 15-game losing streak^noteFor reference, the all-time longest losing streak in the AL is owned by the 1988 Baltimore Orioles, who started their season 0-21. Roger thought he was being literal and prayed to God for this to happen. Subverted when Roger's dad officially gives up custody and walks out of the courtroom just as Roger enters despite the Angels' sudden turnaround in the standings. Then Double Subverted when, after the Angels win the pennant, Roger does get adopted by Knox (along with J.P.).
• Daddy Didn't Show: Roger's dad breaks his heart when, after the Angels are well on their way to winning the pennant (which he sarcastically said would be when they could be a family again), he gives up custody of Roger to the state.
• Despair Event Horizon: Roger hits one after his dad gives up custody, causing him to lose faith in the angels. Knox is hit with this too as the rumors about the angels leaves him on the brink of being fired as his own manager believes he is losing his grip on reality. Finally the Angels themselves, after losing the second-to-last game of the season after an awe-inspiring winning streak and facing the imminent firing of their manager. All three get better.
• Disappeared Dad: Roger's dad chooses to become this, permanently giving up custody of him to the state, while J.P.'s died before the start of the film.
• Diving Save: In the last play, Mel gives one last pitch to win the pennant. The hitter whacks it... but it's a grounder and Mel makes spectacular leap to catch it. He's shocked, as is the stadium, before they proceed to cheer.
• Down to the Last Play: Bottom of the Ninth version — the Angels are ahead by one, but the bases are loaded, meaning one hit by the White Sox could win the game for them. When Mel catches the ball, it wins the game for the Angels instead.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: Roger asks his dad when they'll be a family again. Roger's dad quips "when the Angels win the pennant". He was in Sarcasm Mode, as the Angels were so far behind that catching up was all but impossible. Roger thought he was being literal, and prayed to God for a miracle. And even though the Angels start winning, his dad doesn't come back, giving up custody of Roger to the state.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: When he learns that Mel has terminal cancer, Roger wants to give this to him so he can go out in a blaze of glory. He and Knox talk about it, how there are no angels on the field. So Knox has Roger fake an angel signal, which the whole stadium takes up. This motivates Mel to pitch and then he catches the ball with a Diving Save. He's just as shocked as everyone else is that he had this last piece in him.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: By the end of the film, the California Angels have finally won the pennant. Not only does Knox keep his job as the team's manager, but he even adopts J.P. and Roger.
• Expy: Owner Hank Murphy is one for famed country singer Gene Autry, who was the long-time owner of the Angels. It's pretty much limited to Murphy's ten-gallon hat and on-the-ranch sayings.
• Exact Words:
  • The wish Roger makes ultimately gets resolved this way. Roger prayed to God for a family. And he got one. But Roger never mentioned his biological father being a part of the family. In the end, when Roger's dad gives up custody but the Angels have won the pennant, Knox calls child services about adopting Roger. And he's even willing to adopt J.P. to boot, meaning that Roger gets both a father and a brother.
    "God... If there is a God... if you're a man or a woman... if you're listening, I'd really, really like a family. My dad says that will only happen if the Angels win the pennant. The baseball team, I mean. So, maybe you can help them win a little."
  • Knox organizes a baseball game for the kids in Roger's neighborhood. At one point he yells at a runner on third base, a little tyke who's never played, to "run home". Which is exactly what the kid does, running off of third base towards his own house.
• Faux Affably Evil: Ranch Wilder appears to be a cheerful and friendly newscaster especially when he meets J.P. in the locker room. Too bad about his plot to ruin George's career.
• Flipping the Table: After the Angels lose yet another game, Knox angrily flips their buffet table before going into a very loud "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
• Freudian Excuse: Knox admits to Roger that like him, he was also an orphan. He had to take care of his siblings from a young age, growing up before he could properly be a kid and find happiness. His siblings didn't appreciate that he had to be the adult and took him for granted. As a result, he became crusty and a jerk. But he'll be damned if he'll let the same thing happen to Roger after his father cedes custody of his son to the state because Roger doesn't need that cynicism and bitterness in his life at a young age.
• Game of Nerds: Roger has a whole team full, with Knox coaching. Understandable since they're all ten years old or younger.
• Good Luck Charm:
  • Knox doesn't believe in the angels, but the team is winning when Roger and J.P. are there, so he has it arranged so they'll be at every home game to keep the winning ways going.
  • The players also touch a pole in the clubhouse after a game as a good-luck tradition. Hemmerling mentions that after 15 straight losses, they should find something else to rub; resident cuckoolander Bass makes a good point by remarking that they should probably touch the pole before the game.
• God Is Good: Roger prays for a miracle (the Angels team winning the pennant) so he can have a family again. He gets his wish, though not in the way he expected.
• Good Parents: Maggie is one awesome foster mother. She's fiercely protective of her charges and thrilled when they either get adopted or reunited with their parents. When she finds out that Knox's job is in danger, she brings Roger and J.P. to the hearing and speaks in his defense because of how happy he's made her kids and that she knows he's a good person. When Knox adopts Roger and J.P., Maggie reassures them that she'll be fine, because there are always kids that she can mother.
• Guardian Angel: Al, the head angel, who encourages Roger and guides Knox, helping him becoming a better person.
• Gut Punch:
  • Maggie has to take Roger to a hearing, where he hopes that his dad will want him back again now that the Angels are close to winning the pennant. Instead, as he's happily greeting his dad and telling him the news, the man walks out and the judge reveals that his father gave custody to the state. All Maggie can do is hug Roger as he starts crying. It's so bad that she calls Knox to tell him what happened, and he comes to comfort Roger as well.
  • At the championship, Al tells Roger that Mel is going to be joining them soon. He has cancer from all the smoking that he's been doing, and it's too far along to treat with chemo or surgery. Roger has a shocked, saddened expression as he tells Knox that Mel needs that one last moment of glory. They figure out a plan to motivate Mel, by faking an angel signal. The whole crowd takes it up and flaps for Mel, giving him the confidence to do the climactic pitch.
• Handicapped Badass: Al reveals to Roger that Mel has lung cancer and it's terminal, too far along to treat. Yet when the man gets the Angel signal from the whole stadium, he manages to do a Diving Save and catches the ball which wins them the game.
• Happily Adopted: Knox adopts Roger and J.P. in the ending and they are all ecstatic.
• Hard Truth Aesop: Roger's father chooses to give up full custody to the state, and while Roger is understandably devastated, it ultimately works out for the best for everyone, as George Knox adopts him and J.P. instead. Sadly, some people just aren't cut out to be parents, and it's actually healthier to separate their children from them rather than force the situation and leave everyone miserable.
• Heartwarming Orphan: Both Roger and J.P. but especially J.P. because he's also The Cutie.
• Helping Would Be Killstealing: After half a season of helping the Angels win their games, Al tells Roger that they're on their own for the final game:
  Al: Championships have to be on their own. It's a rule.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Ranch badmouths George and the entire team on air in the final play of the game right after the entire stadium except for him throws all their support behind Mel on the pitcher's mound. Murphy hears it all and fires him after the game.
• I Have No Son!: Roger's dad chooses to give up full custody of his son, feeling it's for Roger's best interests.
• I Heard That: Rare positive variant in the ending — Roger has just learned that someone contacted social services about giving him a permanent home, upsetting J.P., who runs off crying because this means they'll be separated. Then Knox tells Roger that he's the one who called social services and wants to be Roger's dad. Roger, however, says he can't leave J.P.; Knox promptly informs him that he could never leave J.P. either and is adopting both boys. Cue J.P.'s very happy "I heard that!"
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Seems to be a prerequisite for seeing angels — only Roger sees them, and in the last minutes of the film, J.P. sees Al too.
• Innocently Insensitive: J.P. is this the first time he sees Mel Clark, thanks to the way a little kid would word such a question.
  J.P.: Hey, didn't you used to be Mel Clark?
  Mel: [sadly] Yeah. Used to be. [walks away from the line of autograph seekers]
• Ironic Echo: Ranch Wilder is always telling his assistant Wally "Less is more!" and turning off his microphone in favor of himself. In the end, after Ranch has managed to get himself fired for his negative commentary, Wally pulls the same thing, saying "Easy, Ranch. Less is more." before taking over and declaring the win.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • Lots of them in the Disney version with Knox being an obvious example. Despite the cranky personality he's baseline good.
  • Roger's dad, depending on your interpretation. He cares for his son, but sadly, still gave him up due to lacking the means and environment to support him.
• Jerkass:
  • Ranch Wilder. It's heavily implied that he as a then-Jerk Jock slid spikes up into George Knox's knee on purpose, which caused the injury that ended his career. Not only does he all but gloat to him about it on the air (prompting a well deserved punch to the face), but he presses assault charges and takes every opportunity to smear Knox to the Angels faithful. He also manipulates the naive and distraught J.P. into spilling the beans on the assistance from on high, resulting very nearly in Knox's termination as manager. This eventually comes back to haunt him when Murphy hears him insult the Angels over the radio and terminates him not long after the Angels win the pennant.
  • Roger's dad, again depending on your interpretation. The Lower-Class Lout is sarcastic about him and Roger being a family again and hands Roger off to the state without even the smallest amount of warning, something he's actually not proud of.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Roger's dad might have been a sarcastic, and seemingly unloving and uninterested Lower-Class Lout, but he was in the right in willingly handing Roger over to the state as he knew as a single Lower-Class Lout biker like himself could not possibly provide the normal family environment that his son Roger should healthily grow up in.
• Large Ham: Ranch Wilder is highly dramatic and over-the-top in his announcing, sounding positively gleeful as he announces the plays; the only time he dials it down is when he's trying to talk quietly to J.P. after the first game against the White Sox. He gets even hammier in his protests after his richly-deserved firing.
• Line-of-Sight Name: "Al" derives his name from the "AL" American League logo on an umpire's hat.
• Literal-Minded:
  • Roger's dad was being sarcastic when he said that they could become a family again "when the Angels win the pennant" (they were in last place and in the midst of a 15-game losing streak). Roger takes it literally and prays to God for the Angels to win the pennant.
  • Mervin, one of the kid players, is told by Knox to "run home" after one of his teammates gets a hit. So he runs off the field and down the street.
  Knox: Where's he going?
  Roger: You told him to run home. He did.
• Lower-Class Lout: Roger's dad, and it's for this very reason he's struggling with child custody. Worse is that he appears to not even care and easily gave up at court, seemingly revealing he never really loved his son after all. However, it's also more likely that he did love his son deep down, but also knew about his less-than-perfect background, and as such, felt it would be in Roger's best interests if he be a ward of the state in a normal family environment that he could not provide himself.
• Magic 8-Ball: Whitt Bass consults one to see if he'll win his start. The best it will give him is "Maybe" but he'll take it.
• Magic Feather:
  • In the final game,, the whole crowd at an Angels baseball game makes wing flapping gestures to help their pitcher make an out, without the divine intervention they've been relying on these past few months.
  • After Mel makes a Diving Save and wins them the game by catching the ball, he shouts at Knox that he felt the angels helping him. Knox tells him that it wasn't an angel, it was all him. Mel is shocked before he proceeds to cheer..
  • There was also a point in the movie during the montage of amazing plays the Angels perform on their late-season climb where the divine intervention didn't show. Knox sees an amazing play made, and starts making the Angel Sign happily... only for Roger to shrug, meaning that wasn't an angel's doing. Knox is understandably shocked.
• Mean Boss:
  • George Knox starts off by yelling at his players over their constant failures. He gets better as he bonds with Roger and J.P. and Character Development sets in.
  • Played straight with Ranch Wilder, who constantly cuts Wally off in his broadcasts.
• Missing Mom: The second line of the movie reveals that Roger's mother is dead.
• Mondegreen Gag: Whit Bass hears "Oh Say Can You See?" but thinks it's "Oh, José, Can You See?" A couple of his teammates deliberately run with this mistake just to prank him, and are astonished by his gullibility when he falls for it.
  Bass: Wow...it's about a Spanish guy!
• Motivational Lie: When Knox goes out to give Clark a pep talk at the end of the climactic game, a clearly fatigued Clark says he doesn't have anything left. Although he knows they won't show up, Roger begins to make the angel motion and the rest of the dugout and the stadium follows suit. Knox re-instills confidence in Clark by telling him that's the signal that Clark has an angel with him. Since Knox believes that angels and faith are ultimately the same thing, it could be Metaphorically True.
• Must Have Nicotine: Mel Clark, who's even smoking in the clubhouse hot tub. Unknowingly, Mel has lung cancer and only has months to live.
• No Indoor Voice: George Knox has a loud and exuberant voice to match his personality.
• Oh, Crap!: Knox has this expression on his face when he realizes that he's going to be fired for saying that there are real angels.
• Orphanage of Love: Maggie's house. Maggie is an Apron Matron that serves Jello, and treats all the kids with love.
• Our Angels Are Different:
  • The angels fit the standard good-guys-with-wings image, as befits a feel-good kids' movie. They are repelled by foul language, being pure and ethical in all respects.
  • During the actual games, the angels play fair, only directly influencing the players and generally influencing Knox's intuition (though at one point, Al intervenes to interrupt Knox's argument with an umpire and makes Knox pleasantly agree with the umpire instead). They also explicitly don't help out at all during the championship (Al pops up next to Roger in the audience, but tells him it's a rule that "Championships have to be won on their own."), but their presence is felt, inspiring a victory.
• Parental Neglect: Roger's dad is struggling to gain custody of his son due to being an irresponsible single parent with his Lower-Class Lout lifestyle and gives up full custody of Roger without a fight, though this could be interpreted as him recognizing that he couldn't give Roger the bringing-up that he needed.
• Parental Substitute: Maggie is this to J.P. and Roger, and as is committed a mother figure to the boys as any birth mom would be. The boys are eventually adopted by Knox, meaning they will soon leave Maggie, but she assures them that she will be fine as other children come into her care.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Al and J.P. are about humor; Al for the oddball humor and J.P. for more Comically Missing the Point.
• Privacy by Distraction: Roger, J.P., and Knox do this to David every time they need to shoo him away and talk about the angels.
  Knox: Buy them Angels jackets!
  David: It's ninety degrees outside!
  Knox: Get your butt up there now!
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Hank Murphy, the owner of the Angels. He tries to talk Knox into keeping his calm, only relieves Knox of his management duties when it seems Knox is losing it via believing real angels are helping the team, and gives him back his job when he sees the entire team is backing him. He also fires Ranch Wilder when the latter's badmouthing of Knox and the team continues after they win the pennant.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Knox gives one when the Angels lose a game due to their ineptitude. Even though it had to only be composed of language that could fit in a kids' movie, it's a scathing rant.
  George Knox: One more loss! One more loss which could've been a win! And you call yourselves professionals. I have never, ever seen a worse group of twenty-five players! You don't think as a team, you don't play as a team, you don't even LOSE as a team! You've all got your heads so far up your butts, you can't even see the light of day! One more loss and I'll...and I'll do this... (throws a chair at a rack of bats) to each and every one of you! (...) I want you here in uniform at nine tomorrow! We're going back to practicing fundamentals!
• Rousing Speech: At Knox's press conference, Maggie gives one of these about the angels helping the team win, which inspires the entire team to profess their faith in Knox and allow him to keep his job.
• Sarcasm-Blind: The whole reason Roger makes his wish to God and the angels, taking his father's reply when asking if they'd be together again a bit too seriously.
• Sand In My Eyes: Played for Laughs. One of the ball players tries to share an optimistic moment with Coach Knox for shedding a tear during the playing of the "Star Spangled Banner" before a game. Knox shrugs it off as sunscreen getting in his eye.
• Save Our Team: From being the one that sucks to the World Series champions.
• Secretly Dying: Mel Clark. Even he doesn't know he has terminal lung cancer.
• Sequel: Angels in the Endzone and Angels in the Infield
• Slimeball: Ranch Wilder and Roger's dad are both this, as latter is what began Roger's goal that ultimately became a "Shaggy Dog" Story at first by sleazily and sarcastically saying if the Angels win the game they'll become a family, despite never intending to reunite with Roger to begin with.
• Smoking Is Not Cool: Mel smokes a lot, even in the hot tub. So it's not surprising when Roger is informed by Al that he's dying from lung cancer to this. The sad thing is that Mel doesn't even know it yet and it's too far along for anyone to treat.
• Springtime for Hitler: Upon first meeting David, George tells him that because David got hired on Monday, George can't officially fire him until Friday. After two games of babysitting Roger and JP, David is so dismayed at his Butt-Monkey status that he reminds George of his intentions to fire David on Friday. However, with the Angels now on a winning streak and George seeing the actual angels help his team twice, George decides that David has bonded with the boys and has job security, much to David's chagrin.
• Throwing Out the Script: George Knox is being forced to make a statement to the press denying the involvement of real, heaven-sent angels in his team's recent winning streak... but when Roger, J.P. and Maggie come into the room, he abandons his planned speech and instead reaffirms his belief that angels are helping the team win.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Ranch constantly sidelines Wally in their broadcasts by turning his mic off just to get in more of his own airtime, reasoning "Less is more". Wally returns the favor when Ranch is fired at the end.
• Title Drop: When Roger tries to convince J.P. that he saw angels from Heaven helping the team.
  Roger: But there were angels in the outfield! And in the infield!
  J.P.: Yeah, nine of 'em.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: J.P. is approached by Ranch after he is seen bawling his eyes out over not seeing the angels at the game, and is easily tricked into revealing Roger's secret to the scheming reporter. A justified case though seeing how he's just a child, but it lands George in hot water when Ranch leaks it to the press.
• Volleying Insults: After the first game of the film, Ranch and Knox trade insults:
  Ranch Wilder: You leave Cincinnati after ten years of winning ball clubs — although the really big one always seemed to be just out of reach — and you come out here to manage our Angels. Now, expectations were high that you could turn this team around. But that just doesn't seem to be happening.
  George Knox: Season's only half-over, Ranch.
  Ranch Wilder: And your club's in last place.
  George Knox: You oughta know how one incident can change the course of events.
  Ranch Wilder: Well, you know, you play the game. You take your chances. Sometimes, you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
  George Knox: Yeah, you're an expert at that.
  Ranch Wilder: I could say the same about you.
  George Knox: Well, actions speak louder than words.
• Wham Line: During the final game, Al reveals that Angels pitcher Mel Clark is dying:
  "I came to check up on Mel. He's coming up soon. He's going to be one of us."
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Gates, the pitcher George jumps for being insubordinate is seemingly out of sight for the rest of the season. Considering his conduct, it's not unreasonable to assume he was sidelined or even let go as a consequence of it. The junior novelization confirms this by including a scene where he bursts in on Knox to confront him about Knox trading him to New York, shortly before Knox asks Williams and Messmer about their amazing plays the day before.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: J.P. is always saying "It could happen!" No matter what "it" is.
• Writers Cannot Do Math:
  • In the climactic game against Chicago, after the Angels score the winning run in the bottom of the eighth on a suicide squeeze, Messmer immediately follows with a pop-up to end the inning. But for that to work, Knox would have had to call a suicide squeeze with two out in a 2-2 game in the eighth inning, which is strategical malpractice (as a force play at first would also mean no runs score). Had Knox done so in such an important game and it failed, it would have been grounds to fire him on the spot once the game ended, so it's most likely the writers just forgot how many outs there were.
  • An even more egregious example comes in the Angels' rise up the standings. During the sequence, Kansas City somehow goes from 77-51 to 73-59. Unless there was an unreported scandal where the Royals had to forfeit four games they'd previously won, that's mathematically impossible.
• You're Not My Father: Roger seemingly accepts that his birth father has given him up and would never reunite with him. He accepts George as a real father to him when George adopts him and J.P..

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