Season of Miracles is a 2013 Christian sports film written by Rusty Whitener, directed by Dave Moody, and based on the novel A Season of Miracles by Whitener.
In 1974 Alabama, Zack (Andrew Wilson Williams) is the head of the Robins, a Little League baseball team. When he discovers that local autistic boy Rafer Forrester (Grayson Russell) is a baseball prodigy, he invites him to join the team, and the Robins rise towards a championship season.
Season of Miracles provides examples of:
- Always with You: Rafer gives each of his teammates a rock as a present. The rocks act as good luck charms that improve their skills. When Rafer is in the hospital, one boy even says that Rafer is still with them.
- And Starring: Everyone has an "As..." credit. There's also "And Nancy Stafford as Nurse Barbara," and "And introducing Kula as Sawdust."
- The Baby of the Bunch: Richard Powell, aka Little Richard. While most of the Robins look about 13, Richard looks like he's still in elementary school.
- The Bully: Booger Clark, of the Hawks, is fond of shoving other kids around, calling Rafer and occasionally other people retards, and insulting people at every opportunity.
- Color Wash: After Rafer is diagnosed with a blood disease, the colors seem duller and grayer for a short while.
- Cow Tipping: Donnie asks Zack, "Swimming in the summer, or cow tipping in winter?" Zack replies, "Swimming in the summer, I guess."
- Horrible Housing: Rafer and his dad's home is run-down, dirty, and badly-lit.
- It Will Never Catch On: One Robin says, "No way. No way anybody will ever make a movie about Spider-Man. Who wants to see an insect fight crime?" The first movie about Spider-Man came out in 1977.
- Littlest Cancer Patient: Rafer, after he's found to be terminally ill.
- Manly Tears: Rafer's dad sheds these over Rafer's impending death.
- Nostalgic Narrator: The movie opens with Zack as a middle-aged man visiting the old baseball field, where he picks up a baseball lying in the grass. Most of the rest of the movie takes place in flashback.
- Opposing Sports Team: Although Booger is the meanest of the Hawks, they're all pretty horrible, and their coach encourages their behavior.
- Parental Abandonment: Rafer's mother, Felicia, left when she realized his "difference" wasn't going to go away.
- Post-Victory Collapse: Rafer passes out and falls on his face after hitting a home run. He's rushed to the hospital, where he's diagnosed with a fatal blood disease.
- Privacy by Distraction: Richard's mother sends him outside to play when she gets a phone call telling her that Richard's father has gone missing in Vietnam and may be dead.
- Rage Against the Heavens: After Zack learns that Rafer is dying, he runs to their field, slumps against the backstop, and yells at God, "Rebecca says You do everything. You have a reason FOR EVERYTHING!!"
- Second Place Is for Losers: Zack and his dad are both believers in this trope. When Zack says, "Third place feels like I... failed," his dad says, "Good! It's first place or nothing, son! That's the American way!"
- Stock "Yuck!": Richard hates broccoli.
- Title In: "Alabama, 1974"
- Waking Non Sequitur: One boy dozes off during church and mutters "Blue Kool-Aid" as he wakes up.
- Your Mom: When the coach says, "It's not over till the fat lady sings," one kid quips, "I didn't know your mom was gonna be at the game." Later, there's a more serious, gender-swapped version when Booger distracts Richard during a game by talking about all the people his dad killed in Vietnam.
