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Submitted by Steve

Note: Neither Walter Matthau nor Tatum O’Neal, the stars of the first film, appear in this sequel.

POOPER
The Bears beat the Toros.  After the game, Kelly reconciles with his father.

LONG VERSION
Set one year after the events of the first film, the Bears are the champions of the state of California.  As an award, the team is given the opportunity to go play the Texas state champions, the Toros, at the Houston Astrodome.  However, Coach Buttermaker (Walter Matthau’s character in the first film) abruptly quit as manager, and the league has replaced him with a hard nosed coach that no one likes.  Kelly Leak (Jackie Earle Haley), the team’s de facto leader, fires the coach and arranges the team to travel to Houston without a manager.  Since Amanda Whurlizer (Tatum O’Neal’s character in the first film) is no longer with the team, Kelly has recruited his best friend Carmen Ronzonni (Jimmy Baio) to be the pitcher.  He also gets the parents of his teammates to agree to let them go to Houston by convincing the league’s groundskeeper to pretend to be their manager, then leaves him behind when they depart for Houston.

Upon arriving in Houston, the team checks in at a dump of a hotel, and is then approached by the police (they parked in a tow-away zone).  The detective wants to speak to their manager, but Kelly tells him that he is not there.  The detective tells the team they won’t be allowed to go to practice until he shows up, and tells Kelly to go get him.  Kelly goes to a plant, and approaches a man coming out of it.  It’s his estranged father Mike (William Devane), and he asks him to be the team’s manager so they can get out of trouble at the hotel.  Mike agrees, and goes to the hotel and sorts everything out with the detective.  The team then has a practice but, without a real manager, they play like the Bad News Bears that they were at the beginning of the first film.  Mike, who had been just watching, takes over the practice and shows them how to play like a real team again.

The next day, the Bears have a joint practice with the Toros, but Kelly is in a foul mood.  He argues with Mike and, after getting in a fight with some Toros players, quits the team and runs off the field.  Mike catches up to him at a pool hall, where Kelly tells him he is still mad at him for leaving him when he was a kid, and he is acting like everything is fine between them.  Mike asks him if he would have looked in up if they didn’t need a manager.  The next day, Kelly has cooled off and rejoins the team in time for the game.

The game with the Toros is scheduled for four innings, and the Astros will play their game afterwards.  The Toros take a 5-0 lead, but just as the third inning is about to start, an Astros official comes onto the field and tells everyone that since the game has gone so long already, they must end it now so the Astros can play their game.  The Toros think they’ve won the game, and the Bears are disappointed they didn’t get to play all four innings.  Everyone then comes off the field except for the Bears loudmouth shortstop Tanner Boyle.  He refuses to leave the field, and is chased by stadium security.  Meanwhile, Mike begins chanting “Let them play”, which is echoed by the rest of the team.  Soon, all of the fans and even the Astros players join in the chant.  Finally, the Astros agree to delay their game to allow the Bears and Toros to finish their game.

The Bears begin to come back by scoring two runs in the third inning, and hold the Toros to no runs after successfully pulling off the “hidden ball” trick.  In the bottom of the fourth and final inning, the Bears load the bases, and Carmen hits a grand slam to win the game for the Bears, 6-5.  Following the game, while the team is celebrating their win, Kelly tells Mike that he would have looked him up, even if they didn’t need a manager.  The movie ends with them walking out of the stadium together.