You have to KNOW where they're coming from to understand it and enjoy the movie. Plus it's based on true events making it even better.You shouldn't pre-judge what you know anything about.
It's a good movie. Good message and very different from most sports movies. Only two things really hurt the credibility and the message of the movie: 1) Filming the Major League game at Tiger Stadium...I couldn't figure out if they were in Detroit or Chicago the whole movie and 2) Forcing the Keanu-Lane hints at romance. It was a stretch and made Keanu look like he was helping the kids partly for hot sex.