The Benchwarmers is a 2006 American sports-comedy film produced by Revolution Studios and Happy Madison Productions, distributed by Columbia Pictures, directed by Dennis Dugan, written by Allen Covert and Nick Swardson, and starring Rob Schneider, David Spade and Jon Heder with Jon Lovitz, Craig Kilborn, Molly Sims and Tim Meadows in supporting roles. It tells the story of three nerds and a billionaire forming the titular baseball team to take on the little league baseball teams.
The film was met with negative reviews, but was a box office success.
A direct-to-video sequel titled Benchwarmers 2: Breaking Balls was released in January 2019.
Plot
Gus Matthews, Richie Goodman, and Clark Reedy are adult "nerds" who spent their childhoods longing to play baseball, but never got the chance.
When a nerdy, chubby, unathletic boy named Nelson Carmichael and his friends are bullied and kicked off a baseball diamond by a local little league team, Gus and Clark chase the bullies away. When Gus and Clark go with Richie to the field, the bullies return and demand that they leave. Gus challenges the bullies to play them for the field. Despite Richie and Clark's horrible ballplaying, the three win the game due to Gus' surprising aptitude. A man named Brad, one of Clark and Richie's childhood bullies, challenges them to another game, but the three friends win again.
After an encounter with Richie and Clark's childhood bully Jerry at Pizza Hut, they and Gus are approached by Nelson's billionaire father Mel who tells the trio about his plan to hold a round-robin with all the little league teams in the state, plus their team. The winners will be given access to a new multimillion-dollar baseball park. The three name themselves the Benchwarmers and join the tournament. Gus doesn't want his wife, Liz, to discover his involvement so Mel and his robot Number 7 cover up for him; in the meantime, she becomes frustrated that Gus keeps putting off her ovulating schedule since she wants to start a family.
Jerry and his fellow little league coaches Brad, Karl, and Wayne start meeting to think of plans to defeat the Benchwarmers. The Benchwarmers win every single game, with Clark and Richie's abilities gradually improving, Richie's brother Howie facing his fears of the sun, and the team becomes popular among many nerds, children with poor athletic abilities, and the general public.
At the semi-final game, the competing team's coach Wayne is down to the Benchwarmers by several runs. Desperate, he seeks the help of a 30-year-old Dominican professional baseball player named Carlos to join his team to get back into the game. Despite Carlos clearly being an adult and having a falsified birth certificate that was written in green crayon, Wayne bribes the home plate umpire to successfully get Carlos onto his team. The impact is immediate as Carlos's superb pitching and hitting get Wayne's team back in the game. However, The Benchwarmers quickly realize that Carlos has a major drinking problem, and they give him as much alcohol as possible throughout the rest of the game. After a bunt from Gus, the Benchwarmers run into their first instance of loading the bases, leading to Howie's first at-bat due to being the only Benchwarmer on-deck. Howie is hit by a pitch due to Carlos being intoxicated, which drives in the game-winning run for the Benchwarmers.
After that victory, Brad and Karl find evidence during a poker game that Gus was a bully himself as a child from their poker buddy Steven, known for using name calling over physical force and had bullied one boy named Marcus so intensely that he had to be sent to a mental institution. Seizing this opportunity, Jerry and Steven expose Gus' secret to the public with help from Steven's old principal, shaming Gus into resigning from the team. Liz finds out about his involvement and asks if that was why he kept postponing their attempt to start a family; Gus expresses worry that his kids would suffer bullying growing up, and this would be a form of karma coming back to him. Liz then encourages him to go apologize to Marcus, and Gus later sincerely apologizes to him just before the final game.
Mel enlists Ultimate Home Remodel to build his stadium in twenty-four hours. On the day of the big game against Jerry's baseball team, Marcus forgives Gus in front of everyone at the beginning of the final game. Gus re-joins the team, announcing that Marcus is the Benchwarmers' new third-base coach.