A look inside Hollywood and the movies : SHORT FIELDER : Pros Strike Out for ‘Rookie’s’ Sake

Considering the current baseball standings, is it any wonder that New York Mets fans are booing left-fielder Bobby Bonilla, the St. Louis Cardinals may want to bring first baseman Pedro Guerrero out of retirement and the San Francisco Giants are ready to canonize center fielder Barry Bonds?

In 20th Century Fox’s upcoming “Rookie of the Year,” they’re all in the dugout, playing cameos as hapless players who can’t get past home plate when a 12-year-old pitcher is on the mound.

The film is the “Doogie Howser, M.D.” of baseball movies, with boy wonder Henry Rowengartner (Thomas Ian Nicholas) as a boy who suffers an arm injury and discovers, once it’s healed, that he’s got a 100-m.p.h. fastball and is recruited for the major leagues.

Yep, those celebrated boys of summer--Bonilla, Guerrero and Bonds--don’t even have to feel guilty striking out against the winning Chicago Cubbies; they took the roles for fun (obviously, it wasn’t for the comparatively low guild wages) at the bequest of actor-turned-director Daniel Stern (“Diner,” “Breaking Away”). Stern plays the Cubs’ coach.

What a turnaround from the days when Bonds and Bonilla played together for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Guerrero for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Winning days, winning players.