HOT CORNER

A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, played, heard, observed, worn, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here. One exception: No products will be endorsed.

What: “The Rookie”

Authors: Jim Morris and Joel Engel.

Publisher: Warner Books.

Price: $13.95.

The movie “The Rookie,” starring Dennis Quaid as former Tampa Bay Devil Ray pitcher Jim Morris, tells some of how Morris became a major league rookie at 35. But there are holes and inaccuracies, which is usually the case when Hollywood tries to tell a true story.

The book originally was published as “The Oldest Rookie,” which technically wasn’t accurate. The title of the book, now in paperback, is now the same as the movie’s. The book fills in many of the holes left by the movie and clears up some inaccuracies.

For instance, the book tells of Morris’ high school days in Brownwood, Texas, and explains how he ended up coaching high school baseball in Big Lake, Texas. All that is left out of the movie.

The movie opens with St. Rita, “the patron saint of impossible dreams” having smiled on Big Lake. There’s nothing like that in the book. Brownwood is a big part of the book. It gets no mention in the movie.

The movie plays up Morris’ strained relationship with his father, then gets syrupy and sappy at the end. In the book, Morris’ relationship with his father is not a major subplot.

Morris has said that Quaid captured his personality perfectly. It’s just too bad that Walt Disney Pictures, which produced the movie, wasn’t as perfect in telling the story. That’s left up to the written word.

Larry Stewart

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Because the NHL playoff series between the New York Islanders and Toronto Maple Leafs was extended to a seventh game, the “SportsCentury” profile on Oscar De La Hoya, scheduled to be shown Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. on ESPN, was preempted. It will be shown at a date to be determined.