An inspirational, baseball-centric, 1960s-70s-era tale based on the true story of Rickey Hill (Colin Ford, TV’s “Walker” as an adult), “The Hill” features an oxygen-depleting, central performance by 69-year-old Dennis Quaid (“The Right Stuff”) as Rickey’s bullying Baptist pastor father James Hill.

James wants his younger son Rickey (played as a boy by the gifted Jesse Berry), who is encased in ankle-to-groin leg braces, to grow up to be a preacher like his daddy. Rickey is James’ and wife’s Helen’s middle child with older brother Robert (Mason Gillett) and younger sister Connie (Hailey Bithell). The three Hill siblings are mostly inseparable growing up in rural Texas. In spite of his immobilizing braces, Rickey can whack small rocks with a stick and send them sailing away like “homers,” according to Rickey’s friend Gracie (Gracie (Mila Harris). Gracie, whose father Earl (James Devoti) is an abusive drunk, has declared that Rickey is her boyfriend, and that’s that.

James Hill is so relentlessly dead set against his son pursuing his dream of becoming a professional baseball player and taking advantage of his amazing gift that he becomes the film’s villain. His insistence that baseball is some form of devil’s past-time makes him a certified religious fanatic.

The screenplay by Angelo Pizzo (the legendary sports movie “Rudy”), Scott Marshall Smith (“When the Game Stands Tall”) and Aric Hornig has young Rickey quoting a lot of Scripture from memory. Quaid, sporting a tan the shade of mahogany, cannot escape the fact that Pastor James is a tyrant, who uses religion to keep his children and his intimated wife Helen (Joelle Carter) under heel. James has less success keeping his mother-in-law Gram (Bonnie Bedelia, “Heart Like a Wheel”) in check. Gram is just as likely to take a bite out of James (and the scenery) when he goes over the line.

In early scenes, James takes two members of his tiny congregation to task for chewing tobacco (a woman, spitting into a coffee can) and smoking (Earl) in church and despoiling “His glorious sanctuary.” The Hill family is then run out of town (not the for first time, apparently).

“The Hill” is part inspirational tale, part hard-luck story, part romance and part comeback story. That’s a lot of weight. James loads the puttering family station wagon, paltry furniture and belongings tied across its voluminous roof, they run out of gas and get a flat tire just before a storm. The Hills are a cartoonish riff on the immortal Joads of John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath.” Eager to give their father a gift, the Hill kids scrape up (not enough) money to buy a burger, fries and a bottle of Coke. Does this tug at your heart strings or make you a bit sick? Will Rickey get his surgery in time for the tryouts? I was not sure I wanted to find out. The film’s ace in the hole is gaunt-looking veteran Scott Glenn (coincidentally also “The Right Stuff”) as real-life pitcher-turned-scout Red Murff. By the time we get around to whether or not James was going to watch his son play for the first time, I was ready to bail. It may be a true story, featuring a talented cast and a catchy closing tune by country music star Randy Houser. But “The Hill” weighed down by too many cliches and contrivances.

(“The Hill” contains mature themes)

Rated PG. At the AMC Boston Common, AMC South Bay and suburban theaters. .Grade: B-