James Stewart and June Allyson recreated their roles for a one-hour radio version of this film on the Lux Radio Theatre, first broadcast on February 13, 1950.
Robert Taylor rejected the lead role.
After the events of the movie, the real Monty Stratton went on to be a coach for the Chicago White Sox for a couple of years before going back to his home town of Greenville, TX to start his own farm team. In 1946 he shocked the world when he took the mound once again, this time in the minor leagues, and he posted an 18-8 record for that season.
Although Agnes Moorehead plays James Stewart's mother, in real-life she was only 8 years older than him.
Although Monty Stratton was a real baseball player who continued to play baseball after having a right-leg, above-knee amputation, much of the story was fictionalized for this film. For instance, in the hunting accident, the real Monty Stratton shot himself with a pistol, rather than with a rifle. Also, the game in which the real Monty Stratton returned to baseball after his amputation was not an All-Star game, as in the movie, but rather a 1939 charity game between the White Sox and the Cubs (the proceeds of which went to Stratton).
Producers first considered Van Johnson and Gregory Peck for the role of Monty Stratton before finally settling on James Stewart, who was the first choice of the real Monty Stratton.
Producers originally considered Donna Reed for the role of Ethel Stratton but replaced her with June Allyson after signing James Stewart, since the previous film they had both appeared in, It's a Wonderful Life, had been a disappointment at the box office.