| Major League | |
|---|---|
 "When these three oddballs try to play hardball, the result is totally screwball." | |
| Directed By | David S. Ward |
| Written By | David S. Ward |
| Cast | Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Corbin Bernsen, Rene Russo |
| Produced By | Chris Chesser |
| Cinematography By | Reynaldo Villalobos |
| Film Editing By | Dennis M. Hill |
| Music By | James Newton Howard |
| Studio | Morgan Creek Productions, Mirage Productions |
| Distributed By | Paramount Pictures, J&M Entertainment |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Release Date | April 7, 1989 |
| Runtime | 107 Minutes |
| Rating | R |
| Budget | $11,000,000 |
| Gross | $49,797,148 |
Overview[]
Major League is a 1989 American produced sports-comedy film starring Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, Corbin Bernsen, Wesley Snipes, James Gammon, and Bob Uecker. It was written and directed by David S. Ward. The film featured a fictional roster of the real-life Cleveland Indians baseball team. Major League was a major box office hit and had two sequel films, Major League II and Major League: Back to the Minors.
The Cleveland Indians have a major problem. It's their new owner who is deliberately out to sabotage the team and has selected a roster consisting of some of the biggest misfits and oddballs to do it with.
But when they learn the truth, the Indians decide that they're not going to down without a fight. So this group of screw-ups decide is that the only way to spite their malicious owner is play hardball and to become the greatest major league team ever!
But that means well ... winning...
Plot[]
Former Las Vegas exotic dancer, trophy wife, and major witch Rachel Phelps has just inherited the Cleveland Indians from her much older and now deceased husband. Although a major league baseball team, the Indians are considered a major joke to many thanks to having little luck or success at winning for well ... decades.
The scheming new owner, Rachel Phelps
But Phelps has just received a very lucrative offer to move the team to sunny and tropical Florida. It's a deal that she's very keen to take on as she despises Cleveland. But it won't happen because the Indians have an iron clad contract with the city.
Or maybe not...
Phelps has found a loophole in the contract which states that should stadium attendance drop below minimum levels for an extended period of time; she can trigger an "escape clause" and wing it off for a much warmer climate. But to do that, she'll have to put together the right team. In essence, she doesn't just want the Indians to lose ... she wants them to finish dead last in order to drive down stadium attendance. Her reluctant henchman, Charlie Donovan finds himself forced to weed out the worst, most incompetent, and most awful players to field them as her "dream team".
The Feathered Few; the Indians' Devoted Fans
Part-time coach for a minor league team, The Mud Hens and full-time tire salesman Lou Brown is thus shocked when he gets a job offer to become the newest manager of the Indians. It's a rare opportunity to move up to a major league for a manager, but Brown finds his job is no sinecure as he has a rather ... unusual roster ranging from has been players such as the prima donna Roger Dorn who is more interested in looking good and avoiding possible injury than playing along with aging veteran Eddie Harris who relies on good ol' fashioned doctoring of the ball to compensate for his weakened pitching arm.
Then there's Cuban religious refugee Pedro Cerrano who came to America so he could practice voodoo and has an incredible stadium-clearing grand slam of a swing ... but only if it's a straight ball. And rookie pitcher and ex-con Ricky Vaughn, gifted with an incredibly fast arm but precious little control over it along with his sidekick, the arrogant Willie Mays Hayes who is a world-class sprinter but a weak batter.
Veteran catcher and straight man Jake Taylor with bad knees desperately wants the Indians to do well, feeling it could be his last chance at a comeback considering his last position was with a baseball team in Mexico. But Taylor is struggling to balance his struggling professional life with his messed up personal one by winning back his former girlfriend, Lynn Wells. Approaching her with the hopes of rekindling their romance by proclaiming that he is back in the major leagues and thus has improved prospects than a broken-down catcher in a second-rate Mexican league; he is dismayed to learn that she is now engaged with a well-to-do fiancee.
Almost but not quite safe
The new team has a very shaky opening season; their teamwork is horrible and they have a number of humiliating and embarrassing gaffes on the field along with several personality clashes off of it such as a ongoing religious feud between Cerrano with his shrine to a voodoo deity, Jobu and Christian Eddie Harris.
But Phelps discovers to her mounting disgust that even though her "dream team" is losing, they aren't losing enough. Hell, they actually seem to be improving! Stadium attendance is still down but not below her minimum threshold numbers so she embarks on several schemes to demoralize the team.
Despite her attempts however, Taylor manages to rally the Indians and it is discovered that Vaughn whose shaky control has earned him the derogatory nickname of "Wild Thing" has an eyesight problem which is solved with glasses which tremendously aids in his accuracy and ability. And Taylor catches sight of Lynn watching one of their games and rushes after her leading to a reigniting of their former relationship.
Motivational Poster
Brown's friend and Phelps' underling, Charlie Donovan then confesses the truth behind Phelps' losing strategy and that no matter how much the Indians improve, she will simply fire them all and try again with another round of misfits and losers to run through the gauntlet next season. Brown's revelation to the Indians however does the exact opposite as instead of destroying them, they decide that they simply have nothing left to lose ... except to spite the bitch by "winning the whole fucking thing" and driving them to launch a winning streak that ties them with the New York Yankees, resulting in a face-off with their highly ranked rivals for the division title pennant.
But not all is well with the Indians. Taylor is devastated when his relationship with Lynn which has been steadily been improving apparently ends with her abruptly moving out of her apartment without telling him; presumably to move in with her fiancee. Vaughn discovers that he will not be opening up as the pitcher for the title game and falls into a depression. And Roger Dorn's wife, Suzanne catches him cheating on her and decides to humiliate him by seducing the despondent Vaughn in a bar. After their sexual encounter, Suzanne cheerfully informs the ignorant Vaughn of her true identity to his shock and runs off to tattle to her husband. Afterwards, Vaughn finds himself laying low and trying to avoid a furious Dorn.
During the playoff, the Indians and the Yankees are bitterly tied at zero until the seventh inning where the tiring Harris is forced to concede two runs. Cerrano counters this by finally home running a curve ball, bringing him and Willie Mays Hayes in and upping the score 2-2.
Taylor Calls His Shot
With Harris clearly in trouble, Brown calls in Vaughn as a fresh pitcher who successfully succeeds in striking out his main nemesis, Clu Heywood and keeping the score deadlocked until the bottom of the ninth inning with Taylor at bat and Willie Mays Hayes at first. With the new Yankee pitcher Duke Simpson focused on Hayes and almost outing him from stealing second base,
Taylor proceeds to taunt Simpson by imitating Babe Ruth's infamous called shot; a proclamation that he intends to hit a home run. Simpson responds with a fast pitch aimed at Taylor's face causing him to hastily duck. Taylor gets back up and refuses to dust himself off, instead calls his shot again.
Simpson pitches again but in a surprise move, Taylor instead bunts which takes the defense off guard who had been prepared for a long shot. Hayes takes off and rounds third even as despite his weak knees, Taylor finishes his desperate sprint to the first base and barely missing getting tagged out by the first baseman. The first baseman whirls around and hurls the ball to the catcher but Hayes slides in and makes it home, winning the game with 3-2.
Victorious Indians!
Even as the entire stadium starts cheering with the sole exception of Rachel Phelps who no longer can move the team or fire the champion team, the Indians begin celebrating. Dorn rushes up and proceeds to slug Vaughn before laughing and helps the fallen pitcher up before embracing him. Meanwhile Taylor spots Lynn in the stands and she smiles before showing her bare hand without her engagement ring, indicating that she decided against marrying her fiancee.
Cast[]
- Tom Berenger as Jake Taylor
- Charlie Sheen as Ricky Vaughn
- Corbin Bernsen as Roger Dorn
- Margaret Whitton as Rachel Phelps
- James Gammon as Lou Brown
- Rene Russo as Lynn Wells
- Wesley Snipes as Willie Mays Hayes
- Charles Cyphers as Charlie Donovan
- Chelcie Ross as Eddie Harris
- Dennis Haysbert as Pedro Cerrano
- Andy Romano as Pepper Leach
- Bob Uecker as Harry Doyle
- Steve Yeager as Duke Temple
- Peter Vuckovich as Clu Haywood
- Stacy Carroll as Suzanne Dorn
Production[]
Reception[]
Major League was released on April 7, 1989 in the United States, premiering alongside The Dream Team; Cyborg; and Dead Calm. It debuted in 1,541 theaters nationwide and earned a total gross of $8,836,265 for its opening weekend where it hit the grand slam that launched it to the number 1 spot over the competition. It managed to maintain its front runner lead over the next weekend but dropped down to 2nd place by the premiere of Pet Sematary in its 3rd weekend but still managed to cling onto its spot over a number of other films debuting that weekend as well including Red Scorpion; See You in the Morning; Speed Zone; Checking Out; and Field of Dreams. It continued to stay in the Top 10 Films for the majority of its 10-week box office run.
Overall, it earned a total of $49,797,148 domestically. It was not released internationally but was an overwhelming major box office hit which received almost universally positive reviews. It was also considered the breakout film for stars Rene Russo and Wesley Snipes. The Rotten Tomatoes website gave it an 83% "Certified Fresh" approval rating with Metacritic scored it with a "62 out of 100".
Major League was originally released commercially on videotape in 1989 and re-released on DVD in 2002 and in Blu-Ray in 2009 as a special "Wild Thing" edition with special commentary and deleted scenes.
The popularity of the film also resulted in a special video game based on it and was solely released in Japan.
Trivia[]
- The writer and director of Major League, David S. Ward is a real life long Cleveland Indians fan. His inspiration for creating the script was simply because he thought it would be the only way he would ever see the Indians actually win anything.
- Bob Uecker was originally cast as baseball commentator Harry Doyle because of his sitcom appearances in Mr. Belvedere rather than his notable history as a sportscaster for the Milwaukee Brewers since 1971. Uecker famously improvised a lot of his own colorful commentary for the film.
- Cubs pitcher Mitch Williams debuted the same year that the film was released and was quickly dubbed "Wild Thing" after Charlie Sheen's Ricky Vaughn character for his overly extravagant wind-up and release style of throwing not to mention his frequent wild pitches. As a result, several baseball stadiums began playing the "Wild Thing" theme song over the speakers whenever he came onto the mound. Williams took the nickname with grace and subsequently adopted Vaughn's uniform number of 99 as his own jersey number.
- The modern day tradition of major league relief pitchers, mainly closers having their own personal intro songs playing over the stadium speakers as they walked onto the field was directly inspired by this film.
- Charlie Sheen was an actual high school pitcher who was offered a baseball scholarship to the University of Kansas. At the time of the shooting, Sheen's fastball was only in the high 80s which filmmakers proclaimed made it a lot easier to make it appear that his character could hurl a 100 mph fastball with special effects.
- Dennis Haysbert's character of Pedro Cerrano was originally scripted to drop his bat after his climatic homerun swing against the Yankees before running the bases. However during the take, Haysbert hit an genuine home run and was so surprised that he took off running and forgot to drop the bat. Afterwards, it was decided to simply keep that bit in. Contrary to popular belief, there is no "official" rule that prevents runners from holding onto the bat while running the bases; it's simply because its easier for them to pump their arms while running unencumbered.
- In 2016, Cleveland Indians players Jason Kipnis and Mike Napoli humorously set up a Jobu Statue and Shrine in the locker room akin to Pedro Cerrano's fictional voodoo deity and would place offerings of alcohol to it. They even sacrificed a supermarket chicken to help end teammate Yan Gomes' slump.
- In an alternate twist ending, Lou Brown confronts Rachel Phelps to announce his resignation due to her attempts to sabotage the Cleveland Indians. Phelps however reveals that she loves the Indians and had no intention of moving to Florida but the club was on the verge of bankruptcy when she inherited it from her husband. She subsequently staged the whole thing and took the chance on hiring unproven rookies, the best of the aging veterans, and chose Lou because he was the best manager she could find willing to work for the meager salary she was offering. All of her "schemes" to demoralize the team was really because she could no longer afford the equipment and amenities and she hoped that the incidents would unify and motivate the team against her. It worked beyond her wildest dreams and drove up the attendance figures. Phelps continued to saying that if Brown continued as manager, they would have to continue the charade that she was a vindictive bitch. Test audiences reacted negatively to the twist conclusion, preferring the characterization of Phelps as the villain resulting in the director to pull that scene from the theatrical release.