Major League spent a lot of time being mentioned as my favorite baseball movie of all time. As I’ve changed over the years, I began to worry that this was a bad thing to say. This watch was an attempt to figure my future with the movie out. I went into this thinking it would be the end. I’d watch it, confirm that it doesn’t hold up, and I could be done with it forever. That’s not quite how it went. What I realized during this viewing is that, while it has some of the very same problems that riddle 1980s comedies, it makes baseball seem like a really fun time.
When I was younger, I loved this movie. It fit right in with the general vibe that I rolled with then. It was a lot of fun, filled with shit-talking, used some pretty quirky baseball situations for good laughs (especially if you know the game well), and generally just was an easy movie to watch.
The cast in this is incredible. Charlie Sheen at the top of his game, Tom Berenger, Wesley Snipes is, like, fifth in the credits, Corbin Bernsen was also huge at the time and is a great rich asshole, Rene Russo, Dennis Haysbert, and so many other great comedic actors turn this into precisely the movie it is.
The racist Cerrano stuff is lame and serves to:
- Get us one laugh (Chelcie Ross’s Eddie Harris getting dunked on the head by a bat)
- Get us one plot development (Serrano blasting a curve for a dinger after swearing off Jobu)
- Get us another racist thing (the live chicken)
I think the movie could do without it.
The opening credit sequence is a lovely, perfectly 80s tribute to Cleveland. It’s really touching, actually. Randy Newman can be that way, I think. But more importantly, it shows that this movie loves Cleveland. The montage, with the sun rising and the steam rolling off of factories, the undertones of a burning river, and a bad baseball team are what this city has. (Aside: it’s criminal that the picture of futility in the newspaper features Joe Carter.) And it’s celebrated. This is furthered by the music that plays immediately following the final win. It’s right back to feelings about Cleveland. No hard-partying celebration—just the love for the city that wanted to see its baseball team win. For that, the movie can hold its place with me as a great baseball one.
Here are the things that stuck out this time:
- The Georgia Frontiere thing is super apparent to me. For some reason (my dad hated her) I heard a lot about her as a kid growing up in an LA household.
- Best line of the movie: Look at this fuckin’ guy
- Willie Mays Hayes in the batters’ box is Juan Soto with a smile
- Sign of the times: Rick Vaughn’s first pitch he throws in Spring Training was a fastball that hit and shattered the “No Pepper” sign. One coach says “Nice velocity,” the other coach says, “sounded like it,” (insinuating it was so fast you couldn’t see it). What was the speed of that pitch? Folks, that pitch was 96 mph. In 2024, there were 37 Major League pitchers whose average fastball was 96.0 or above. One guy averaged over 100!
- Roger Dorn with the Trevor Bauer launching a ball into the seats
- “Nice catch, Hayes. Don’t ever fucking do it again.”
- When Jake interrupts the dinner party at the fiancé’s house, the woman from the other couple is clearly digging on Jake