Keith Olbermann proposes Indians rename the team the Cleveland Sockalexis
April 8, 2014Blocking the King and honoring a Chagrin Falls native …While We’re Waiting
April 9, 2014Amidst all of the nostalgic things have have happened over the course of the last few weeks1, the one that may ultimately mean the most to Cleveland fans is the 25th anniversary of the release of Major League, which opened in theatres on April 7, 1989.
Writer/director David S. Ward, whose other credits include “The Sting” and “Sleepless in Seattle,” endeavored to make a baseball movie involving his beloved Cleveland Indians as he was a long-suffering Tribe fan who grew up in South Euclid, Ohio. With the help of Ricky Vaugh, Jake Taylor, Coach Lou Brown, Roger Dorn and Harry Doyle, Major League became a No. 1 hit at the box office and ultimately one of the most beloved baseball films of all time.
The delightful chaps over at Big League Stew decided to break out 15 things that even the most hardcore Major League fans may have not known, including the facts that Charlie Sheen took steroids for his role as the Tribe’s erratic pitcher, and that Dennis Haysbert—who played the lovable Pedro Cerrano—really was hitting home runs.
As Cerrano, the Cuban import who hit balls “very much,” Haysbert had the honor of being the film’s power hitter. Truth was, it wasn’t totally fiction. Haysbert was the only member of the fictitious Indians who could actually clear the yard.
“Every time I was supposed to hit a home run in the movie, I did,” Haysbert says.
It’s a fact that Ward backs up. “He was so jacked by that,” Ward says. “He said, ‘I don’t think I’ll ever do anything more exciting as an actor.’ ”
Haysbert didn’t play baseball past Little League, instead playing football, basketball and running track in high school. His 6-foot-4 frame, though, gave him plenty of baseball power. Haysbert had so much fun shooting “Major League,” after the film wrapped, he says he joined an adult men’s hardball league.
It’s also worth digging up this brilliant oral history of the “1989 Championship Team” that was published over at The Score last summer. I proudly still own Major League on VHS. The fact that I don’t even own a VCR plays nary a role in holding on to it. I’ll be shocked if another baseball movie can ever top it, and I’ll stand in my front yard and wave my rake at anyone who dares say otherwise.
- Where to begin… This month marks the 20th anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death, the 20th anniversary of the release of Illmatic, the 20th anniversary of Jacobs Field, the 20th anniversary of The Offspring’s Smash... [↩]
20 Comments
this is blasphemous as it’s a Major League 2 photo… that movie never happened.
some reasons I enjoyed Major League 2:
(1) Released in 1994 w/ opening of Jake that ushered in our era of relevance.
(2) Using his character to make fun of Wesley Snipes for refusing to be in it.
(3) The inanity of Rube Baker
Women, you can’t live with them and they can’t pee standing up
(4) More Harry Doyle
You know, he could be pointing at the left fielder
Hello, Tribe fans, welcome to Major League Baseball… sort of.
So the Indians have a runner. I think I’ll wet my pants.
(5) Buddha Cerrano made me laugh
(6) They actually do a pretty good job hitting the types of characters (big-timing players after mild success the previous season, fans who love/then hate/then love the team, pure negativity from some at all turns in Doyle, veteran player who is unwilling to accept fate of an ended career, et cetera).
(7) But honestly, the entire movie was worth making if for nothing else than this scene:
http://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz243/hellaones/marbles.gif
Major League 2 might have happened. Major League 3 never did
You know parts of it were good, it just felt flat.
I don’t disagree with this. The problem is that they decided to change the tone of the film into a buffoonish comedy. Major League 1 had an almost perfect balance of drama, pathos, and comic relief, but the latter occurred in the flow of a believable film so didn’t seem as forced and cartoonish as the many moments in ML2. I agree that the Tanaka/Ceranno “marbles” bit was funny, but it was also campy, over-the-top, and totally dissonant with the feel of the first film.
Still, good memories of going to see this at the dollar theater at Bishop-Chardon in 1994 w/ my dad and sister. And I agree that it felt like the dawn of a new era with Jacobs Field opening
I agree with you and Wow. It was nowhere near the film of the first one, which is why I think so many people readily dismiss it. But, it was still funny in it’s campy over-the-top way and I enjoyed it.
It happened, if for no other reason than the genius of Rube Baker.
A League of Their Own is a better baseball movie.
/runs across the lawn, kicks the neatly raked leaf piles, double-gunsing it the whole way
Pray that I don’t find you, G_O. Wait didn’t you used to be in the military? Pray that I don’t find a lawyer to sue you, G_O.
I’m also a lawyer. So . . . good luck!
http://31.media.tumblr.com/00233bd4177c4e1c721c876a992ce48d/tumblr_mr68q1ZdjW1qg1apto1_500.gif
Well… crap.
http://media.giphy.com/media/7IbJ9mGdUKqQg/giphy.gif
http://gph.is/18IA17f
http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/2013-10/enhanced/webdr01/4/17/anigif_enhanced-buzz-9964-1380923208-11.gif
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD13qIlpDq8
That’s all I’ve got… I’m not too good at finding these things, although I really wanted to find that scene from Major League where all of the guys cross their arms/flick off the owner in the locker room.
Hilarious scene!
http://www.theyoungmommylife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/league-of-their-own-gif.gif
I was thinking more about the hand gesture from the press box after Willie May Hays was picked off myself.
Oh man, that’s a good one too!