49 Fun Facts About Major League Movie

Which actor plays veteran catcher Jake Taylor in Major League?

Tom Berenger and Charlie Sheen had been enemies in Platoon three years earlier, as the ruthless Sergeant Barnes and the recruit who turns on him; here they are catcher and pitcher on the same side.

Major League's director won a writing Oscar for which film?

The Sting won David S. Ward his Oscar. He grew up near Cleveland and wrote Major League, he said, because a movie was the only way he would ever see the Indians win anything.

In Major League, to which city does new owner Rachel Phelps plan to move the Indians?

Miami has offered a new stadium, plus a Boca Raton mansion for Phelps herself, and the lease lets the club leave if attendance drops below 800,000, so she assembles a roster meant to lose.

In Major League, what was Rachel Phelps's job before she inherited the Indians from her late husband?

Las Vegas showgirl is the past her players turn against her: they hang a life-size picture of Phelps in the locker room and peel away a piece of its outfit after every win.

In Major League, manager Lou Brown arrives after thirty years running which minor-league club?

Toledo Mud Hens manager Lou Brown is selling tires when the Indians call, and he asks for time to think it over because a customer is holding on the other line about whitewalls.

Major League's spring training scenes were shot at the Indians' real spring home, Hi Corbett Field, in which state?

Arizona's Hi Corbett Field in Tucson was the real club's spring base, and the actors trained there beside college ballplayers hired as extras to fill out the squads.

In Major League, rookie Ricky Vaughn throws 100 mph and soon picks up which nickname?

Wild Thing suits a pitcher who throws 100 mph with no idea where it is going, and when Vaughn comes in for the ninth inning of the playoff the whole stadium sings the old Troggs hit.

In Major League, what turns out to cause Ricky Vaughn's lack of control?

Poor eyesight is the cause: once Lou Brown has him fitted with glasses, the rookie who walked the bases loaded on twelve straight pitches in his debut becomes a dominant pitcher.

In Major League, where is pitcher Ricky Vaughn when the Indians invite him to spring training?

Prison is where the Indians' call finds him. Asked in camp which league he last played in, Vaughn answers the California Penal League, and says he got there by stealing a car.

In Major League, which pitch does power hitter Pedro Cerrano struggle to hit?

The curveball beats him all season, whatever rum and cigars he offers his voodoo idol, until in the playoff he tells the idol he will do it himself and hits the game-tying home run.

In Major League, what is the name of Pedro Cerrano's voodoo figure?

Jobu sits in a shrine in Cerrano's locker and is offered cigars and rum to take the fear out of the slugger's bats; stealing Jobu's rum, he warns his teammates, is very bad.

In Major League, how does speedster Willie Mays Hayes get into the Indians' spring camp?

He turns up uninvited and is thrown out on the first night, then crashes the next day's sprints and outruns everyone, which is enough for Lou Brown to order him a uniform.

In Major League, veteran pitcher Eddie Harris makes up for a fading arm by doing what?

Doctoring the baseball takes whatever he can find: Harris hides Crisco, Bardahl and Vagisil on his body, and rubs jalapeño in his nose so that he can load up the ball just by wiping it.

Which classic does Major League's Jake Taylor read in comic-book form?

Moby Dick is the novel he works through as a comic book, then proves he has finished by naming Queequeg's coffin as what saves Ishmael.

In Major League, Jake Taylor's ex-girlfriend Lynn Wells has what job when he tries to win her back?

Librarian Lynn is engaged to another man when Jake tracks her down at work, but after the playoff win she holds up a bare ring finger from the stands to show him the wedding is off.

In Major League, which real broadcaster plays sardonic radio man Harry Doyle?

Bob Uecker's deadpan call of a pitch that misses by yards, 'Just a bit outside', became so familiar that critic Richard Roeper wrote in 2019 that every sportscaster had used it for 30 years.

In Major League, what does Rachel Phelps take from the Indians once they start winning?

Their private jet is swapped for a propeller plane and then a run-down bus, but the punishment backfires: the Indians keep improving anyway.

In Major League, who finally reveals Rachel Phelps's scheme to Lou Brown?

Her general manager, Charlie Donovan, has had enough of the scheme. Lou passes it on to his players, who decide that the only thing left to do is win the whole thing.

In Major League, the suddenly popular Indians film a tongue-in-cheek TV commercial for which company?

American Express gets a send-up of its celebrity ads: the players admit nobody recognises them even in their own town, and Hayes slides home in a tuxedo with the tagline 'Don't steal home without it.'

In Major League, which team do the Indians face in the one-game playoff that ends the film?

New York Yankees, in radio man Harry Doyle's words, are the Indians' long-time nemesis, and Ricky Vaughn starts the playoff on the bench because of his poor record against them.

In Major League, how does Jake Taylor win the playoff in the bottom of the ninth?

A surprise bunt-and-run fools everyone: Jake twice points to the bleachers like Babe Ruth calling his shot, then lays the ball down, and Hayes scores all the way from second for a 3-2 win.

In Major League, which slugger homers off Ricky Vaughn, then strikes out against him in the playoff?

Clu Haywood, the league's home-run champion, goes down on three straight fastballs. He is played by Pete Vuckovich, who in real life was no slugger but a Cy Young Award-winning pitcher.

In Major League, why does Roger Dorn punch Ricky Vaughn during the final celebration?

He slept with Suzanne, Dorn's wife, without knowing who she was: she picked him up in a bar to get even after seeing her husband with another woman on television.

In Major League's scrapped alternate ending, what does Rachel Phelps reveal to Lou Brown?

She wanted them to win all along, having scouted players whose flaws hid real talent. Test audiences had grown too fond of hating her, so the scene was cut and survives only as a DVD extra.

Which Randy Newman song about Cleveland's Cuyahoga River plays over Major League's opening montage?

Burn On is about the day in 1969 when the polluted Cuyahoga caught fire, an embarrassment for Cleveland that helped push Congress toward the Clean Water Act.

Most of Major League was shot in which city, standing in for Cleveland?

Milwaukee stepped in because Cleveland's stadium was busy with Browns preseason football, director David S. Ward said, and thousands of locals turned out to play Indians fans in the stands.

In Major League, Harry Doyle says the playoff's feared relief pitcher, the Duke, once threw at whom?

His own kid, in a father-son game, Doyle claims. The Duke lives up to the story minutes later by firing a fastball at Jake Taylor's head when Taylor points to the bleachers.

Which future Scrubs star plays a sceptical longshoreman in Major League, his first credited film role?

Neil Flynn, later the Janitor, plays a dockworker who writes the Indians off as the season starts, grudgingly decides they aren't so bad, and ends the film celebrating in a bar.

Dennis Haysbert, Major League's Pedro Cerrano, later became famous for playing which TV president?

David Palmer on 24 is the role Haysbert has said he believes helped pave the way for Barack Obama.

Charlie Sheen later admitted using what to add speed to his fastball for Major League?

Steroids, for six to eight weeks, he told Sports Illustrated in 2011: his fastball climbed from 79 mph to about 85, and he said it was the only time he ever took them.

Which L.A. Law star plays vain third baseman Roger Dorn in Major League?

Corbin Bernsen was playing slick divorce lawyer Arnie Becker on L.A. Law at the time. His Dorn, who won't risk an injury for the club, ends up retiring and buying it in the sequel.

Major League reached US cinemas the same week as which baseball event?

Opening Day fell on April 3 in 1989 and the film followed on April 7. Paramount sold it openly as a baseball movie, a label some marketers avoided, and it opened at number one.

Which real Cubs closer was given Ricky Vaughn's nickname and entrance song in 1989, and later wore his number 99?

Mitch Williams earned the name with a violent delivery and erratic control in his first Cubs season. He took 99 with the Phillies in 1993, yet always gave reasons of his own for the number, not the film.

In Major League, what in a player's spring-training locker means he has been cut?

A red tag means the minors. When Ricky Vaughn finds one he storms in to tell Lou Brown he will regret it, only to learn he hasn't been cut at all: Roger Dorn planted the tag as a joke.

Which Red Sox catcher filmed a one-man tribute to Major League for its 25th anniversary in 2014?

David Ross played Lou Brown, Cerrano, Vaughn and the rest himself. Two years later he ended his career as a Cub by beating the real Indians in Game 7 of the World Series.

A Major League video game came out in 1989 for which console, and only in Japan?

Famicom, Nintendo's Japanese NES, got the only Major League game, published by Irem. The A.V. Club later called it 'extraordinarily dull', a comedy tie-in with none of the film's zaniness.

Which Major League star skipped the sequel after becoming a leading man, leaving his role to Omar Epps?

Wesley Snipes had made New Jack City and White Men Can't Jump by then. In the sequel his old character comes back from a winter spent starring in an action movie.

In Major League II, which arrogant all-star catcher does Roger Dorn sign, threatening Jake Taylor's job?

Jack Parkman is soon traded to a rival and returns in the deciding game, where Vaughn walks a batter on purpose just to face him with the bases loaded, then strikes him out for the pennant.

In the sequel, Pedro Cerrano abandons voodoo for which religion, losing his edge?

He finds a balance in Game 7 and hits the go-ahead home run.

In Major League II, how does outfielder Tanaka earn the nickname 'Kamikaze'?

Crashing into the fence is his habit: Harry Doyle reports him knocking himself cold for the second time in a week. He is played by Takaaki Ishibashi, half of the Japanese comedy duo Tunnels.

In Major League II, which hated rival must the Indians beat in the ALCS to reach the World Series?

Chicago White Sox, Harry Doyle reminds listeners, swept the Indians out of the playoffs the year before, so the first film's happy ending had led straight to a humiliation.

Major League II opened at number one in the US in April 1994, knocking off which other sports comedy?

D2: The Mighty Ducks starred Emilio Estevez, Charlie Sheen's brother, so one sibling's sequel dethroned the other's. A week later the Ducks took the top spot straight back.

In Major League II, which basic task defeats rookie catcher Rube Baker?

Throwing to the pitcher goes wrong because he thinks about it too hard. The cure is distraction: Rube recites magazine interviews aloud as he throws, and the ball goes where it should.

Which talk-show host appears as himself in Major League II?

Jay Leno introduces Ricky Vaughn as the closest thing baseball has to a rock star, then finds him surprisingly straight: the ex-convict has turned into a polished celebrity who worries about his image.

Who plays Gus Cantrell, the ageing minor-league pitcher turned manager, in Major League: Back to the Minors?

Scott Bakula's Gus is thrown out of his last game for pitching a frozen baseball, which drops dead in the air when a batter connects; Roger Dorn then talks him into managing instead.

In Major League: Back to the Minors, Roger Dorn owns which big-league club, parent of the minor-league Buzz?

Minnesota Twins owner is the last rung of Dorn's climb: the third baseman who dodged ground balls in the first film bought the Indians in the second and runs a different club by the third.

In Major League: Back to the Minors, how does manager Leonard Huff avoid losing to the Buzz?

He cuts the lights with the score tied and the Buzz one strike from extra innings, saying it is his ballpark. The papers blame a generator snafu and report that the Buzz outplayed his team anyway.

About how much did Major League: Back to the Minors take in US cinemas?

$3.5 million was the whole run, against about $30 million for the second film and $50 million for the first, and David S. Ward, who created the series, says he doesn't count it as part of it.

Which real World Series MVP catcher plays third-base coach Duke Temple in the Major League films?

Steve Yeager also coached the actors as the films' baseball adviser. As a Dodger in 1976 he was speared in the throat by a shattered bat, which prompted the throat guard catchers now wear.