Major League is a 1989 American sports comedy film produced by Chris Chesser and Irby Smith, written and directed by David S. Ward, that stars Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, Wesley Snipes, James Gammon, Bob Uecker, Rene Russo, Margaret Whitton, Dennis Haysbert, and Corbin Bernsen.

Telling the story of a single regular season of a fictionalized version of the Cleveland Indians of Major League Baseball. Major League was released on April 7, 1989 by Paramount Pictures in the United States, with J&M Entertainment releasing in other territories. The film grossed $75 million worldwide from an $11 million budget and received generally positive reviews from critics. It spawned two sequels (Major League II and Major League: Back to the Minors), neither of which repeated the success of the original film.

Plot Former Las Vegas showgirl Rachel Phelps inherits the struggling Cleveland Indians baseball team from her deceased husband. She intends to move the team to Miami by exploiting an escape clause in their contract with the city of Cleveland: if their season attendance falls below a certain number, she can terminate the lease and move the team. In an act of sabotage, she plans to create the worst team in the major leagues, instructing team executives to cut the current players from the roster and replace them with rookies and washed-up veterans. She starts by hiring Lou Brown, 30-year manager of the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens.

Spring training begins in Tucson, Arizona, with Phelps' list of players likely to fail: Jake Taylor, a former all-star catcher with bad knees; veteran third baseman Roger Dorn, a prima donna more concerned with his financial portfolio than playing good baseball; aging starting pitcher Eddie Harris, who has resorted to doctoring the baseball; outfielder Pedro Cerrano, a voodoo-practicing power slugger who has trouble hitting breaking balls; speedy outfielder Willie Mays Hayes, who can steal bases but is a terrible hitter; and rookie pitcher Ricky Vaughn, an ex-con who has a fastball but no control, earning him the nickname "Wild Thing."

The players struggle to come together as a team, with a feud developing between Dorn and Vaughn. They discover that Vaughn suffers from poor eyesight, which explains his lack of control, and once fitted with glasses, he becomes a dominant pitcher. Team morale and performance improve, so Phelps cancels several amenities, such as downgrading the team's private jet to a run-down bus, but they continue to build on their strengths. Meanwhile, Taylor reconnects with his old girlfriend Lynn and tries to rekindle their relationship, even though she is engaged to another man.

Nearly three-quarters of the way through the season, the team is 60–61, exceeding expectations, and fans have begun to fill the stands. Phelps's general manager, Charlie Donovan, tired of her manipulations, reveals her scheme to Brown. Brown relays the message to his team, telling them that, win or lose, their contracts will all be terminated after the season. To thwart Phelps' plan, Taylor decides that the only thing left to do is win.

The Indians, who appear to be positioning themselves for a run, finally make one and win 32 of their final 44 games, finishing in a tie with the New York Yankees for first place in the American League East division on the final day of the season, requiring a one-game playoff to determine the division champion and a bid to the ALCS. Watching the team's celebration on television, Dorn's wife Suzanne sees him in an amorous embrace with another woman. At the same time, Vaughn is dejected after Brown chooses to go with veteran Harris in the playoff game. Suzanne Dorn approaches Vaughn as he drowns his sorrows in a bar and, in revenge against her husband, she sleeps with Vaughn (who is unaware of who she is). She informs Roger just before he leaves for the ballpark the next morning.

The Indians keep pace with the Yankees, and the playoff game enters the ninth tied 2–2. Called on to relieve Harris, Vaughn strikes out Clu Haywood, the Yankees' best power hitter, with three consecutive fastballs. With Hayes on second base in the bottom of the ninth, Taylor calls for and executes a surprise bunt-and-run play, scoring Hayes. The Indians win 3–2 and advance to the postseason. In the ensuing celebration, Dorn punches Vaughn for sleeping with his wife but pulls him up and they celebrate. Jake spots Lynn in the stands, and she holds up her hand to reveal that her engagement has been called off, and their relationship is rekindled.

Alternate ending The theatrical release shows Phelps in the owner's box in the final game showing dismay with the team's success. An alternate final scene included on the "Wild Thing Edition" DVD shows a different characterization: Brown confronts Phelps over her plan to sabotage the team and resigns. Phelps reveals that she loves the team and invented plans to move to Miami as a ruse to motivate the players. Brown does not resign, and Phelps says that if he shares their conversation with anyone, she will fire him.

The film's producers said that while the twist ending worked as a resolution of the plot, they scrapped it because test screening audiences preferred Phelps as a villain.

Cast

In addition to former catcher and longtime Milwaukee Brewers team broadcaster Uecker appearing in the film's main cast, three former Major League players have brief cameos in the film: World Series MVP catcher Steve Yeager as Indians third base coach Duke Temple; Cy Young Award-winning pitcher Pete Vuckovich as Yankees' first baseman Clu Haywood; and an uncredited performance by pitcher Willie Muellerwho made brief appearances in six Major League gamesas Yankees' pitcher Duke Simpson.

Production Development Ward, who grew up in the Cleveland suburb of South Euclid, Ohio, reflected on filming a movie about a Cleveland team that had not won a pennant since his childhood. “I figured I would never see the Indians win anything unless I wrote a movie where they did. That was the real genesis behind the movie."

The film's opening montage is a series of somber blue-collar images of the Cleveland landscape synchronized to the score of Randy Newman's "Burn On", an ode to the infamous day in Cleveland when the heavily polluted Cuyahoga River caught fire in 1969.

Many of the film's spring training scenes were shot at Hi Corbett Field in Tucson, Arizona, which was the spring training home for the Cleveland Indians from 1947 to 1992. The production used members of the University of Arizona Wildcats baseball team as extras.

Despite being set in Cleveland, the film was principally shot in Milwaukee because it was cheaper (Ward noted that Cleveland was a big union town) and the producers were unable to work around the schedules of the Cleveland Indians and Cleveland Browns. Milwaukee County Stadium, then the home of the Brewers (and three Green Bay Packers games per season), doubles as Cleveland Stadium for the film, although several exterior shots of Cleveland Stadium were used, including some aerial shots taken during an Indians game. In fact, the sign for the television station atop the scoreboard is for WTMJ-TV, the NBC affiliate for Milwaukee. One of the ending scenes of the movie is in West Milwaukee's legendary restaurant, 4th Base which showcases their unique horseshoe bar that is shown in the celebration scenes. Another restaurant scene, at the then Gritz's Pzazz on Milwaukee's north side, was filmed at a restaurant that is no longer open for business. County Stadium was demolished in 2001; the stadium's former playing field is now a Little League baseball field known as Helfaer Field, while the rest of the former site is now a parking lot for the Brewers' current home, American Family Field, which opened in 2001.

Originally in Ward's script, there was a twist involving Whitton's character being revealed to have wanted the team to have won all along, having personally scouted each member of the team with flaws that hid their talent. The film was shot with that ending in mind, complete with reaction shots for the final game depicted of her cheering the team on. However, this was changed due to audience test scores that apparently had grown to like seeing Whitton's character in its villainous form. As such, a small bit of re-shots and editing was done for the climax. The ending (with an introduction by the filmmakers) is included on the DVD for the film.

Casting The film was notable for featuring several actors who would go on to stardom: Snipes and Russo were relative unknowns before the movie was released, while Haysbert remained best known as Pedro Cerrano until he portrayed U.S. President David Palmer on the television series 24 and the spokesperson for Allstate Insurance. The longshoreman who is occasionally seen commenting and is shown in the final celebration inside a bar is Neil Flynn, who later achieved fame playing the Janitor in Scrubs and then the father Mike in The Middle. This is Flynn's first credited movie role.

Sheen himself was a pitcher on his high school's baseball team. At the time of filming Major League, his own fastball topped out at 88 miles per hour. In 2011, Sheen said that he had used steroids for nearly two months to improve his athletic abilities in the film.

Reception Box office The film debuted at number 1 at the US box office and received generally positive reviews. It grossed almost $50 million in the United States and Canada and $25 million internationally for a worldwide total of $75 million.

Critical response On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes Major League holds an approval rating of 83% based on 40 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The site's critics' consensus reads, "Major League may be predictable and formulaic, but [is] buoyed by the script's light, silly humor—not to mention the well-built sports action sequences and funny performances." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 62 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.

Year-end lists The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists: 2008: AFI's 10 Top 10: Nominated Sports Film

Franchise Sequels

Due to the success of the film, two sequels have been produced, neither of which achieved the original's success. Major League II returned most of the original stars, with the notable exception of Wesley Snipes, and focused on the following season and the players' reaction to the previous season's success. Major League: Back to the Minors again starred Corbin Bernsen, but this time, as the owner of the Minnesota Twins, attempting to turn around the Twins' AAA team, the Buzz. A possible third sequel, Major League 3 (which was to ignore Back to the Minors), was reported in 2010 to be in development by original writer and producer David S. Ward. Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, and Snipes were reported to return, with the plot revolving around Ricky Vaughn coming out of retirement to work with a young player. In 2015, Morgan Creek Productions said that the sequel was still in the works.

Reboot In 2017, Morgan Creek announced plans to reboot their classic films from the 1980s and 1990s as television series or movies following the success of The Exorcist television series. Several films in early stages of development include film series Young Guns, Major League, and Ace Ventura.

Other media Video game Major League was made into and released as a sports video game, developed by Lenar and published by Irem, exclusively for the Family Computer in Japan in 1989.

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