The Rewatchables - ‘Major League’ 30th Anniversary With Bill Simmons and Rembert Browne

Episode Date: April 10, 2019

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons and Rembert Browne try to bring a pennant to Cleveland as they rewatch the 1989 baseball classic ‘Major League,’ starring Tom Berenger and Charlie Sheen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Major League coming up next. Harry Doyle here welcoming all of you to another season of Indians baseball. Don't you have any proven Major League talent? Now I want to put together a team that will help us relocate to Miami. You want us to lose? We've been losing. What I want is for us to finish dead last. Tom Berringer.

Zip her on your skirt stuck. Use your imagination. Charlie Shee. These things make me look ridiculous. C's the most important thing, son. Major League. That ball wouldn't have been out of a lot of parks. Name one.

Yellowstone. All right, Bill Simmons is here. My old Grantland teammate, my brother for life, Rember Brown, he's here as well. How are you? This is your first rewatchables appearance. Congratulations. This feels big for me. I have to give a, I owe some gratitude to rewatchables because it's become the thing that I run to.

Yeah. Like I can't even, I'm so ADD with music. Like, I'll make it two songs and then find a reason to stop working out. But with this, it's like, oh, I'm exercising in the, in the, in the, dead of New York winter while three of my favorite people make jokes about Conair. I could do this for an hour and a half. So, like, I've actually lost 10 pounds because of the rewatchables. Well, we're very proud.

We had this on the schedule for a while. It came out 30 years ago this week. And I was thinking over the weekend, who would be the perfect person to celebrate all the things that are just ridiculous about this movie and lovable? And then I was like, oh, Rembert. I bet Rembert likes this movie. I love this movie. And then to nobody's surprise, you're like, yeah, I love that movie.

And I really want to have the Wesley Snipes Conversation, which I've been ready to have my whole life. Let's start there, actually. Let's start with the Snipes Asance. The Snipes Asants. I'm so, I have so many, one of the big things about this, just to just like dive right into it is even before we get into, you know, the run that he had that I think this kind of started. is Wesley Snipes the best actor athlete ever? Well, I have some disturbing

revelations for you later in this podcast. I'm just, I was thinking about... About his athleticism. Okay. Oh, man. So the answer is already no, but... No, so... I don't want to step on the Snipes of Sons,

but I'm just telling you the answer is no. So, I mean, actually, let me rephrase that. His... Is he the best actor? Does he have the best... sheet of athlete roles. How about the best sheet of roles where he's moving? Yes.

Okay. Then we can include Passenger 57 and we can include money trained. That's true. It's funny. I had Spike Lee on the podcast like six weeks ago and we were talking about John David Washington. And I was saying how I felt like John David Washington, the Wesley Snipes kind of seven-year IMDB run was sitting there for him because he's athletic. He could be an action guy. He could be a sports movie guy. He could be the cop and a cop movie. He's funny. Yeah. And it really illuminates

how rare the kind of Snipes phenomenon is where he could be the bad guy in the fugitive remake. He could be in Money Train. He could be a white man can jump. He could be Willie Mays Hayes. He could be the guy saving the plane in Pasture 57. There's just not a lot of actors like that, which is why we're talking about the Snipes of Sons. Yeah. I mean, I think he is like absolutely incredible in this movie. Like he like he like his character is a character who you know thinks the world of himself but also is like super happy to be here. Yeah.

Which is also kind of where Wesley was as an actor in his real life. And I feel like but he also knew like Wesley Snipes was actually like, yo, I'm about to be a Hall of Famer. Right. The same way Willie Mace Hayes is like, excuse me. while I, like, start my run to the Hall of Fame. Like, it's a beautiful actor, real-life merger. It was a lot of charisma and a lot of swagger.

And it is funny that this was his first major role because it was very similar. He just shows up on the scene. He's like, hi, I'm an A-List star now. And you're like, wait, who are you? So from 1989 to 95, this is his IMDB run. And there's only a couple, there's only one movie that I don't really remember what happens in. Major League, King of New York.

which is the one I saw 30 years ago, but I don't remember what happens to that movie. Mo Better Blues. New Jack City, which has stood the test of time. We'll say that. Jungle Fever. The Water Dance,

which is actually a really good movie. White Man Can't Jump. Passenger 57. The best. He bangs out all of those in a five-and-a-half-year span. That's wild. And, like, you could, it's the type of thing where, like,

the five-year span is incredible, but he's like pretty strong right up to Blade. Like he still has Demolition Man and Money Train and Murder at 1600, which is like a Denzel movie that he got to play. Oh, yeah. Well, his next five movies after Pastert 57 were Boiling Point, Rising Sun, Demolition Man, Sugar Hill, Money Train. Not awful. Not awful.

Not like Apex Snipes, but still not like the worst run in the world. I saw all those movies. But like all that happened before Blade. Yeah. Like that's incredible. because like all that happened and then he got a trilogy. Well, he also, you know, we're talking about, when you talk about the Action Hero Championship Belt

and the legacy of action movies and all that stuff for whatever reason. Well, I guess we could come up with one of the reasons, but black people were not the stars of action movies. And you had Action Jackson was basically, was he's the only one of the 80s. And it's funny that it took seven movies until they gave him Passenger 57.

When it's so obvious that should have been greenlit the moment he was Willie Mays Hayes. Like, all right, can we have this guy save something now? Yeah, he took seven more movies. Yeah. The other thing I really like is that in the first 10 minutes, Serrano played by Dennis Hayesbert. Incredible.

enters the movie looking like Blade. I wonder Wesley was like, yo, I love that look. I got to do that one day. He filed it away. One of the great things about him in this movie And I feel the same way about Charlie Sheen Who's also incredible in this movie They're not in it a lot

They're not in as much as I kind of want them to be in it Which is why when they're every scene that they're in it You're just excited that It's hey, it's Willie Mace Hayes again Oh cool, it's Charlie Sheen Yeah, you're right It's they're doled out very carefully There are multiple moments in this movie where I'm like

I haven't seen Charlie Sheen in like 15 minutes. Yeah, well, we'll get to later the biggest flaw of this movie, which took away some screen time for those guys. But Snipes was a thing. Just out of curiosity, what, what's the number one Snipes character for you? From that 89 and 95 run, the legendary Snipes of Sons run. New Jack City. That's where I am to.

Like, for some reason, New Jack City, I mean, this is so blasphemous to say. But like, for some reason, New Jack City lives in the... same part of my brain as Malcolm X. Even though Nino Brown is like the worst version of Malcolm X. Yeah. Well, like... I mean, the rooftop scene, I think, is one of like the seven or eight most memorable scenes of that entire generation of movies.

Yeah. It holds up so... That movie, like, it feels like it's seven hours long. Oh, my God. Like, it's... And for a movie to... For a role to hold up more... then white man can jump, which is like a perfect movie for me.

Like, I just, he was incredible. It's also interesting that during the same era that his career is blossoming and taking off in a major way, Denzel's career is also taking off and blossoming in a major way. Yeah. And they were never at conflict. It was almost like a Jordan and Pippen type IMD situation. There's never, there's not a movie. of those eight where you would have said, you know what, we really needed Denzel for that one?

I mean, New Jack City would have been really interesting if he's, if he's the lead, Denzel. Other than that, I mean, Denzel and white men can't jump. I don't know if I would have bought it. He's almost like too famous. No, I think like, I feel like Denzel hadn't, like, Denzel doesn't, doesn't work for New Jack City. Like, he's not that, like, evil, like, from like a street sense. No. Like, you know, like, there's just, I feel like Denzel, you don't believe Denzel is like a bad guy until he gets older.

I also don't think he could have pulled off the outfits. It would have seemed like Denzel like dressing up as a bad guy. Whereas Wesley Snipe, it all seemed like any movie he's in, it all seems like clothes he would have actually worn in her life. He's like, no, I don't need to go to the, I don't need a stylist. Yeah, tell me what color you need me in. But by the same token, like, I wouldn't have wanted to see Wesley Snipes in Malcolm Max. or Philadelphia. No.

I might have wanted this. What was the movie with John Lithgow? That, virtuosity? No, that was the Russell Crowan. I forget about virtuosity. Yeah, one of those action movies, Snipes could have easily been in.

But he's really great. He's really charismatic. And they just... Rickashay. Rickash. There just hasn't really been anybody who has filled this specific type of actor

kind of turf since, which is why I think John David Washington, I don't know if he's funny enough. I mean, he's got like really good comedic timing when he's... Unpollish, he's funny. Yeah, and when he's pretending to be, like, especially over the phone in Black Klansman,

when he's pretending to be a white guy, like, he's hysterical. Like, I mean, he's got it. But he's more deadpan funny for me. Maybe there's another side we haven't seen yet. Snipes, like, the white man can't jump because he's a terrible basketball player that movie, they have to do a lot of slow-mo

and a lot of whatever, but he's the charisma that he had was really great. So, all right, so we love Snipes. There's a Charlie Sheen run that we're going to have to talk about. Charlie Sheen from 86 to 89, it's pretty epic, I got to say. Lucas,

Ferris Bueller, platoon, Wall Street, Young Guns, eight men out, major league. That's in four years. Wow, he like did not stop acting. No. And I like all of those movies. And he's really, really good and really, really likable in Major League. He's probably that those two characters are my favorite characters in the movie.

And he really does seem like a baseball player. And then in the research, it comes out. Like, he could throw 85. He wanted to play professional baseball. Took steroids to get his fastball up for the movie, which is amazing. Did he, like, talk about that? like a later, like a... Yeah, he did.

Okay. Yeah, it's in my research. And he's just really great as Wild Thing. This is one of my favorite sports movie characters. Where do you stand now that we have all the Charlie Sheen baggage? I mean, I look at him and I... It's weird that in the beginning of the movie, I forget that, like, he becomes someone that I'm, like, rooting for.

Yeah. Because he's such, like, an early movie dick. And just, like, you know, the punk. vibe, everything. But, like, he becomes, I have a, like, my big take on this movie is that it's got, like, one of the strongest fourth quarters of any film ever. Yeah, no question. Because the first hour of this movie, it's kind of like, so, like, what's the point of this movie? Like, you know, it just kind of drags. There's not a lot of baseball. It's just like a lot of, like, it's fine, but not really until you get to the point when they, like, when the coach tells them about

what the owner's plan is. Yeah. And they're like, okay, we got to win the whole fucking thing. Yeah. That's when the movie becomes like an all-time classic. And what's funny,

I think that's why it's a re-watchable because, you know, in the old school way I watch the TV where you're flipping channels, if you came into this movie about 60% in and that part was just about to come up, there's no way you're not watching it.

I'm like, oh, cool. Oh, they're about to go on and run? Okay. You're completely right. And I think that's the way I saw it, lot because when I went to go rewatch it, I hadn't seen it in years, but when I went to go rewatch it, I was like, wait, when does it happen?

Like, did I make up what happens in Major League? It took a minute for it to really get going, but once it gets going, it's incredible. And Sheen, I mean, I know we're going to talk about, you know, like what scene, but, you know, that last, the game against the Yankees is just incredible. Yeah, the first hour, there's just a lot of Jake Taylor trying to win Renee Russo back. To be just like a creep. That's coming up too. The other one we should talk about for IMDB runs,

who is the other big star of this movie, Tom Barringer, who I always felt like, was like, I was like to compare the IMDB and the actor careers to basketball players. Yeah. It's like a Sydney Moncrief type of career for him in the 80s. Like way better than anybody realized. It's going to take him way longer to get in the Hall of Fame than it should. But then if you actually look at the resume,

he's one of the signature actors of the 80s. He goes, The Big Chill, Eddie and the Cruisers, Platoon, Someone to Watch Over Me with Ridley Scott, shoot to kill, Major League, born on the 4th of July, and a seven-year run. That's pretty great.

Sydney Moncrief is the perfect comparison point. Thank you. Because, like, the amount that I know about Beringer is the amount that I know about Moncrief, which is, like, I have seven basketball cards of his, but, like, I never saw him play. Yeah. Well, he was the best, the second best,

two guard of the 80s. Actually, he was the best two guard of the 80s. And he just kind of disappeared. And Berenger was the same way. He had this great run. All of a sudden, he was like on cheers for a little bit and then became like a character actor. But he was a leading guy.

He's great in the big chill. Yeah. He was in training day, right? Didn't he have like a little... Yeah, right? He has a whole character actor run after. He was in sniper. He's a Raith Barth following me a favorite.

Love that. Also, wait, tell me, because I put Beringer and... Corbyn-Bernson kind of together because, like, I know he was also like, like, I never saw L.A. law. Right. So L.A. law. But I know people loved L.A. law. Yeah.

So there was this, the legacy of whatever the best TV drama was, you know, which you go back to like St. Elsewhere early 80s. And Hill Street. Actually, when Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, L.A. Law. And L.A. law had the crown for, like, I'm going to say, like, four or five years. And then it eventually became NYPD Blue and ER and then West Wing and all those shows. But LA Law was like the show for three, four years. And he was like the kind of dickish playboy lawyer. Was it like the practice, like that level type of show?

Yeah. And, you know, this guy had a history of this person and this person shouldn't have done that. And they're all actors. But it's very dated. Like it's very, very 80s. And he kind of belongs to that era. This is, we're new Apex Mountain later. This is he had LA law and this movie at the same time.

It never got better for Corbyn Brinson. Yeah. This was the legitimate all-time impacts. So this movie, it was made by David Ward, a lifelong Cleveland Indians fan, who actually won an Oscar. He wrote The Sting. So he had some juice. Oh, wow.

Yeah. And he thought the only way he was ever going to see the Indians actually win anything was if he made a sports movie about them. we put a lot of time and thought into it. The movie was partially inspired by the Minnesota Twins owner Calvin Griffith, who in the 1970s when he was trying to make the Metrodome Stadium negotiated for an escape clause in the team's lease,

which said if the team's home attendance was under $1.4 million per season for three straight years, they could be released from its contract and leave Minnesota. and he actually let good players leave. He actually, they actually did tank. And investors did buy the team and they almost moved into, moved to Tampa and then a local guy bought the team and saved it. So this actually happened, which I had no idea.

Did you know that? That's cool. I like that. And so he writes his script. He based all the characters on different baseball players he liked. Like Serrano is based on the Allu Brothers, which was supposedly superstitious. Willie Mays Hayes was based on Ricky Henderson, so on and so on. Writes the script.

These are Charlie Sheen's words now. When I saw the script, it wasn't like catnip. It was like crack. It was probably as good as script as Platoon, seriously. Charlie Sheen compared Major League to Platoon. That guy's done a lot of drugs. That is incredible. Yeah.

So, uh, wow. So anyway, great. script and everybody wanted to do it. Platoon, but baseball. And then one of the hooks was, you know, he was with Berenger in platoon and the studio wanted to get both of them and it was like a reunion with obviously a lot happier terms. The movie was made for $11 million.

It grossed nearly $50 million in domestic release. 82 on Rotten Tomatoes. Is it higher or lower than you wanted it to be? You know what? I think I think it should be around 86. 88. Yeah. Our friend Roger Ebert, who takes a beating on here time to time,

he gave Major League 2 1.5 stars, which I thought was fair. I could not find his ranking for Major League 1. For some reason, he did not review it. It was apparently, if he did review it, I couldn't find it. Okay. The other ones are not that good. Major League 2 is rough.

It's kind of one of those, I'm okay with it to happen. I've watched it a few times. I would also be okay if it never happened. And not having Wesley in Major League, too, is, you know, obviously. Yeah, yeah. Obviously, a rough one. All right, it's time for the nominees for most rewatchable scene presented by Slink TV. If you need to refresh your memory of the nominated scenes for Major League,

which we'll get to in a second. Or prep from next week's rewatchable, field of dreams. my God. Oh my Lord. Mally Rubin's going to be on that and I'm making her cry. I'm just telling you now. That's going to be a good one. Look no further than Sling TV. Sling has both movies in their deep library of new and classic movies, current shows and of course live sports watching your TV phone or tab, but whenever and wherever Sling has broken the traditional TV bundle. Customize your channel on it from one month and next. Watch what you want, when you want, where you want. They've also created a special ribbon for us in the Slingt TV app with a bunch of the movies we've

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Sign up at Sling.com slash rewatchables, where they have a special offer just for our listeners, 14 days free when you're under promo code a ringer. That is Sling.com slash rewatchables. promo code Ringer. Offer available to new customers only. availability may vary by location. Other restrictions apply. And now the nominees.

All right, the most rewatchable scene, remember, feel free to throw in one if I miss something. But here's what I thought were the most rewatchable scenes. And what's funny is most of them are, as we said, like the last 40% of the movie. Yeah. I like the spring training, the first day montage when we meet all the guys and Wesley Snipes over sleeps

and then we see they got different guys doing and Charlie Sheen, you know, his fastball going all over the place. I just enjoy it. I like first day spring training montage. I actually wish we had a little more spring training in this. All of a sudden it was like, you know, who's going to make the team or not. Red tag day is great. The red tag in the locker, Chobu with the snake.

Corby, the Roger Dorn playing a prank on Wild Thing and put in the red tag in his locker, then flipping out. All of that is great. I don't know. Do you think they really did red tag? day in real life because it seems a little far-fetched. It seems a little absurd, but I mean, re-washing it and kind of, you know, it's super fun to a re-watch movie you haven't seen since in like a decade in full because I kind of

forgot who was getting cut. Like I, because I was, they were outside of like the main characters, like there was some actual tension. Yeah. Which I liked. It was a good, I mean, it was a good, good plot point. I liked it. My one thing with the spring training is I also love it.

But the combination of like the really like circusy music that they have going on. Yeah. Plus the manager just doing that thing where he just insults every player. It's like it's kind of amazing. But coming out of that like gruff, like I just smoke 35 Marlboro Reds. Yeah. Like voice. It actually plays.

It hits well. So yeah, I also like. spring training. We're going to talk about him later, but let's just say he's very well cast. I don't have another rewatchable scene until the screw the owner, let's do this montage

when the manager gets everyone together. It's not a chill scene, but it's close where the team kind of just comes together. It's like, fuck this. Let's win the pennant. I can't believe she's doing this. Seranos Homer in the Yankees. So the Yankee game,

so maybe the whole Yankee, the entire Yankee game, might be the rewatchable scene. But if we're going to split it up, Seranos Homer is great. He did it in real life. He actually really did hit the Homer. Oh, shit.

And then he runs around the bases with his bat, which I think is absolutely the most underrated part of this whole movie. I literally wrote at the top of my sheet, like, why does anyone let go of their bat after a home run? Like, honestly, like, talking about chill, Like this isn't supposed to be a chills moment. Yeah.

But when he comes around second and just like pumps his bat to the entire crowd as he's going to third, I'm like, that's the coolest thing I've ever seen in baseball history. So you think, you think like Gene Carlos Stanton should just do this? Yeah, because he's so jacked. He's like holding a thing that's big for most people. Yeah. Like it's a sausage link. Yeah.

And he's, it literally looks like, like I would go to war. with him. If he had a bat and he was running. I love that scene. I'm kind of pissed that it never caught on. That scene's great. The big homer, they're down to nothing. They need some magic. So we got that one. Wild things last walk to the mound, Wild thing coming out of the bullpen and the crowd losing their fucking mind and singing Wild thing and that whole walk. I hate this fucking song.

That scene's just awesome. And it's legitimate because they pack. Milwaukee County Stadium with like 30,000 people and filmed that scene like two or three times and Charlie Sheen was saying it was like the greatest moment of his life like walking out of the bullpen like he was ready to run through a wall. It's really well filmed and I just really love it. And then the next one, so I don't know if you grouped this together or not,

but then him striking out Clue Haywood. Yeah. On three pitches, just gassing it up 101 on the last pitch. Yeah. Yeah. But that scenes really well filmed. And what, you know, one of my, obviously I love sports movies probably more than any other human being on the planet. Baseball pitchers, it's so hard to find an actor who could throw a baseball.

And there's only been a couple. You know, and this is the big flaw of Bull Durham. And Charlie Sheen's actually a really good convincing pitcher because he was. And he's throwing, you know, in the high 80s. They changed the mound. They made the mound 50 feet instead of 60s. So it seemed like he was even faster than the pitching. And it just seems.

like 100% legitimate, all of it. It really does seem like he's this fireballing 100-mile-an-hour reliever who's striking out the best Yankee. Also, another reason that scene is so good is that Haywood is an actual... He's actual baseball player, the

actor. The way he spits, I'm like, he has to be a baseball player. Like, an actor will never know how to spit as well as a baseball player. And it looks like, it's so... shot so well. I love...

And you know that guy won the Sy Young, right? Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. He was just a huge pitcher. I think he added on

some weight after his career would be like because he looks I mean he looks like a professional wrestler. So that K was great and then the actual ending with the bunt,

the Willie May is scoring from second, Tom Berringer pointing to left field and then doing like the running bun. the slow motion of him running down the baseline. All of that, the Willie Mays crossing home plate and then jumping in everybody's.

All that's really well filmed. It's like a legitimate chill scene. It's really good. Did I miss any rewatchable scenes? Would you have added anything? Yeah, the one that I would have added was I love the Amex commercial. I'm obsessed with it.

So you're looking for some big league clock. Apply for that little green home run heater. Look what it's done for us. People still don't recognize us, but... We're contenders now. The American Express card. Don't steal home without it. It ending with Willie Mase Hay is sliding and saying,

don't steal home without it. That's incredible. Yeah. But for me, like, I can't talk about this movie without discussing the fact that my favorite television show of all time is 24. Oh, yeah. Like, this is so wild to watch. But also in the Amex commercial, it's like you hear the Allstate shit. Like he literally sounds like he's selling insurance.

And I'm like, wow. This is like, it's incredible. So it's a double crossover. Yeah. Yeah, it's a double crossover. But he's doing in his accent that I would love to talk about at some point. You know what's funny? If American Express just released that as a commercial,

just randomly just put that into like a Final Four game as an American Express commercial. people would lose their fucking minds. Yeah, that would be incredible. They should have done that for the 30th anniversary. You're right. Most rewatchable scene for you. What's the answer? So yeah, it's obviously from that game.

I had it from, I had it too large. I basically had like the game. Which is like 45 minutes. But no, I think it's from, I think it's from the home run to the strikeout, honestly, like from Serrano's home run. Yeah, that is. And those are pretty close together.

So I guess we could cheat and say that's all one big scene. I'm okay with that. The one thing I will say is the final Jake Taylor's at bat. It's so good because I forgot that he didn't hit a home run. Yeah. I forgot that he bun it. Yeah, that's true. I actually, I had that for What's Age the Best.

One of the What's Age the Best for me is, it was just really smart to do that. and not have him hit the home run? Yeah. And I'm always impressed when I watch that movie that it's like, oh, they actually swerved on that one.

He doesn't hit a home run. He does a freaking bun. Yeah. As just like another side one, like I just love, I do love, this movie has really good slow-mo. Yeah.

And I love the opening slow-mo of Willie Mace Hayes in the pajamas. Oh, yeah, that's a good one. Yeah. Looking like, like, looking a lot like Mahershala, I noticed.

Oh, yeah, that's a good one. It's like a lot like it. But yeah, I like that. But yeah, it's got to be the game. So yeah. All right. So what's age the best?

I have a bunch of stuff for this. Me too. The opening credits that just capture how depressing Cleveland is, Cleveland's a little less depressing now, but not 100% less depressing. They really, really hammer at home. There's just a lot of smog and factories spinning out smoke and sad bars and empty streets. It's very well done. So I have that.

The cast is great. it's really, really, really well cast. Snipes, Sheen, Berenger, Corbyn, Dennis Haysbert, who nobody had ever really heard of until that point. The owner, played by Margaret Witten, which became her defining role. The manager, James Gammon,

sports movie Hall of Famer, Chelsea Ross. We're going to get to him a little bit as Eddie Harris. I love him. They just hit, and Renee Russo in her first movie, just, I would say, nine and a half out of ten with the casting in this. Yeah, and they cast it really good. actual baseball players.

Yeah, they actually gave a shit about that, which was refreshing. Yeah, they didn't, like, that didn't bring the movie down at all. Even Serrano really seemed like a realistic, I could see him in the league for 12 years with a lot of homers and a lot of strikeouts as a D.H. Yeah, I had like 22012 home runs. Yeah, and a million strikeouts. I think young Charlie Sheen has aged really well just because it's like, oh, once upon a time I like that guy.

Yeah. Bob Euker as the lifelong local radio hack has aged just wonderfully because these guys exist all over the place. Yeah, especially NBA League pass. There's 20 Bob Eukers floating around in these different cities. But it's just, that was a great character. He's great in it.

I don't know what the balance is between real life and him pretending to be like that. What do you think it was? Like 50-50? I feel like it's 73rd. It might be 90-10. he's awesome we'll get to him in a little bit um i like the day-to-day aspect of a baseball season from the players and fans perspective i thought it even for a short movie it captured it well

kind of the ebb and flow of spring training and who's on the team this year um oh man we suck wait things are coming together uh-oh something's happening like does a nice job hitting those checkpoints um i'm stealing this from danny kelly who wrote about major league a couple years ago for the ringer. Uh-huh. He thought it aged really nicely. Cleveland's pre-Moneyball strategy, money ball is still 15 years away,

of going after guys who were good at one thing. So Hayes for speed, Joe Boo for power, Vaughn for Felicity, Taylor's defensive prowess. This became a thing 15 years later. It's way ahead of their time, the Indians. It's also just like a really good, like often used sports thing.

Yeah. Where, like, in, like, the Mighty Ducks movies, like, there's, like, the dude who's super fast but doesn't know how to stop. You know, like, there's always a thing where it's like, they're good at one thing, but they have a fatal flaw. Yeah. It's just a good way to bring together, like, a rag tag group of people. Yeah. Rag tag, good word. James Gammon as the manager, Lou, Lou Brown.

Perfect. Yeah. So there's been a lot written about this movie. there's a lot of like oral histories and anniversary pieces and stuff like that. And one of the recurring themes is that James Gammon, extremely fun guy to hang out with. Last guy at the bar. People constantly amazed that he showed up for work the next day.

He's like one of those guys. I love reading about actors like that, but he was like the personification. And you're not going to believe this, but him and Charlie Sheen really hit it off. I know. It's hard to believe. Go figure.

In 89. Wow. You're not going to believe this, but they might have spent a few nights together. But he's just like, the booze and cigarettes are just coming off him. Yeah, I mean, I'm obsessed with him. Like, he feels like the type of dude who just, like, has a lot of friends who are cops. Yeah, right. Like, like, it's like the one guy who, like, hangs out at the cop bar.

And it's the guy you'd ask if you wanted to have somebody killed, he would know somebody who could do it. Yeah, I'm, I think he, but he's also, like, I like, I like. the first version of his character. But then when the movie turns that corner and he has that scene where he's like talking about how the team has a lot of potential. Yeah. It's like surprisingly moving.

Where he's like, he like really believes in this team, blah, blah, blah. Like I love that he kind of tapped into some, you know, some earnest vulnerability outside of just being like scruff and everything. Yeah, if I was a consultant on this movie, I probably would have thrown away one of the seven Tom Berringer, Renee Russo, scenes and added the scene where he's James Gammon's in the dugout kind of watching a game.

And you can kind of feel, feel him going over that little hump of I actually believe in these guys. Because when he says that it's kind of out of nowhere, there's 60 and 61, there's no evidence. There's a good team. All we've seen is like mishaps and guys running into each other is like, you know what? we could win the pennant. It's like, what? What's the evidence? Where'd that come from?

I saw a guy catch two straight balls. I think we're going to win the pennant. We've won two in a row. I think we've got this. So, yeah, I would have set that up better. Another thing that's aged the best, it captures some of the fun baseball stuff from the day to day like, you know,

like Eddie Harris, the rule bending, the vagusil on his chest. Oh, yeah, like that. The weird superstitions, born out in Joe Boo and, and, you know, the rum and all that. The drama and guys fucking somebody else's wife. And all of it feels very baseball-y and realistic to me. Another what's age the best, the Yankees is villains. Which in 1989, a little controversial.

They hadn't had the best decade. The Yankees had lost their luster as the evil empire. And Major League just single-handly tried to bring it back, which I really appreciated. Yeah. When this happens, do they have to get the Yankees permission? I think so, yeah. I think baseball was probably excited that somebody was doing a movie because they have to use the uniforms.

They got to do... They filmed in a couple different parks, too. Like, you see Fenway at one point. So they definitely... Like Charlie Sheen strikes out somebody. He's definitely in Fenway Park. So they definitely moved around. And then the other thing, Charlie Sheen is a pitcher we talked about earlier.

So there's an oral history that Sports Illustrated about this movie earlier in the decade. And Sheen said, I had a great arm. I was just born with it. I played at Santa Monica High, but because of academic shit, they pulled me off the team. Always on brand, Charlie Sheen. And then Berenger was catching him. He said, Charlie was great.

The first day he started throwing to me, nine of his first 10 pitches were on the edge of the strike zone. That's how much control he had. Charlie Sheen. Who knew? Charlie Sheen, a better athlete than Wesley Snipes. Yeah, I mean, who knew? So did I miss anything? What else does age the best for you?

So I've got, I've got like two weird ones, but just like, I love the world of, like, managers having, like, absurd hunches that go right. Like, I'm upset. Like, there's, like, he shouldn't have put in Charlie Sheen. No. I'm just going to throw it out there. Like, just, no. You've been in the Yankee game? Yeah.

But like just that world of just like, I got a hunch. Like, I love the grizzled old manager hunch. It's the best. It's like in cop movies. It's the same thing where the cops's like, I got a hunch. He's going to be at that bar. Yeah. I'm like, why?

There's a lot of like, but why do you feel that way? Yeah. Anyway, I love that. I, I, this movie reminds me that, and I would love your opinion on this, that like, I think like worst to first works best in baseball. It's the most realistic. It's the most realistic. It can't happen in the NBA.

But it also, like, I feel baseball not being my number one movie is my favorite, it's my number one movie, like, sports type movie to watch. It's your least, it's not your favorite sport, but it's your favorite sports movie. Yeah, because, like, I think stadium shots are more dramatic and amazing in baseball stadiums versus a court or a football field. this one especially, but also just like, I think it holds up in

in what I didn't even realize was just like an era, like a eight-year era of classic baseball movies. Oh, yeah. There are a lot, like I was literally, I didn't even realize it. But yeah, from like Bull Durham,

Field of Dreams, league of their own, Sanlot, rookie of the year, Angels in the Outfield, the Nashville, like, all that's in like eight movies. and, I mean, eight years, which is like pretty wild

because I can't imagine two baseball movies coming out in consecutive years right now. Field of Dreams. Yeah, it's natural started in 84 and then you could count naked gun actually in 80. I think that was 86 or 87

because that's got like a 20-minute baseball scene that's really funny. Yeah, so like my, I think just like baseball magic has aged super well, like the baseball magic aspect of, of like a team going worse to first.

It really works in this movie. You know what's funny is you mentioned that that worst to first thing. All those movies have a couple of the scenes that are almost like staples where the team's, the rag tag team's just not doing well early. And there's always like the pop-up where the three guys collide. And, you know, the grounder off somebody's face.

With like the not top ten music happening in the background? The strikeout, the guy getting thrown out at second base. Like they hit all these beats. and then when things turn around, there's always the catch where somebody scales the wall. It's almost like mandatory in a baseball film.

It's like somebody's got to scale the wall and pull one back. All right. So I'm going to say for what's age the best for me, I'm going to say Bob Euker. That was my number one. He's incredible.

Because not only is he great in the movie and not only that I enjoy him in 1989 when I saw this movie, but now when you see the local, radio announcer hacks or the local TV hacks. These lifelong dudes, you never know if they're sober. They're just, they'll do anything to sell the narrative,

the good narrative for the team. And it's just hard to separate any of them from Bob Euker. Yeah. His shadow looms over all of them. One other one, because I have a, I have the opposite for what's aged the worst, but the use of the word fuck in this movie is fantastic. Oh, we should have put that in.

Our rating is crucial. There's a couple good motherfuckers. Oh, yeah. No nudity. Weirdly no nudity other than like in the locker room. But yeah, there's some really good swearing in this movie. Yeah, that was the reason. The reason I was always so obsessed with this movie is like,

was because this was the sports movie I wasn't allowed to watch. It's a very smart hook. In an era of lots of like little giants and sand. Like lots of like movies aimed at kids and young teens. Like this was the one that I, I didn't watch until I went to a sleepover. And then I got obsessed with it. What's age the worst?

Charlie Sheen, he's aged terribly. Who's age worse than Charlie Sheen? Nobody. Wow. It's just hard to separate all the Charlie Sheen baggage from this movie. And unfortunately, you almost have to approach it like it's just a completely different human being. Two black guys on the Indians, total, they couldn't have messed around with that. They're going to have like six.

There are also two black people in the entire stadium. It is. This is one of the whitest movies that's ever made. Ever. But it's not like they made this in 1952. It's like Pleasantville. Another one's age the worst. All the Yucre imitators in future sports movies.

Oh, yeah. Where they were like, that character worked. Let's try to have our own version of the Bob Euker thing. and it's really never worked ever. This is a very unique success story. This hurts. Wesley Snipes running. Yeah, just laid on me.

I hate doing this to you. You've done it to me many times. So, like, just go. This is one of the worst things I've done for you. All of Wesley Snipes' running scenes were shown in slow motion to give the impression that he was running faster than he actually was because the director said the dirty secret was Wesley Snipes wasn't fast. Oh my God.

Yeah. And once I did the research before I watched the movie again, it really hurts the movie because I couldn't unsee it. And any time he ran, I was just like, wow, Wesley Snipes isn't fast. Movonne Hayes. You see his running style. Like, he's just not fast. Like, there was this play on, in baseball yesterday,

Billy Hamilton is the fastest guy in the league. He scored from second on a 400-foot sacrifice, fly-fly ball. And he's so fast. And then I watch Wesley Snipes three hours later, who's supposed to be like the Billy Hamilton of this movie. And it's like, oh, like your appendages are all moving in different directions. Like, it's hard to unsee. And I apologize.

Yeah, that's, I don't lie. I don't love that. Well, it gets worse. David Ward also said Wesley Snipes was not a very skilled baseball player in real life, hadn't really played, and was so awful at throwing a baseball that they did not include any scenes of him throwing the ball. Is Wesley Snipes just like a nerdy theater kid? He might be like, like Daniel Day Lewis or somebody.

I don't know. Because he's also a bad basketball player. Like, kind of fan. famously, they had to teach him out to play basketball, which leads to the question was Wesley Snipes a bad athlete. I was going to do this for unanswerable questions, but I think it's actually answerable. We have this director saying they couldn't include scenes of him throwing a baseball.

I really set myself up by starting this podcast. I know. It's Wesley. They had to show all of his running scenes in slow motion to make it seem like he was fast. So there's one scene where they show him stealing home, where they show him in full speech. I encourage you to watch that again. Because, let's just say this.

He's not flying. He's not zipping down in the third base line. Fun fact, it's not shot in slow motion. That's a real time. Yeah, unfortunately, did that. Another what's aged the worst, this quote from Corbin-Bernson,

this is also going to really hurt your feelings. A couple of years after Major League, I saw Wesley. I said, hey, man, they're going to make Major League too. And he was like, you're going to do that? And I thought, wow, how quickly they forgot. He'd become Wesley Snipes. That rubbed me the wrong way. Wow.

Wow. This is tough. Tough for the Snipes. We're going to get through this, though. I still love Wesley Snipes. But yeah. Yeah, I mean. He just thought he was bigger than Major League.

And that's why Omar Epps was cast as Willie Mays Hayes. You could argue, might have been better casting since he was actually a good athlete. Yeah. Also, like, I think there's a little Nino in Wesley. So, like, I'm not that surprised. He had Corbyn Bursa killed right after the comment. So I think Omar Epps is actually my sports movie Hall of Fame. I mean, I'm kind of glad it happened because that helped out someone I love who was Omar Epps.

Omar Epps had, he's the track star in higher learning. He's the kind of Alvin Kamara type running back in the program. He's Willie Mace Hayes and he's in love and basketball where he makes the NBA legendary. I mean, to me, he's the sports movie Michael Jordan. And then 10 years later, he became Mike Tomlin. Oh, that's true. Then he actually became the coach of the Steelers. So that age terribly.

All right, we got to talk about this Jake Taylor, Renee Russo relationship. God, I've never been less invested in anything. It is, for all the wet age, the worst that we've done in the rewatchables, this is way up there. I have no idea why we're supposed to care about the relationship. It seems thrown in. We find out that they broke up because he cheated on her with a stewardess, one, and then two, she threw a surprise birthday party for him that he didn't show up at,

and then somebody served him with paternity papers at the party, which cast a pall over the party. So why would she get back together with him at this point? We have two, like, damaging facts. Yeah. Also, like, it was just the pennant. They didn't even win the World Series. Right. Like, I feel like she really jumped the gun.

I also just, I can't. I feel like she was like headed to like a really steady, nice life. And I just, I think it's a terrible. She's marrying this nice, wealthy lawyer at a nice apartment. Seemed like a nice guy. She can just be a librarian. I'll wait until we do quotes. So my theory on this is Jake Taylor, huge penis.

really hung, like really, really well-endowed. And she just had, she couldn't, couldn't shake it. So the other part of this, what shades are worse, Jake Taylor, kind of a stalker. Oh, not, not, not kind of. He, like, he sees her at the restaurant and does this contrived, calls her from another phone in the restaurant, and then interrupts her date and is super creepy. he follows her to her place of employment at the library after she gives him the wrong phone number so she'll never call her again, follows her to the library anyway, then shows up at her

boyfriend's dinner party, follows her to this place and just goes into the party. It's a party of eight people, just walks in, not invited. And then sees her at the baseball game, follows her home in the bullpen car, leading to the immortal quote from her, did you follow me again? Jake Taylor, stalker. Why am I invested in this relationship? Why?

The reason it's so messed up is because it has set a terrible precedent, which is that it should work, like that it worked. Yeah. Like this opened the door for a generation of movie stalking. Yeah, I mean, we had this and say anything, too.

There was this whole generation of movie stalkers. Very strange. And I have no idea why they got back together, which leads me to the other, what stage the worst. The freeze frame ending, great chill scene, awesome. Then he sees her in the stands. She comes out in the field. He picks her up and then everybody kind of closes in around them and she holds her up and then they freeze frame it. Like she's part of this pennant thing.

It's like, you were barely in the movie. Why are you in this? No one knows her. Yeah, who are you? They met her like twice. Yeah, so what's age the worst for you? Those are some great candidates. Those are some great candidates.

I have a couple. One, I'm not, I mean, I don't want to, I want to put respect on David S. Ward's name. Yeah. Because he wrote The Sting. Great job by him. I'm not convinced based off of Serrano's character that he has ever met a black person as of 1989. The amount of things that are just happening. Yeah.

Like, there's like three languages happening. There's like voodoo, like, is he Haitian? Every time he talks, there's like this tribal music that happens in the background in the locker room. Yeah, that wasn't. Like, there's so much happening that is just like so not okay. It is so bad. Was he Haitian? What was it?

Dominican? He was Haitian, but was saying phrases that were Mexican. Well, if he based him on the Aleu brother, that means he's probably thinking Dominican. Yeah. But also, I just like, the, as much as I love the Serrano at bat, the fact that he hit a home run after just being like, you know what, voodoo, I'm done with you.

I believe in Jesus Christ now. It undermined the movie. And then he gets good at baseball. Yeah. I'm just like, what? I don't know. So this movie was anti-vudu. Ultimately, the lesson is don't do voodoo.

Yeah, the movie is like, is like David S. Ward has a problem with voodoo. Probably hates New Orleans. So I have, I just have an issue. Like, also like the way the speech pattern, he talks, there's this one part. He's like, I can no hit curve balls. I'm like, is he a caveman? Like, what is going on? It's a wild role. And I feel like Dennis Hayesbury was kind of just like, fuck this. But like, I got, I want to be a star. Yeah. This is my. This is my road to start him. I'll do whatever it takes. So that's my number one. So you think if this movie came out now, there would be a whole Twitter controversy online

and hashtag Serrano's racist and all this stuff. It wouldn't go great. For the first time, I would be like the main person being like, this is bullshit. I also like, I'm not the biggest fan of the tagline for home runs being off the reservation. Yeah. Yeah, it's the 80s.

It's just the 80s. Again, again. Has an age great. It just didn't age great. You know, like someone being like, show me a good sports movie. You know, it's just good. It's a, it's a tough one to, you know, for that part to throw out in 2019. I, yeah, outside of that.

So I'm going to go, I vote for, boy, these are some great candidates. That's a lot. I think what age, what's age the worst is Charlie Sheen, who is one of the all-time celebrity train wrecks that we have. And it's really hard to separate that from this movie. But honorable runner-ups to the Jake Taylor stalking and Wesley Snipes running. And then all the stuff you mentioned. I think everything's a nine-way tie for first place. Yet the movie, like the movie as a whole still has aged well.

It's really great. Those last 35 minutes. Yeah. Let's take a break to talk about Black Tux. Weddings can have 99 problems, but the grooms look shouldn't be one. That's why the Blacktucks.com designs rental suits and tuxedos that you'll love. Even if you end up getting featured on a list of 23 epic wedding fails,

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That's how I know it's great. Nephew Kyle is going to have to go to a lot of weddings. So is producer Craig. How old are you now? 24. You have a lot of weddings like two years from now. I have one in two months. Oh, so it's starting.

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Only have a couple. They wanted Diane Cannon for the role of Rachel Phelps, the filmmakers, but the studio really wanted us. Margaret Witten. So Diane Cannon. So now she just had Laker games. I think she's a great villain in this movie. She's really good.

Ward said a lot of people don't know this, but Jeremy Piven was in the movie. He was a bench jockey. And all the bits were him yelling insults at opposing teams and it didn't really work. And I cut the whole thing. I'm sure he was disappointed at the time. Jeremy Piven.

Huh. Hmm. Renee Rousseau was a model, had never acted before. when she got this movie. That's not a casting. What If I just was shocked by that. I didn't know that.

Other than that, they cast everybody they wanted to cast. Dion Waiters, this is tough. Because the Deion Waiters, this is basically like, it's all supporting roles in this movie. There's no real star other than Berenger.

I've decided to make Charlie Sheen, Wesley Snipes, Corbyn, all of them are ineligible for Deanne Waiters. Okay. I think the only acceptable candidates, I think are the, for the limited amount of time they're in for the impact, I think are the owner and Bob Uker.

So I'll let you pick. I really would, in your mind, would Haywood count as a Dionne Waiters award? Oh, that's great. Clue Haywood. Yeah. That's my vote. Great. P. Vukovitch is Clue Hayward.

The other acceptable candidate would have been Bob Euker's partner, who do. I do like him a lot. He just says weird faces. I enjoyed that guy, too. All right, half-ass internet research. There's some beauties here. Snipes turned down a role and do the right thing in order to start a major league. Really?

Not sure what role. But, yeah. Yeah, maybe it was like Sam Jackson's character. I don't know. That's cool. I just found this out. I was stunned by this. Tom Berringer turned down the role of Sunny Crocodone on Miami Vice.

Which is really funny because he dresses like, he's in Miami Vice. He dresses like Sunny Crockin, so I feel like he might have regretted it. Yeah, he's like, I already bought the outfit. He's like always wearing white and salmon blazers in light jeans, yeah. An alternate ending on the Wild Thing edition on the DVD shows a very different way for Rachel Phelps for her arc to end.

Lou announces he's resigning. Phelps reveals the threat and move to Miami was merely a ruse to motivate the team and that they were on the verge of bankruptcy when she had herited them and that she felt like he was the right manager to Louis the Ragtag group or Long and and this all worked out

and the audiences hated it and they were like, why did you make this person a good person all along? Stop it? So they cut it. They got rid of that. We mentioned despite being saying Cleveland, the film was principally shot in Milwaukee. Much cheaper. They shot at Milwaukee County Stadium.

Milwaukee County Stadium is now a Little League baseball field called Hellfire Field. So yeah. Hellfire. Hellfire. Hellfire fields. I think something like that. 20,000 extras in the stands for the Yankee game.

Dennis Hayesbert, when the team ran out in the field with the crowd roaring, Dennis Hayesbert, a strong, strong rock of a man, admitted to being emotionally overwhelmed by the experience. I get it. Yeah. And Steve Yeager, who is a former player, technical advisor, he noticed how overwhelmed he was. And he said, that's what it's like 162 games a year. He was, he was the third base coach. He was. And he was also Barringer's stunt double at catcher. So we had that. Duke Simpson, the Yankees pitcher was played by Willie Mueller, who was apparently a major league player. I don't remember him. Chelsea Ross, sports movie Hall of Famer. Can you name the other big two movies he was in? You know, I can't, but the first 20 minutes of the movie,

I thought it was Billy Bob Thornton. He did look like his older brother. So he was the bad guy in Hoosiers. Oh, yeah, duh. And he was Dan Devine and Rudy. He was the Notre Dame coach. Oh, my God. He is.

Hall of Fame. He is Hall of Fame. He's in. So he said he was 45. He pitched in college at Southwest, Texas State, and it had been 20 years since he threw a ball. Sheen heard his shoulder during the filming because they were throwing so many fastballs every day

and said on the way to work he would stop at the doctors for cortisone shots and anti-inflammatories this is the movie that might have really pushed Charlie Sheen's drug habit over the edge so Mitch Williams, remember him, the closer? Yeah. He joined the Cubs in 1988. the same year this movie came out and they started, that's how he got the nickname

Wild Thing. And that's when he started coming out of the bullpen and the Wrigley Field organist on the Cubs would play Wild Thing. And this movie, amazingly and I think it's true, unless somebody can prove me wrong, created Closer Entrance

Music. Ooh. I love that. So the Charlie Sheen, the Wild Thing, gets borrowed by Mitch Williams and the Cubs and then becomes a thing and leads to 30 years of closer music. So that's probably the biggest. Maybe we should put that as the what's age the best.

That's like true cultural impact. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I love that. Another bad Wesley Snipes story. Somebody, apparently he was complaining because they kept shooting him sliding. And he said, what was wrong with that one? And Steve Yeager said he had strawberries from all the sliding. He didn't want to do it anymore because it hurt.

And Steve Yeager said, I know it hurts. I've been doing it for 20 years. Come on, Wesley. I feel like, wow, it's like he got a ego before the movie even came out. Yeah, it's tough. Rachel Phelps' ultimate goal was to move in the Indians to Miami. Made this move in 89. Eight years later, the real-life Indians lost to the Florida Marlins based in Miami.

That's fucking weird. Huh. Yeah. Wait, can I bring up one quick Wesley thing that I completely forgot? Yeah. Can you imagine going on a date with William Mays Hayes and he takes you home and there's 85 dirty black gloves nailed to the wall? Like what a creepy way to live.

Yeah, that's pretty strange. I just like I could stop thinking about just like how that would play out in real life with like company over. There was a scene shot with Jake and Lynn Wells, the Renee Russo character, where they got married that was going to be after the Yankee game, that they deleted. Thank God. Thank God.

They should have deleted the entire character. Hayesbird said he hit it at Milwaukee County Stadium and that Homer in the Yankee game 315 feet 315 feet down the line and left.

It hit the top of the wall and went over. He was stoked. Hayesbird also said I don't think there was ever a closer cast. We hung out together. We went to bars together.

We were a team. James Gaman had these great poker games. Oh, yeah. And then here we go. You're going to love this. Charlie Sheen on James Gammann. James Gammann, you want to talk about an absolute fucking warlock?

This guy shows up one morning and he's so hung over that he has the bar still attached to his head. I've never seen a man in this much pain trying to make a cup of coffee. He was an awesome dude. Fucking tiger blood. Warlock. It's an inspiration. Oh, my God. You're not going to believe this, but James Gamin not alive anywhere.

I mean, James Gammons one of those dudes that like, he's like white Danny Glover. Like, I can't even imagine him under 50 years old. Wilford Brumley. Yeah. Corbyn Burtson on Charlie Sheen.

This is all from the oral history about it. Charlie was the ringleader. He was a chick magnet. It was the most astonishing thing any of us had ever seen. He was the pied piper of beautiful women. And then Ward said, Charlie had a lot of women flying in and out of Milwaukee.

His biggest problem was trying to coordinate the airline schedule so that these women wouldn't run into each other. And then Sheen follows that up this. It wasn't as bad as on young guns a year earlier. We made that one in Santa Fe. You would fly into Albuquerque and drive to Santa Fe on a two-lane highway. The girls that were leaving would pass the ones coming in. Major League was so physically demanding, you didn't have a lot of time for that.

Charlie Sheen. Wow. Not a surprise how the last 10 years of his life has played out. Burnson actually mistakenly punched Charlie Sheen at the ending. It's a good punch. He hits him and apparently he had a welt. It's a really good punch. That punch is also unexpected, which I love.

You just like, again, I forgot like, you know, all the people who are rivals come together. And I was like, oh, yeah, they're going to, oh, he got punched. That's great. So the lady who played Roger Dorn's wife. Who is not Jamie Lee, Curtis. I think Jamie Lee turned it down last minute. Because I thought again, I was like, I know who that.

Nope, that's not Jamie Lee Curtis. Her name was Stacey Carroll. Two IMDB credits. That's it. Never acted again after this movie. Just decided to raise a family. 13 year old me, huge fan of her in that movie. So some sad news.

Margaret Whitton, the owner. No longer with us. Died in 2016. Yeah, I was like, oh. But has this whole crazy backstory. She dated Ron Shelton. and who wrote and directed Bull Durham in 1988. She maintained that she helped write the film when they were dating.

She sued him. He denied the claims. He said it was patently false, but according to a court document, she received $100,000 and 2% of the film's net profits to settle her claims. Martyr Witten. I believe her. How weird is that?

That is not the story I expected you to tell. Yeah. So that's it for Halfass Internet. research. Apex Mountain. Charlie Sheen, yes? Or is it two and a half men? I mean, two and a half men was the most successful show of,

for like eight straight years. I don't know. I thought I was, I was leaning towards that until I forget about two and a half men. It's got to be two and a half men. Yeah. Is it not Berringer? Like, I feel like,

I mean, this is like the end of his great run. I was going to say, I was going to say Platoon for Berenger because Did he win, did he win an Oscar for?

No, William Defoe did. I don't know if Berenger did. He definitely got nominated. But Platoon allowed him to make movies like this. So it's somewhere in there. I don't know if it's definitive.

I think for Margaret Whitten, definitely, James Gaman, definitely. But for the big stars, I don't think it was Apex Mountain for any of them. It's not Hayesbert because President Palmer is... I mean, President Palmer is iconic.

This movie paved the way for President Palmer. It paved the way for Barack Obama via President Palmer. Without this movie, there's no Barack Obama. The Joey Pants Award named after Joe Panellione for best of that guy. It's James Gammond or Chelsea Ross. I feel like people know who James Gammett is. I don't think people know that Chelsea Ross's name is Chelsea Ross. They just know him as Eddie Harris

or the guy from Hoosiers or the guy from Major League. So he wins that one. Would this movie have been better with Danny Treo, Steve Bouchemey or Michael K. Williams? We needed Michael K. Williams in this movie because he would have been the third black person in it.

So he wins. Yeah, even if he's in the stands, just like another black person in the stand. I'm here for that. The Saul Rubenick, they new award for best overacting. I got to go. You probably feel differently.

I have to go with Roger Dornfield. fielding grounders at third base like he was being shot by snipers? Did we ever figure out why? Why was it so debilitated, dude, to field hard grounders? I've never seen anybody react to them like that. Yeah, like, I mean, unless you're eight years old. Like, he's in the major leagues. He's in the major leagues.

He's far enough away from the batters box that it shouldn't be like he's getting shot at. My son is 11 years old and plays third base and is good at third base and has never reacted to a grounder like that ever and he's 11. So I don't know, I don't know what you're doing, Roger Dorn. Picking nits. We've picked a lot of nits already. I just have two extra ones. Yeah.

They mentioned it. Renee Rousseau says at one point in the dinner party that Jake used to be one of the best catchers in baseball until his knees went. Do we really believe Jake Taylor is one of the best catchers in baseball? Was he like, am I supposed to think he was like a Mike Piazza in the early 80s? He just like, he never really gave off that good of an athlete or baseball. No. No.

His throwing, it wasn't like Tim Robbins, Bull Durham bad, but it certainly didn't look like he had a cannon either. And I think they stunt doubled him a lot. I don't think he was terrible. Serrano, on the other hand. Serrano's. That's a cannon. Yeah, Serrano.

He's basically Yassie Elpweg 30 years ago. The game-winning bunt, I just don't think Jake Taylor beats it out with his bad knees. So even if it took the guy by surprise, I still think he's out. Yeah, he needed like the angel. from Angels and Outfield to fly him to first base. Like, nah.

Or it should have been, the third baseman should have been coming over to the third base bag because Willie Mays Hayes was stealing. And that should have gone sideways and that should have thrown him off bounce. Do you have any other nitpicks that we haven't already covered? I have one big one. Okay.

So in the dinner party scene. Not a great scene. No. He mentions that he makes league minimum. Yeah. I type, this is actually amazing. I typed in league minimum. and it auto-populated 1989.

Really? As in, like, someone had the same question. Like, what was the league minimum for Major League, the movie? And what was it? 68K. Oh. Adjusted for inflation, $8,000, that's $141,000. I feel like they make it seem like barringers are minimum wage.

Right. His car is, like, busted. He's living with Charlie Sheen, which they never really experienced. playing. It's just thrown into one scene. Yeah, I feel like they really make it seem like he is like living like in a halfway house and has

no money. But I feel like, you know, he's still a professional baseball player. He's got some money. That's my only nitpick. So I have two other nitpicks based on this nitpick. This guy is such a horn dog that he's like banging stewardesses and getting served

with paternity suits at his birthday party and is now asexual and his early 30s. That's it. He just gave up sex. We never seen him try to hook up with anybody. He just loves,

he just loves Moby Dick. How do him and Ricky Vaughn end up living together? How is that decided? Why would he want to live with this fucking weirdo who just got out of prison? This guy,

he was allegedly one of the best catchers in baseball. Why doesn't he have more money? Why didn't he live, why didn't he have like at least a condo in Cleveland that he was just by himself? The financials don't make any sense. He needed a roommate?

he's probably like a three-time all-star he's like I need a roommate should I live with yeah Serrano or Ricky Vaughn his car had like no hub caps and was like like like stumbling to the curb it was yeah it didn't make any sense oh I have another I hesitate to put this as a nitpick but I'm putting it on anyway I'd love to know how long it took to actually drive the bullpen car

from the stadium to Renee Russel's house because those things don't go faster like 15 miles an hour yeah he got there eight hours later Yeah, is there like a dedicated sidewalk from the stadium to her house? Like, are you on the road? Is she had a scene where he's just on a road with cars honking behind him? He's going 12 boughs an hour. Yeah, actually that is completely true.

There's no way he makes that party. The other thing... Was Tom Barringer supposed to be like 80s hot? I think he was. Okay. 80s like rugged, rugged, handsome type of look. I can't remember. remember my other question I have, but those are some solid.

Oh, my other picket nits, I remember. Yes. Yes. So Roger Dorn's wife sees him on TV leaving the hotel with a girl. He somehow doesn't realize he's on TV, even though there's a camera crew that announce her. Like, he's the worst adult or probably of all time. There's no idea he's being filmed or anything. The wife decides to get to revenge and she's going to sleep with Charlie Sheen.

how does she find Charlie Sheen? Did he have a bar he was hanging out with? And if he did have a bar that everybody knew he hung out with, wouldn't he be surrounded by girls already? He's by himself in this empty bar. He's like a famous guy in the Indians. They're about to play a playoff game. They really make Cleveland seem like it's a town of 400.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, oh, there's only one bar. Yeah. You know, like, you know, he makes, yeah, it just, that doesn't. make any sense. All right, one other nitpick. Ben Lindberg actually wrote about this on The Ringer today. This is a sports movie staple for baseball movies where they always screw up the lineup.

They think we're never going to notice, but they don't realize we're going to watch this 700 times. So Serrano hits a homer with two outs in the seventh inning. And the way the order works, the top of the order is Hayes, Jake Taylor, for some reason, a betting second, Roger Dorn third, and Serrano fourth. Serrano's Homer comes two outs. So the third out is conceivably made by the number five hitter. Then in the eighth inning, you figure they go out one, two, three, and the eighth.

And Tomlinson should lead off the ninth. Yeah. Because he's ostensibly the ninth hitter because Hayes comes up after him. As Ben Lindberg points out, Tomlinson comes up with one out in the ninth. So there's five outs, but there's only four spots between Serrano and Tomlinson. So either the Indians batted out of order or they used a tenth hitter or they just completely screwed this up or I'm not sure what really happened on this one. But again, a baseball movie staple of batting out of order and hoping that we never notice. All right, best quote.

Oh my God. This guy's dead. Cross him off then. Obviously it's time for some changes. This guy here is dead. Cross him off then. Hats for bats. Keep bats warm. Hey, big guy. You a golfer?

For bat. Yeah? What's your handicaps? Keep bats warm. Yes. Just a bit outside. Vaughn into the windup in his first offering. Just a bit outside. He tried the corner and missed. How's your wife and my kids? Up your butt, Joe Boo.

Fuck you, Joe Boo. I do it myself. And then the guy threw it his own son And a father's son game What other quotes do you have? Jake Taylor in the library When he's trying to convince her That he likes books Yeah

He goes, I'll check it out right now Is this the whale section? You're still sore I never read Moby Dick You never read anything I asked you to All right, I'll check it out now Is this the whale section? I'll bet what's his name at the restaurant read it? His name's Tommy, keep your voice down

About Moby Dick That kills me. know why. There's also Willie Mays Hayes going, we should have gotten the live chicken. Yeah, yeah. When they give him the KFC.

The live chicken. I really like, I don't know why, but I really like when Willie Mays Hayes gets on base the first time, just goes, excuse me, got to take my first steps to the Hall of Fame. It made me think about, like, that's like what I thought in my head,

like every time I opened my laptop in like 2011. I'm like this blog post. I'm about to go to the Hall of Fame. And then finally, I just really like during the wild thing when the owner's like, I hate this fucking song. Yeah, that was good. That's a good quote. What's your favorite?

Of those. I mean, I think the, I guess there's one thing left to do when the whole fucking thing. I think that's just like an iconic quote. Well, then I guess there's only one thing left to do. What's that? Win the whole fucking thing. Just a bit outside has been the quote That has been bastardized the most

And I actually don't like it now Because the announcers all think they're being funny When they say it. They ruined it for you? Yeah, they've ruined it for me. No one's Uker. No one's Uker. Stop being Bob Uker.

It's not happening. I really love hats for bats, keep bats worm It fucking kills me. But my favorite is fuck you, Joe Boo. I do it myself. She's tough now, Jobu. Look, I go to you.

I stick up for you. Do you know help me now? I say, fuck you, Jobu. I do it myself. By the way, I highly encourage anybody to use that as their high school yearbook quote. Yeah, some teacher will love it. They'll be like, oh, okay, I like that.

Are they doing high school yearbook quote? They're handing them in right now, right? Do fuck you, boo, fuck you, Joe Boo, I do it myself. Great. That'll be a big win. Everybody would be impressed. Next category. Could this be remade as a 10-episode Netflix show?

Yes, please. How can this happen? Yeah. Can we do it? I would 100% take it. I would love it. So the news comes out, they're remaking Major League, and it's now going to be a 13-episode Netflix series.

What's your reaction? I'm immediately like, who is Charlie Sheaton? Who's Wild Thing? Who's going to be Lou Brown? Who's the owner? I'm in. Just do it. Make it happen.

Maybe don't pick... I wouldn't do Cleveland this time, though. I'd pick another city. I'd pick a more depressed. I'd do like the Miami Marlins or something. Yeah. Although I guess they've won a couple World Series. Seattle?

The Mariners? Yeah. Are they like... What's the worst? Well, the Mariners have never won. Yeah, that's true. But they're one of the only teams left. Yeah.

whoever decides these things, go make Major League the Netflix show. Please do that. Probably unanswerable questions. We've covered everything except I have two. So they say Roger Dorn's stats in the last game. That he had 271, 86 RBI. They also say in that game, Willie Mays Hayes was hitting 291,

which I was shocked by. Yeah. Unanswered questions. How many steals did Willie Mays Hayes have that season? I would say somewhere between 60 to 70, right? So he didn't get it. What do you mean? What was his plan to get 100?

I don't think he got 100. I think they would have said it in the game. Sure. So I'm going to say like 70 range. What was Serrano's K's to home run ratio? Yeah. I figured he had like 32 homers and like 220 Ks. Yeah, he like never hit a double.

No. You know, like it just only dingers. Eddie Harris wins? say maybe like a 16 and 10 type season for Eddie if they won 92. Somebody had to win games. And I think Charlie Sheen around the same, probably like 15 and 11, 15 and 10.

Uh-huh. I don't know. I don't know. I needed more stats in the final game. I really enjoyed the stats. I was like, wow. Roger Dorn has 86 RBS. Wow.

Shocked. We covered did this event closer music. And then my final in answerable question because this movie came out. the same year, or a year later than Bull Durham. Would Bull Durham have been better off if Charlie Sheen was New Lerush? Ooh. Yeah, because I'm saying yes.

I would sacrifice Charlie from this movie to make Bull Durham better. You think that there's, you can sub in someone for Charlie and still make Major League work? I'm saying if he's in the New Lerush role, Bull Durham becomes the best movie of all time. anything better than Citizen Kane, the Godfather, everything. I want both movies to continue to exist. So you like both movies, okay. But what I will say is I think it's easier to substitute Charlie Sheen because, like, like you said earlier, like the small amount of time that he's actually in the movie. Yeah.

I feel like you can put someone in and be like, you know, you got eight scenes. Maybe Emilio Estevez steps in. I don't know. He might be too short. Yeah, I don't know. You're right. We probably do lose with Major League. I had to think about this some more.

Between those brothers, between S of S and Sheen, like iconic sports siblings, because, you know, I love Mighty Ducks too more than anything. Well, we have this new Twitter feed for the rewatchables. Maybe we'll do a poll. If you had to do it over again, would you have rather had Charlie Sheen in Bull Durham than Major League? I'd be interested to see what the responses are.

All right. Who won the movie? I say Snipes. Wow, Snipes. I mean, you've told me things that have, like, just, like, ruin this movie for me. Like, I'll never see it again. But I wrote down before all of the nonsense that Snipes won the movie.

But, you know, I'm staying there. Okay. I'm not wavering. I can't believe I'm saying it, but I'm going with Charlie Sheen. That's on you. I just think I love Wild Thing. I love that character. his P.R in this movie for the amount of time he's actually in the movie for what his stats are is off the charts.

Every scene he's in is lights out. I enjoy every single moment that he has in this movie. He's the most realistic baseball player. He's way up there in any conversation. He's with Koster and all these other guys. And I think him walking in in the final game and then striking out Clue Haywood, is one of the better sports movie scenes ever. Yeah.

So I'm going with him. And I also loved his quotes about James Gammon. And I want to know more about James Gammon and Charlie Sheen on the set in 1988. What exactly happened? I could read a whole oral history about the poker games at James Gammon's hotel room. One, my one reason I love Sheen is I think it's like an iconic fashion role. Yeah. Like between the glasses, the earrings, the haircut, and most important,

For me, the sleeveless tuxedo jacket from the AMX commercial, it's like, it's pretty, it's pretty iconic. So like for that, I do. The French restaurant outfit is pretty great, too. Oh, yeah. Every scene he's in, it's hard for me to believe that they were making this movie and just refusing to realize that him and Snipes should have been in more scenes. Yeah. As they filmed the seventh scene with Tom Berringer and Renee Russo. Oh, he stopped into another house.

Cool. Cool, cool, cool, cool. All right. So we cut the scene where, uh, where he's waiting. outside our house at 4 in the morning in his car. All right, remember Brown. We did it, man. We did it.

We backed our first rewatchables together. This was wonderful. I'm pumped. This was very fun. And even though you had pretty much ruined Wesley Snipes, like more than tax evasion did for me. I'm very happy to do this. Happy anniversary to you. Happy 30th anniversary.

Thank you, sir. One of the classics. Thanks for coming on. and don't forget to check out the or follow the rewatchables Twitter feed where you can engage with us on all this stuff. Thanks, Rembert. See you later, Bill. All right, thanks to Sling. Don't forget about sling.com slash rewatchables promo code ringer.

Don't forget about our Twitter feed. It is called at the rewatchables. And you can follow what we're doing in next movies, polls, little goofy facts about the movie, whatever you want. We have all of it. And don't forget about Game of Thurface. Thrones on the ringer.com as well as our postgame show. Talk the Thrones, which launches Sunday night on Twitter at ringer or hashtag talk the Thrones back with feel of dreams next week until then.