My favorite baseball movie of all time, "Major League" tells the story of a hard luck major league baseball team that beats the odds and becomes a winner. The story is conventional but the characters are classic. This movie also has, in my opinion, one of the greatest ending lines in a movie. Included in the baseball story is a love story between the leading man and an old flame. Just a great baseball movie and a fine movie all around, that should be included in your DVD collection.

The story begins just before spring training with the Cleveland Indians baseball club. For thirty years they had been one of the worst teams in baseball. The owner of the team dies and his showgirl wife takes over the team with the intention of bringing in the worst players in the league so she could move the team to Miami.(When this movie was made, there were no professional teams in Florida, now there are two.) So some of the worst players assemble to try and make the team. Among them is Jake Taylor, a catcher, who was an all-star before in injured his knees (played by Tom Berenger-Platoon.) He is the old man on the team and he mentor's the young guys on the game. The young guys would be Rick Vaughn, a pitcher from the California Penal League (played by Charlie Sheen-The Big Bounce,) and Willie Mays Hayes, a guy who hits like Mays and runs like Hayes (played by Wesley Snipes-Blade trilogy.) These four men, along with the rest of the team have to overcome the obstacles set by the owner Rachel Phelps (played by Margaret Whitton-The Man Without a Face.)

The characters in this movie are so well written that I believe these characters are true. They are very believable and are just fun to watch which is amazing considering that if the characters were written poorly, this movie would be as well. Another one of my favorite characters in the movie is the manager Lou Brown played by James Gammon (Cold Mountain.) He is quite funny and quite a good actor, nominated for a Tony Award® in 1996 for leading actor in the revival on Sam Sheppard's "Buried Child." Gammon is not the only nominated actor in this movie, Berenger was nominated for an Academy Award® for his role in the movie "Platoon."

The movie was written and directed by David S Ward, who has also written "The Sting," and "Sleepless in Seattle." He did a magnificent job of writing these characters. I just wonder how he was able to nail them down so well. He came up with one of the best ending lines in movie history, although you need to know baseball to appreciate it. He has Harry Doyle, the announcer for the team, played by Bob Uecker (TV's Mr. Belvedere,) to say after the Indians when the final game, "The Indians did it, the Indians did it, oh my God, the Indians did it." You have to see the movie to appreciate the line but too me it's a classic.

I hope that if you are a fan of baseball then you have already seen this movie and added it to your collection. The movie is also a great study in how to write characters and if you want to learn what are good characters then you should see this movie. Celebrate baseball and watch "Major League."

Brian - the Naked Gun