Comments on: A League Of Its Own

A League Of Its Own

reenum — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 09:11:47 -0800

SI has written an oral history about the making of the movie "Major League". Charlie Sheen was also interviewed for this piece.

By: Beardman

Beardman — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 09:19:10 -0800

Missing tags: drugs, egomania, warlocks.

By: jjoye

jjoye — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 09:24:04 -0800

Metafilter: drugs, egomania, warlocks.

By: three blind mice

three blind mice — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 09:28:07 -0800

So the annual bikini issue is coming a little earlier this year.

By: k5.user

k5.user — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 09:28:51 -0800

I coulda sworn Bob Uecker was dead, so I thought those were older quotes.. Nope, he's still alive and kicking..

By: blucevalo

blucevalo — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 09:31:09 -0800

"When I saw the script it wasn't like catnip, it was like crack."

By: tomswift

tomswift — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 09:31:15 -0800

Charlie who?

By: tomswift

tomswift — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 09:31:55 -0800

I coulda sworn that Charlie Sheen was dead... oh wait, that was his career.

By: obscurator

obscurator — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 09:34:22 -0800

Sheen: I didn't like the haircut because it generated so many comments in bars. I've got enough of that already. Add that to the mix and it's a recipe for a fistfight.

Hrm, what can we suppose were the other ingredients in that recipe?

By: obscurator

obscurator — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 09:36:10 -0800

Oops, didn't RTentireFA. He mentions "pre-opiates" in the next quote.

By: mightygodking

mightygodking — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 09:38:19 -0800

I remember when 24 first came on I was all "HOLY SHIT PEDRO CERRANO IS THE PRESIDENT" and I kept wishing he would pray to Jobu in his darkest hour but he never did.

By: Ghostride The Whip

Ghostride The Whip — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 09:45:41 -0800

United States, they are sick. I cannot deal with Congress. Executive Orders I can give very much. Congress, they are afraid. I ask Jobu to come, take fear from Congress. I offer him cigar, rum. He will come.

By: spicynuts

spicynuts — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 09:48:34 -0800

Are you saying Jesus Christ can't take the fear from Congress?

By: mrbill

mrbill — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 09:55:32 -0800

What was weird was having Allstate commercials w/Haysbert come on during an episode of The Unit, also starring Haysbert.

By: Potomac Avenue

Potomac Avenue — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 09:57:05 -0800

All this time people have been wondering what ruined Charlie and it turns out he got strung out on the script for Major League. Eventually II wasn't cutting it. Then someone gave him a hotshot and it was all over :C Another great actor taken down by Screwballs.

By: Mayor Curley

Mayor Curley — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 10:00:10 -0800

As a million people have mentioned over the years, Charlie Sheen achieved something very rare in "Major League." He portrayed a pitcher on the mound and was actually convincing.

By: dglynn

dglynn — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 10:21:58 -0800

Guy I knew served on an aircraft carrier, which meant boredom, and he said there were two movies they agreed survived repeated viewings; Apocalypse Now, and Major League. He didn't claim to understand it, just reported the results of the tests.

By: grubi

grubi — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 10:25:42 -0800

Easily one of my favorite baseball films, if not my all-time favorite. Quotable as hell and genuinely funny. Plus, the baseball looks good. "Hey, bartender! Jobu needs a refill!"

By: Saxon Kane

Saxon Kane — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 10:26:34 -0800

How do you write an oral history? That said, Major League rules.

By: Ickster

Ickster — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 10:28:34 -0800

That was an interesting little group interview. If only Sheen and James Gammon's positions were reversed, it would be perfect.

By: ricochet biscuit

ricochet biscuit — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 10:41:58 -0800

I think to reflect the current Sheen mania overtaking the nation, all FPPs should include some Sheen regardless of relevance. Consider filthy light thief's post just below this one: Fancy a jaunt in a dirigible, do you? Read along with Popular Mechanics and get a feel for it. Charlie Sheen was also interviewed for this piece. See how much snappier that is?

By: Saxon Kane

Saxon Kane — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 10:42:25 -0800

obscurator: Sheen also mentions doing steroids to bulk up for the film. It is tragically funny that someone has to 'roid up just to pretend to be a baseball player.

By: Afroblanco

Afroblanco — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 10:42:42 -0800

You know, I loved this movie as a kid, so a few months back I tried watching it again to see if it held up. It didn't. Lots of unfunny race humor. Also, the Tom Berenger character is kinda creepy and stalky. (follows her home? WTF?) Bull Durham, on the other hand, is still funny as hell, and a good story to boot.

By: Horselover Phattie

Horselover Phattie — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 10:42:53 -0800

Charlie Sheen talks steroids, baseball, Major League and more It would seem that Sheen is stuck in that artificial moment of glory at the end of "Major League".

By: grubi

grubi — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 10:55:02 -0800

Race humor?

By: Ghostride The Whip

Ghostride The Whip — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 11:14:59 -0800

I think the race humor he's referring to is stuff like jungle drums and monkey noises when Cerrano is on the screen for a couple scenes.

By: Horselover Phattie

Horselover Phattie — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 11:16:38 -0800

"Say Hey, Willie Mays Hays" isn't really all that racial either.

By: Mayor Curley

Mayor Curley — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 12:15:21 -0800

Bull Durham, on the other hand, is still funny as hell, and a good story to boot. Yeah, but Tim Robbins pitches like he's playing catch with a toddler.

By: jenfullmoon

jenfullmoon — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 12:52:46 -0800

Well, the use of "warlock" certainly means that was a current interview....

By: epersonae

epersonae — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 13:22:25 -0800

One of my mother's favorite movies, which is a little weird because she's not into sports AT ALL. We used to rent the tape (!) at least once every summer to watch when the weather was too damn hot to go outside. Hmmm, it's summer now, maybe I'll have to get it from Netflix. I totally never realized that the president from 24 was the Jobu guy from Major League. How did I never notice that?!

By: asterix

asterix — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 13:40:20 -0800

Lots of unfunny race humor. More than just the team's logo?

By: CCBC

CCBC — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 14:09:53 -0800

Bull Durham, on the other hand, is still funny as hell, and a good story to boot. Totally true. And it came out the year before Major League, too.

By: Halloween Jack

Halloween Jack — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 14:24:01 -0800

Sheen had the advantage of actually being a good player in high school, and has even talked about dreaming of becoming a pro, but he was starting to get into the drugs and hookers even as a teenager.

By: grubi

grubi — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 14:40:24 -0800

I always took the jungle drums (no monkey sounds -- go back and listen again) to denote how he was a voudoun-worshiping Cuban.

By: grubi

grubi — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 14:48:55 -0800

(See, he's exotic.)

By: zardoz

zardoz — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 15:00:39 -0800

Best baseball movie. Ever.

By: zardoz

zardoz — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:57:01 -0800

Also, I like this bit: James Gammon? You want to talk about an absolute f------ 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. Charlie Sheen may be a megadouche these days, but anyone who shows love for James Gammon is ok in my book.

By: Afroblanco

Afroblanco — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 21:49:20 -0800

Race humor? Cerrano and Willie Mays Hayes were the only two black characters in the movie, and they were both fairly cartoony and caracaturish. I dunno, maybe I'm reading too much into it. But I didn't think the movie stood up. Too many 80s comedy tropes. It's very much of its time.

By: imabanana

imabanana — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 23:14:40 -0800

Willie Mays Hayes was a caricature of a certain type of baseball player that became really prominent in the 80's, and then faded when steroids hit. Vince Coleman is who comes to mind, someone who couldn't really hit but could steal 100+ bases. I don't know if Hayes was a cartoonish character (any more than most in the movie - it was a pretty goofy comedy as much as I did enjoy it), but I imagine they cast a black actor in that role at least partially because most of the prominent base stealers in the 80s were black - Tim Raines, Rickey Henderson, Coleman, Eric Davis, even Tony Gwynn in his early years.

By: grubi

grubi — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 06:00:54 -0800

Cerrano was a Cuban exile with an exotic religion and Hays was a super-fast runner who snuck his way into camp... race was never a factor in the movie, either directly or in any joke. They were never seen as any more ridiculous than the white players. Yeah, I think you are reading too much into it.

By: antifuse

antifuse — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 12:06:11 -0800

From page two of TFA, for those of you too lazy to R it: The characters were combinations of real players. Willie Mays Hayes, who Wesley Snipes played, was a little Willie Mays with the basket catch and Rickey Henderson on the base paths. Dennis Haysbert's Cerrano character was based on the Alou brothers and some of the Latin ballplayers who were known to be a little superstitious. Wild Thing was Ryne Duren, who I knew as a Yankees reliever, a big guy who wore these Coke-bottle glasses and threw the ball really hard. There might have been a little Al Hrabosky in there too.

By: P.o.B.

P.o.B. — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 20:56:51 -0800

One of the only movies I can qoute a line from that appeared in the tv trailer/commercial but not in the movie. [Main characters seated at table in bar. Sheen is distraught over having pitched a game-winning-homerun] Berenger: "Oh, don't be to hard on yourself. There are plenty of parks that ball wouldn't have been hit out of." Sheen: "Name one." Berenger:"... Yellowstone?"