#19: Major League

Release Date: April 7th, 1989

Format: Streaming (Plex)

Written by: David S. Ward

Directed by: David S. Ward

2.5 Stars

Is Major League the best baseball movie ever? Probably. But surprisingly the roster is pretty thin for such a seemingly cinematic sport. In the running: The Sandlot (half good movie/half nostalgia trip for Millenials), Moneyball (is it even a baseball movie?), Bull Durham (I haven’t seen it, surprisingly), and A League of Their Own (pretty good, but pretty schmaltzy).

In addition to possibly being the best baseball movie ever, Major League is the most uneven of the contenders. There are some genuinely bad scenes, most of which revolve around Tom Berenger and Rene Russo. Their romance is both cliche and trope. When you’ve seen the movie a few times, you’re essentially waiting out these scenes to get to the good stuff.

And what is the good stuff? The thing that makes Major League a good (not great) baseball movie is that it gets the closest to capturing the joyfulness of the game at the professional level, both from a fan’s perspective and the player’s perspective. When Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn comes into the game in the 9th inning to close out the Yankees in front of his hometown fans (seemingly tens of thousands of Cleveland locals are packed into the stands), it feels like a real playoff baseball game. That’s no small feat. 

But otherwise, Major League is a slightly above average ‘80s comedy.