Friday, February 10, 2012

Flick Friday: Major League



This week's flick is the 1989 classic, Major League. I don't think I need to spend any time talking about the movie's plot. Anyone who calls himself a baseball fan has seen the movie, many times. I would say that this movie is among the most quoted baseball movie...
  • "Jusssst a bit outside"
  • "What the hell league you been playing in?" "California Penal."
  • "Willie Mays Hayes. I hit like Mays, and I run like Hayes." "You may run like Hayes. but you hit like s***."
Classic stuff, there!

As far as I know, there have never been any official Major League baseball cards released. Too bad, because I bet they would be a big seller.

Here are the cards I created, using Upper Deck's 1989 design



Wild Thing Ricky Vaughn. Sheen did a very convincing job playing a major league pitcher.



Pedro Cerrano....FU Jobo!



Roger Dorn. The movie was made during the days of LA Law, and Dorn was never real to me; it was Arnie Becker playing third for the Indians.



Jake Taylor calling his shot. Anyone else find the script flaw in this scene? When Hayes moves into scoring position by stealing second, Taylor calls time out and signals Lou Brown with the idea to bunt and run. Lou agrees and send the play in. As a diversion, Taylor calls his shot, ala Babe Ruth. No one is thinking bunt. But the pitcher is ticked and knocks Taylor down. Taylor gets up, calls the shot again, and then bunts as Hayes takes off for third. The bunt is successful, Hayes scores, the Indians win. So what's the flaw?

On the first pitch after Taylor called his shot (the pitch that knocked him down), Hayes didn't run on the pitch. He stayed at second. And that was after Hayes signaled back to the coach that he got the sign. He blew the bunt and run. If he had run he probably would have stolen third because the catcher would have had a hard time handling the knockdown pitch. But to keep the dramatics, Hollywood just had Hayes stuck on second base on the first pitch, and then run after the knockdown.

CUB CONNECTION

The Indians spent years training in Arizona; the Cubs too. So the Cubs showed up in some of the spring training footage.

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The movie came out in 1989, the same season the Cubs acquired a hard throwing but wild reliever,



Mitch Williams. On Opening Day 1989, in the top of the ninth Williams walked the bases loaded and then struck out the side. The movie came out three days later. It didn't take Cubs fans very long before they started calling Williams "Wild Thing."

3 comments:

  1. Cool Upper Deck creations.

    But there are Major League movie baseball cards:

    http://www.tribecards.net/2010/01/major-league-movie-cards-found.html

    ReplyDelete