Major League

Director: David S Ward (1989)

Cast:Tom Berenger,Charlie Sheen, Wesley Snipes,Corbin Bernsen, Bob Uecker, Margaret Whitton

Major League is a spoof that has delivered fun to a few generations of sports movie watchers. There are so many memorable moments in this 1989 film. It spawned sequels, but THIS is the one you’ve got to watch first.

Major League is often referred to as a "Cable Classic," meaning that, if you are flipping through the channels and you come across it, you can't keep yourself from watching the whole thing, no matter how many times you've seen it before.

The film includes memorable characters Ricky Vaughn, Jake Taylor, Willie Mays Hayes and Pedro Cerrano, who take part in a fictional version of the 1989 Cleveland Indians, thrown together by the team's owner, Rachel Phelps, who wanted the worst team possible so she could move it to Florida.

But the players end up winning despite everything the owner tries to do to stop them. The film was the brainchild of its writer-director, David S. Ward who had won an Oscar in 1974 for his screen play for "The Sting."

Ward took his time and put together a cast that included Charlie Sheen as Vaughn, Tom Berenger as Taylor, Corbin Bernsen as third baseman Roger Dorn, Wesley Snipes as Hayes and Dennis Haysbert as Cerrano. Nearly all of them could not only act and handle comedy, but could play ball as well.

Fun Facts: Wesley Snipes was a great athlete, but he couldn't hit to save his life. So every at bat he would swing and cut to shot of the ball coming off the bat.

Corbin Bernsen and Charlie Sheen both played high school baseball in Southern California. Bernsen at Beverly Hills High School and Sheen at Malibu High School.

Bob Uecker, who played the Indians announcer Harry Doyle, has been the voice of the Milwaukee Brewers since 1971.

The original ending of the movie had team owner Rachel Phelps become sympathetic to the team and root them on. Test audiences hated that so ward and his crew had to fly to England where actress Margret Whitton was doing a play and re-shoot her scene.