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Fans of "Major League" (1989) may want to see "Major League II." I did not see the first film and am not in that category. Nor is there anything in "Major League II" that inspires me to go back and catch up on the earlier film.

This is comedy by the numbers, the uninspired story of a Cleveland Indian team of colorful weirdos and misfits, who seem to be trapped in a perpetual audition for the blooper reel.

The movie opens with a clever recap of the previous season (or film), delivered by the team announcer, played by Bob Uecker as a drunk whose problem gets worse as the season wears on.

We meet " Wild Thing " Vaughn ( Charlie Sheen ), famous for his haircut; Pedro Cerrano ( Dennis Haysbert ), who has become a Buddhist in the offseason, Willie Mays Hayes ( Omar Epps ), who believes in exerting himself as little as possible, and Rube (Eric Bruskotter), the new recruit, who plays catcher but cannot consistently throw the ball back to the pitcher's mound because he keeps thinking too much.

The team manager, played by Tom Berenger , is a weary and cynical veteran who has seen it all and believes in quick fixes and miracle cures. Learning that Rube's favorite pages in Playboy are the Playmate Interviews, he suggests that the catcher distract himself by reciting them during the game. And so on.

The franchise is owned by the rich Rachel Phelps ( Margaret Whitton ), who wants to move it to another market and thinks a losing season will help her cause.

She likes to give demoralizing locker-room speeches ("Win tonight and the loser label is gone forever!"). The movie also contains a heroine, played by Michelle Burke , who used to date Wild Thing. Now she dates a White Sox fan and taunts Thing with that information. Her job apparently involves bringing the same group of disadvantaged children to every single Cleveland home game, so that she and Wild Thing can have angry conversations.

The movie's level of wit is suggested by his riposte at the end of one argument: "Women - you can't live without 'em, and they can't - - - standing up." The movie assembles elements which, with better writing and direction, might have had comic possibilities.

The team recruits a Japanese star (Takaaki Ishibashi), who rants and raves in loud Japanese and flaunts his samurai code at the newly pacifist convert to Buddha (Haysbert), who of course has a little altar in his locker, and meditates before games.

And there is the byplay between the hard-drinking Uecker and his soporific color announcer, whose idea of play-by-play is "Fly ball. Caught." Maybe David S. Ward's screenplay for "Major League II" looked good on the page. I dunno. The humor is so predictable, forced and awkward that the actors sometimes seem like helpless bystanders.

If the writing had been smarter - if it had been about a plausible baseball team, instead of about a group of sitcom clowns - maybe something would have worked.

There's one bright spot: On the basis of this dismal attempt, the team will probably not be back next season.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Major League II (1994)

Rated PG For Language

110 minutes

Corbin Bernsen as Dorn

Tom Berenger as Jake Taylor

Charlie Sheen as Wild Thing Vaughn

Directed by

• David S. Ward

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Major League II (1994)

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MAJOR LEAGUE II

(H, LLL, V, S, N, A, FR, M) Humanistic worldview; 34 obscenities (no use of F-word), 8 profanities (6 very mild) & 20 mild vulgarities; mild, sports related action violence; implied sexual immorality--1 instance; brief partial male nudity--locker room scene; brief alcohol abuse; 2 false religions portrayed but not promoted; and, player memorizes text from Playboy magazine as psychological concentration technique (photos not shown).

More Detail:

“Wild Thing” Charlie Sheen and his off-beat Cleveland Indians teammates return for another shot at the World Series in the comedy-sequel MAJOR LEAGUE II. However, a few changes have taken place in the off-season. Pitcher Rick Vaughn (Sheen) has traded in his “Wild Thing” persona for Armani suits, catcher Jack Taylor (Tom Berenger) is back this time as a coach and inept third baseman Roger Dorn (Corbin Bernsen) now owns the team.

A typical sequel and simply a continuation of the first story, MAJOR LEAGUE II opens with a quick refresher for those who missed the first movie or have simply forgotten. The acting performances are fine, with believable sports action and competent drama and humor where called for in the script. While the amount of foul language in the film prohibits any endorsement, at least there are no uses of the dreaded F-word–a great relief. There is one instance of implied sexual activity, but no nudity is involved, and it is quite mild. Overall, MAJOR LEAGUE II is a fairly harmless (aside from the foul language) and relatively enjoyable rags to riches sports story with a few exciting action sequences and a happy ending. MAJOR LEAGUE II will probably offend more people with its predictable story line than its objectionable content.

Major League II

It's a fast trip back to the minors for "Major League II," a singularly unfunny, dramatically tepid follow-up to 1989's $ 50 million theatrical success. Commercial prospects for the Cinderella squad are other than championship form. Unlike the screen team, the film has fast-start potential but should choke after a couple of innings.

By Leonard Klady

Leonard Klady

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It’s a fast trip back to the minors for “Major League II,” a singularly unfunny, dramatically tepid follow-up to 1989’s $ 50 million theatrical success. Commercial prospects for the Cinderella squad are other than championship form. Unlike the screen team, the film has fast-start potential but should choke after a couple of innings.

Time has not been kind to the franchise, with the second season imposing a straitjacket structure that’s in direct opposition to the inspired chaos of the original. Apart from an emotional ninth-inning surge, this is one yarn that unravels into a heap of plot strands all too quickly.

Even the addition of a Japanese comic on the field is unlikely to provide much heat in the one offshore market where baseball packs a hefty commercial swing.

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Story dives directly into the next season of the fictional Cleveland Indians, who won their onscreen division five years back. They ought to be pumped for bigger and better things. Instead, they return diminished by off-season activity.

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Rick (Wild Thing) Vaughn (Charlie Sheen) has gone so legit that he’s now a sought-after spokesman for chichi products. Knee injuries send Jake Taylor (Tom Berenger) to the coaching ranks, and Roger Dorn (Corbin Bernsen) has stepped off the fieldto buy the club from Rachel Phelps (Margaret Whitton). Meanwhile, Willie Mays Hayes (Omar Epps) did an action film, and Pedro Cerrano has switched from voodoo to Buddhism.

The thread running through R.J. Stewart’s screenplay is that old, feel-good saw about being yourself. The by-the-book plot systematically has each character seeing the light — which, as the team once again becomes whole, transforms the cellar club into a World Series contender.

The predictable device robs the film of a lot of momentum. Devoid of pace, much of the humor comes across as forced and insipid. Peripheral characters and commentators — so integral to the first — emerge as somehow separate and, somewhat ironically, much funnier than the principals.

While the original was a true ensemble piece, “Major League II” places its dominant emphasis on Sheen’s character. The thankless role he has to play drags him through the movie only vaguely aware that he has a crisis to resolve. When he is transformed, his moment of epiphany occurs offscreen.

The rest of the cast is allowed barely more than a single note to play. That applies to veterans, including Bernsen and Whitton, as well as the hayseed new catcher limned by Eric Bruskotter and the mean, vain heavy embodied by David Keith. Randy Quaid is badly misused in the recurring part of a fair-weather fan.

So one has to be thankful for the energy Bob Uecker provides as the radio play-by-play man and the truly inspired deadpan of his sidekick (Skip Griparis). The actor who comes off best is Wesley Snipes, who opted to skip the sequel (Epps picking up his role).

The dramatic bedrock of both “Leagues” is teamwork — do your job, work hard and collaborate. It’s a good rule of life and something the makers of “League II” seem to have forgotten during the hiatus between these two baseball production seasons.

• Production: A Warner Bros. release of a James G. Robinson presentation of a Morgan Creek production. Produced by Robinson, David S. Ward. Executive producer, Gary Barber. Directed by Ward. Screenplay, R.J. Stewart, story by Stewart, Tom S. Parker, Jim Jennewein, based on characters created by Ward.
• Crew: Camera (Duart color; Technicolor prints), Victor Hammer; editors, Paul Seydor, Donn Cambern; music, Michel Colombier; production design, Stephen Hendrickson; art direction, Gary Diamond; set design, Kyung Chang; set decoration, Leslie Bloom; costume design, Bobbie Read, sound (Dolby), Robert Anderson Jr; technical adviser, Steve Yeager; assistant director, Jerram A. Swartz; line producer/second unit director, Edward D. Markley; second unit camera, John M. Stephens; casting, Ferne Cassel. Reviewed at Warner Bros., Burbank, March 23, 1994. MPAA Rating: PG. Running time: 104 min.
• With: Rick Vaughn - Charlie Sheen Jake Taylor - Tom Berenger Roger Dorn - Corbin Bernsen Pedro Cerrano - Dennis Haysbert Lou Brown - James Gammon Willie Mays Hayes - Omar Epps Rube Baker - Eric Bruskotter Harry Doyle - Bob Uecker Jack Parkman - David Keith Rachel Phelps - Margaret Whitton Isuro Tanaka - Takaaki Ishibashi Flannery - Alison Doody Nikki Reese - Michelle Burke Johnny - Randy Quaid Monte - Skip Griparis

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Major League II Review

01 Jan 1994

105 minutes

Major League II

Five years on from the amiable original about a struggling baseball team who overcome adversity and crap players to — hey! — win the league comes a sequel so crass, so unfunny and so utterly devoid of anything resembling a plot that one can wonder how — fiscal reasons aside — it ever got the green light. Indeed, so negligible are Messrs Berenger’s and Bernsen’s roles herein, that it must be assumed they’re simply onboard to fulfil contractual obligations. Slightly more upfront is Sheen’s Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughan who has abandoned his punk-like haircut and attitude in favour of yuppie suits, garish ties and a girlfriend in Alison Doody’s plastic press agent. She’s out to improve his image by sending him on chat-shows and putting him in personal-hygiene commercials — the results of which we’re no doubt meant to cream ourselves laughing at his tragic incompetence. Back at the ball game, however, only one season has passed, but already the Cleveland Indians, with Bernsen as their new owner are back to their old bungling ways. In comes Omar Epps, as Wesley Snipes replacement, and Eric Bruskotter as a Woody Harrelson clone, coming up with doltish homilies such as “Women — can’t live with them, and they can’t pee standing up.” The “humour” is of the most puerile variety, the “drama” consists of Sheen’s choosing the right woman between his schoolteacher ex and the increasingly bitchy Doody. Otherwise, it’s an endless baseball game that proves a moronic waste of anyone’s time.

Major League II (1994)

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Major league collection.

The first Major League became a surprise hit and served as a springboard for the careers of Charlie Sheen and Wesley Snipes. An enjoyable comedy which made enough box office to result in two sequels.

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Major League II (1994)

Rate: 7 Viewed: 11/14

Winning gets old in Sheen’s ‘Major League II’ (1994)

“Major League II” (1994) is a prime example of a sequel that rehashes the original in order to draw smiles from fans, but does nothing else new. It should be granted that a popular giphy has come from Pedro Cerrano (Dennis Haysbert) dancing around the bases mimicking holding his huge testicles. But overall, it’s not a good sign if that’s the film’s iconic image.

No longer the underdog

A year after the Indians’ division title (we’re told here they lost in the ALCS to the White Sox), the team is no longer an underdog. So director David S. Ward and writer R.J. Stewart contrive – I mean, devise – problems for the players.

For instance, now-financially successful Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn (Charlie Sheen) is caught between a previously unseen girlfriend he had split with (Michelle Burke) and a new one (Alison Doody) who oversees his endorsement deals.

To commemorate baseball’s All-Star Break, Reviews from My Couch is looking back at the films of the “Major League” franchise from July 13-15.

“Major League II” (1994)

Director: David S. Ward

Writers: R.J. Stewart (screenplay, story); Tom S. Parker, Jim Jennewein (story)

Stars: Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Corben Bernsen

Sheen gives a performance reminiscent of the “Hot Shots!” films. That’s bad for a couple reasons: one, it’s too stiff; and two, we expect laughs. And they don’t come as fast here as in those parodies, or as in the first “Major League.”

There are some chuckles, though. They come from Bob Uecker in the broadcast booth, again getting to ad lib. A strong new addition to the Indians uber-fan group is Randy Quaid, whose heckles are mostly aimed at “Mild Thing” Vaughn.

Goofier action and arcs

The on-field action and clubhouse issues are goofier this time around. We do get more iconic images such as the manager (James Gammon) cheering from his hospital bed, claiming to the nurses that he’s absorbed in a British PBS show.

Another famous moment is Willie Mays Hayes jumping over the White Sox catcher, adding “I told you I wasn’t gonna slide.” Hayes is now played by Omar Epps, as Wesley Snipes had become an action star in the interim. In “Major League II’s” cleverest inside joke, we learn Hayes made a movie in the offseason, “Black Hammer, White Lightning,” co-starring Jesse Ventura.

The best new story thread finds a catcher (Eric Bruskotter, who could’ve played a young Jim Thome) unable to throw the ball back to the pitcher, a situation that mirrors Mackey Sasser’s.

By far the laziest thread finds the owner (Margaret Whitton) again hating her own team. But this time she has no motivation for doing so. That sums up “Major League II” pretty well. It’s still watchable, but less motivated.

In the real world, the Indians were starting to get good, and playing in a new stadium. It was time, to paraphrase Quaid’s heckler, to tear this saga down and put up a parking lot. Unfortunately, there would be one more entry.

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Major league, common sense media reviewers.

Crowd-pleasing '80s underdog sports comedy.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Even when faced with nearly impossible odds and no

Dorn and Vaughn push and shove each other, and in

There's asexual partial nudity in the team loc

This is major-league cursing: More than two dozen

Major League Baseball: Cleveland Indians, New York

The guys drink cocktails and beer. Cerrano (and Jo

Parents need to know that this R-rated sports comedy includes a great deal of foul language. In some scenes nearly every other word is an obscenity. The rest of the movie is pretty tame, however. You'll find some drinking and cigar-smoking, plus there are a couple of discreet love scenes and some glimpses of…

Positive Messages

Even when faced with nearly impossible odds and no confidence from their owner, the ragtag team pulls together to give the season their best shot.

Violence & Scariness

Dorn and Vaughn push and shove each other, and in another scene Dorn punches Vaughn in the face. A couple of players give each other menacing looks.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

There's asexual partial nudity in the team locker room (bare butts are visible). The female team owner slaps a couple of players' butts. Two sets of characters have off-screen sex (the viewer sees just foreplay and afterglow). A player is caught cheating on his wife in a televised news segment.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

This is major-league cursing: More than two dozen "F"-words and "s--t," along with "ass," "Goddamn," "dick," and one "motherf--ker." There's even cursing in Spanish, courtesy of Cerrano.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Major League Baseball: Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

The guys drink cocktails and beer. Cerrano (and Jobu) smokes cigars and drinks rum.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this R-rated sports comedy includes a great deal of foul language. In some scenes nearly every other word is an obscenity. The rest of the movie is pretty tame, however. You'll find some drinking and cigar-smoking, plus there are a couple of discreet love scenes and some glimpses of players' backsides in the locker room. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (7)
• Kids say (15)

Based on 7 parent reviews

MAJOR LEAGUE is a GRAND SLAM!

Pg-13 for strong language and brief sexual content, what's the story.

When the greedy widow of the Cleveland Indians' owner decides she'd rather relocate the team to Miami, she assembles an awful roster to ensure game attendance is at an all-time low. The team starters are a bunch of has-beens and never-will-bes like over-the-hill catcher Jake Taylor ( Tom Berenger ), "wild thing" rookie pitcher Rick Vaughn ( Charlie Sheen ) and cocky base-stealer Willy Mays Hayes ( Wesley Snipes ), none of whom knows they've been set up to lose. After an unexpected winning streak, the team discovers the owner's plans and vows to win at all costs -- even praying to the Afro-Cuban player's ( Dennis Haysbert ) voodoo god Jobu, who accepts fine rum and cigar offerings.

Is It Any Good?

Major League is a refreshingly fictional and light story about a very real team: the Cleveland Indians. It's a nice change from all the feel-good sports flicks that are usually historical dramas about the first team to overcome racism, poverty, or devastating odds.

Sheen shines as the rockin' closer with a lot of attitude. As his foil, Corbin Bernsen is perfectly vain as the all-business pro athlete who's cashing in off the field but is checked out on the field. Even 18 years after its original release, the movie is still a fun, lightweight sports flick. When Berenger leads the team to a predictable championship victory, it's impossible not to grin.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about determination and overcoming obstacles. What starts out as a group of "losers" without a chance turns into the little team that could. How does the owner's lack of confidence affect the players? Why is it so compelling to root for the underdog? Kids: name your favorite sports movies.

Movie Details

• In theaters : April 7, 1989
• On DVD or streaming : April 10, 2007
• Cast : Charlie Sheen , Corbin Bernsen , Tom Berenger
• Director : David S. Ward
• Studio : Paramount Pictures
• Genre : Comedy
• Run time : 107 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• Last updated : January 4, 2024

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Major League

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Watch Major League with a subscription on Max, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

What to Know

Major League may be predictable and formulaic, but buoyed by the script's light, silly humor -- not to mention the well-built sports action sequences and funny performances.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

David S. Ward

Tom Berenger

Jake Taylor

Charlie Sheen

Ricky Vaughn

Corbin Bernsen

Margaret Whitton

Rachel Phelps

James Gammon

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Major League II Parent Guide

On the back of the video box containing this movie, way down on the bottom right corner, is a "recycled" symbol. Silly me. I thought the symbol was identifying what the box was made of, not what was inside. I

Release date March 30, 1994

Run Time: 105 minutes

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by rod gustafson.

On the back of the video box containing this movie, way down on the bottom right corner, is a “recycled” symbol. Silly me. I thought the symbol was identifying what the box was made of, not what was inside. Instead I discovered that Major League II could probably qualify for an environmental award for most reused elements from an original film. Not that the first Major League was original. It contained everything a formula sports movie requires, right down to the bases-loaded-bottom-of-the-ninth finish.

However, there is really only one very important point that distinguishes the second Major League film from the first: It’s rated PG. The original was R rated, mainly due to a stuck letter “f” on scriptwriter and director David Ward’s typewriter. Now, Ward handed off the script to R.J. Stewart, who simply replaced all those bad words with a new selection of less bad words. Even so, this movie seems obviously constructed with the overall goal to get it shoehorned into a PG classification.

If you and the kids yearn for a good baseball flic, search the video store and find Rookie Of The Year , or The Sandlot . As for Major League, it’s two strikes and 0x2018yer out!

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Rod Gustafson

Major League II (1994) / Comedy MPAA Rated: PG for language and adult humor Running Time: 105 min. Cast: Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Eric Brusskotter, David Keith, Takaaki Ishibashi, Michelle Burke, Alison Doody, James Gammon, Omar Epps, Corbin Bernsen, Dennis Haysbert, Bob Uecker, Margaret Whitton Director: David S. Ward Screenplay: R.J. Stewart Review published February 25, 2005 *** The following review contains spoilers for the first Major League *** Five years after Major League became a hit on home video, the sequel is released, which finally answers the question, "What happened to the team after they won the division?  Did they go to the World Series, or what?"  Apparently, they didn't. It's now the next season, and the team has come back to try to win it all, but the surprising success of the team has changed the chemistry, and getting there proves to be an even harder challenge.  Ricky "Wild Thing" Vaughn (Sheen, Young Guns ) has (apparently) been given a job as a starting pitcher, and his hot model girlfriend (Doody, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ) converts his bad boy image to clean cut, in order to score big with endorsement deals.  Unfortunately, he has lost his edge as a result.  He isn't the only one to lose aggressiveness, as Pedro Cerrano (Haysbert, Far from Heaven ) has found inner peace through Buddhism, and doesn't care if he does well -- he just loves everyone.  Meanwhile, Jake (Berenger, Butch and Sundance: The Early Years ) finds himself in a three-way race for the starting catcher position, made especially difficult with hard-hitting free agent Jack Parkman (Keith, Daredevil ) in the running.  Willie Mays Hayes (now played by Omar Epps ( The Mod Squad ), instead of Wesley Snipes) is trying to change himself into a power hitter, which will bring more fame and fortune to his budding career as an actor. Lastly, Roger Dorn (Bernsen, "L.A. Law" ) has hung up the cleats to concentrate on being the team's owner, but finds it hard to keep the money from drying out when the team starts performing so poorly. Although most of the original cast is back, there is a decidedly different vibe this time around, and with charm being Major League 's only real asset, it doesn't bode well for the film's success.  The main thrust of this sequel now surrounds Rick Vaughn (probably due to Sheen's stardom at the time), which is unfortunate because he is probably the most one-dimensional character of the bunch.  Watching a bad boy turn squeaky clean isn't really rife with comedic moments, and it certainly isn't worth expending half of the movie to explore.  Some of the newer facets of the film have become more cartoonish, especially a subplot involving the not-so-bright hayseed catcher that can't throw the ball back to the pitcher because he thinks too much.  There are some decent moments, enough to find the overall experience easy to endure, but, like a pitcher who has lost his control, director David S. Ward and writer R.J. Stewart ( The Rundown ) seem to be trying too hard. Two-thirds of the way through, Ward decides to completely recreate the formula of the first film, trotting out the loathsome team owner from the first film to antagonize the men into victory.  This brings the team (and the movie) back to life, but it's too little, too late -- been there, done that.  Major League II is strictly a cash in proposition, content to try to placate the fans with more of the same instead of offering something new and appealing, so if you've seen the first film, you've seen all there is to see.  As a way to kill time, perhaps you may find it to be a relatively easy-going diversion, but Major League II is so juvenile and mechanical, it is the sports movie equivalent of T-Ball. -- Followed by Major League: Back to the Minor s . Qwipster's rating : © 2005 Vince Leo

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In defense of 'Major League II' — It's bad, but oh, so very good

Let’s get this straight right away: "Major League II" is a terrible movie. Its score of 5 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, compared with 82 percent for the film it follows, is completely understandable.

Where "Major League" was a complete film, with a very human love story accompanying the baseball, the sequel is plodding and contrived. Rick Vaughn’s love triangle as boring as it is clichéd — ooh, he’s picking between the corporate lady who’s pretty but bland and negatively impacts his game, and the kind-hearted teacher with whom he’s free to be himself. Roger Dorn buying the Indians, a year after he supposedly was set to reach free agency as a player, is preposterous, as is Rachel Phelps simply being able to buy the team back. Isuro Tanaka’s entire existence amounts to a racist caricature. Omar Epps plays Willie Mays Hayes instead of Wesley Snipes, who had the good sense to stay the hell away from this mess, if not to pay his taxes and stay out of federal prison.

MORE: SN selects the 15 best baseball movies ever

"Major League II" is a terrible movie. "Major League II" is a great baseball movie.

How is this possible? Jack Parkman.

Parkman, played by David Keith, steals every scene he is in, as one of the best villains in cinematic history. Even when he’s on the Indians at the beginning of the movie, his nastiness shines through, accentuated by Harry Doyle’s call (Bob Uecker is as great in the sequel as he is in the original) of the slugger’s home run on opening day.

“You know, I used to hate Parkman when he was with the A’s,” Doyle says into his microphone. “It’s amazing how a new uniform can change your attitude about a guy.”

Doyle covers the microphone and says, “he’s still a dick.”

The best Parkman scene is one that would never happen in real life, but hardly matters that the location is wrong. Rather than be interviewed in the clubhouse, Parkman speaks to the media on the way to his car, puffing a cigarette (you know he’s a bad guy) and accompanied by a woman who looks like she’s on her way from an afternoon baseball game in Cleveland straight to a Vegas nightclub.

“I’m the only winner on the team,” Parkman says. “The rest of ’em are losers – either by choice, or by birth.”

It’s amazing, and the actual baseball scenes in the movie are top notch, so long as you’re willing to look past the fact that in Game 7 of the ALCS, Vaughn is somehow the only available relief pitcher for Cleveland.

The entire scene when Vaughn comes in and insists on pitching to Parkman, though, is perfect, right down to Doyle’s reaction – “Obviously Taylor’s thinking – I don’t know what the hell he’s thinking!” The other part that works so well is Parkman, after fouling off strike two, calling out to the mound, “I got your timing now, but I’ll bet you don’t have enough hair on your ass to throw me another one.”

Vaughn tells Parkman he will, and he does, and he strikes out his tormentor because that’s how it has to go in this movie. That Parkman can even make it believable for a moment that he has a chance shows just how well Keith played the role. Like Doyle, Parkman is only in baseball-related scenes, so it makes sense that they are the two best characters in the movie, followed closely by Lou Brown, jumping up and down on his hospital bed while listening to his team on a radio he snuck in.

There’s one more thing that works in Major League II’s favor, and that is the very fact that it is a terrible movie, but a great baseball movie. Anytime it comes on TV, you’re free to get up and make a sandwich during the non-baseball scenes, then enjoy a snack when the good parts are on. Because the end of the movie is baseball, you’re smiling when it’s over. It’s hard to ask for much more than that.

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Major League II

Time out says, release details.

• Duration: 105 mins

Cast and crew

• Director: David S Ward
• Screenwriter: RJ Stewart
• Charlie Sheen
• Tom Berenger
• Corbin Bernsen
• Dennis Haysbert
• James Gammon
• Randy Quaid

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• David S. Ward ( Director )
• Tom Berenger
• David Keith
• Alison Doody
• Charlie Sheen
• Randy Quaid
• Dennis Haysbert
• Margaret Whitton
• Corbin Bernsen
• James Gammon
• Richard Schiff
• Kevin Crowley
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