There are so many Major League behind-the-scenes facts from the making of not only one of the best baseball movies ever made, but also one of the all-time great sports flicks that make the story of the underdog Cleveland Indians team so much better. As crazy as it may seem, it has been 35 years since David S. Ward introduced audiences to one of the most dysfunctional, unlikely, and iconic group of baseball players brought to life by Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, and a new-on-the-scene Wesley Snipes.
Below is a breakdown of some of the most impressive Major League behind-the-scenes facts including why the movie wasn’t actually filmed in Cleveland, how Charlie Sheen prepared to take on the role of Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn, and other great stories that will have rushing home to watch this raucous baseball movie.
Wesley Snipes Had A ‘Ridiculous’ Audition Experience
Wesley Snipes’ Willie Mays Hayes will forever be remembered as one of the most impactful fictional Black athletes in a movie, as well as one of cinema’s funniest and most athletic baseball players. And just like how his character would prove himself by running at mach speed in his pajamas during the spring training sequence, Snipes participated in an audition in an unorthodox outfit: a flying suit and a pair of boxing shoes.
As he told Collider in 2021, Snipes showed up to what he thought was going to be a screen test only to find out that he was expected to run the bases with other actors, something he wasn’t prepared to do based on his clothing choices:
Literally the guys started laughing at me when they saw me walk up, and they started to say, ‘Hey man, what are you doing here?’ I said, ‘Hey man, I'm here for the audition.’ They started falling out because I had no gear, no glove, no shoes, no cleats, nothing. And no experience. So when I finally ran around the bases and tried to turn from second to third and ended up way out in the outfield, because my feet, I had no traction. The cats are falling out in the stands.
Though he would later call it a “ridiculous” audition experience, it paid off as the actor impressed the producers and he got the part. Decades later, Major League is still considered one of Snipes’ best movies.
Director David S. Ward Had To Tie Down Rene Russo’s Hands To Keep The Actress From Moving So Much
Rene Russo has spent her career appearing in the likes of Nightcrawler, The Thomas Crown Affair, and the Thor movies, but when she earned the role of Lynn Wells, Tom Berenger’s on-screen ex in Major League, she was an unseasoned model-turned-actress. And as you can imagine, she was a bit nervous on set, which resulted in Russo moving her hands and arms around during takes. But, as director David S. Ward told the Hollywood Gold podcast in March 2024, he came up with a way to fix the problem:
I said, 'Rene, you've got to keep the hands down.’ And finally what I did is, I tied them down. I tied them down for the first take and she said, 'Okay, I think I got it.' And then I untied them and she was fine. Every once in a while I'd have to remind her again: 'Hands in the frame, across your face, doing wipes across your face.'
Russo wasn’t too bothered by it, and later told Entertainment Weekly that she was forever grateful to Ward for taking a chance on a first-time actress and making it work.
Major League Shot In Milwaukee As Opposed To Cleveland For A Variety Of Reasons
The events of Major League are set in Cleveland, Ohio, the real-life home of the Indians baseball team, now known as the Guardians. However, the movie was actually shot in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with Milwaukee County Stadium, the former home of the Brewers, filling in for Cleveland Stadium, the team’s home ballpark until 1994. And while this is a commonly known fact about the movie, the reason behind it might not be as well known.
During a 2016 interview with ESPN, writer-director David S. Ward, a Cleveland native, revealed Major League was filmed in Milwaukee because the Cleveland Browns, who shared a stadium with the Indians until relocating to Baltimore and changing their name to the Ravens, had already started preseason football and there were lines on the field, making it not look ideal. There were also union issues that would have made shooting there much more expensive than taking the production to Wisconsin.
The Major League Cast Went Through A Version Of Spring Training To Prepare For The Movie
In order to look like an actual MLB team, the Major League cast was put through a rigorous training camp that was essentially a version of spring training or boot camp. With the help of former Los Angeles Dodgers catcher and 1981 World Series co-MVP Steve Yeager, who came on as a technical advisor, the movie’s stars and supporting actors went through weeks of baseball drills and conditioning training. As director David S. Ward told Yahoo! Sports in 2019, this was done to avoid having any members of the cast get injured during filming and throw the whole show off schedule.
Yeager must have impressed everyone enough to earn a more long-term job as he was hired on to take the role of third-base coach Duke Temple in Major League as well as stand in for Tom Berenger as catcher Jake Taylor when certain scenes called for more accurate throws to first and second.
Charlie Sheen’s Fastball Got Up To 85 MPH But Only After Taking Steroids
A few members of the Major League cast had a history with baseball, but none had as much experience than or looked as believable as Charlie Sheen. Sheen revealed in Sports Illustrated’s 2011 Major League oral history that before following his father’s footsteps, he was a decent enough baseball player, which made preparing for the role of California Penal League standout and Cleveland Indians rookie sensation Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn a lot easier. And while his history helped him get his fastball up to a respectable speed, he also had some assistance from the effects of the steroids he was taking:
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. I was already bitchy because—let’s just say that I was enhancing my performance a little bit. It was the only time I ever did steroids. I did them for like six or eight weeks. You can print this, I don’t give a f---. My fastball went from 79 to like 85.
On top of Charlie Sheen taking steroids to increase the speed of his pitch, director David S. Ward also moved up home plate 10 feet to make it appear he was throwing even faster during filming. Winning.
Willie Mays Hayes Was Always In Slow Motion Because Wesley Snipes Wasn’t Very Fast
Willie Mays Hayes might have hit like Mays but he only ran like Hayes because all of Wesley Snipes’ running scenes were shot in slow motion. During Sports Illustrated’s Major League oral history, director David S. Ward revealed that while Snipes actually made that great grab that had him go over the outfield wall in the movie, all of his running shots were slowed down not to capture his speed but to make it appear is he were a speed demon because the actor was not very fast. Plus, it also makes that scene where Hayes runs in his pajamas all the more epic.
Director David S. Ward Made The Actors Play Catch As Part Of Major League’s Casting Process
One part of the Major League casting process that seems both insane and totally understandable is the way David S. Ward tested the actors’ baseball skills through a simple game of catch. This is brought up in Jonathan Knight’s The Making of Major League: A Juuuust a Bit Inside Look at the Classic Baseball Comedy during the section about Tom Berenger auditioning for the role of clubhouse leader Jake Taylor. In the book it is revealed that even though Berenger had trouble throwing the ball during the meeting, Ward decided to go with the casting and figure out what to do with the mechanics later.
The Major League Cast Had Some Wild Nights Out While Filming In Milwaukee
With Milwaukee being one of the biggest beer towns in the United States, it would be more surprising if the Major League cast and crew didn’t go out whenever given the opportunity. And boy, did they go out and party when the opportunity presented itself. When the topic came up in Sports Illustrated’s Major League oral history, Charlie Sheen pointed out that James Gammon, who played coach Lou Brown was one of the biggest offenders, as he put it so lovingly:
James Gammon? You want to talk about an absolute fucking 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.
Later on in the piece, it was brought up that while James Gammon knew how to have a good time at a bar, it was Charlie Sheen who had most of the fun, especially when it came to figuring out airline schedules so the various women visiting him in Milwaukee never crossed paths. Maybe the crew will recreate the madness if Major League 4 ever happens.
Major League Was Able To Use The Yankees As The ‘Bad Guys’ Partially Because The Team’s Then-Owner Was From Cleveland
You can’t have a good underdog story without a team going up against one of the strongest franchises in the history of professional sports, so it only seemed fitting to have the Cleveland Indians take on the New York Yankees in Major League. There was only one problem: the film’s producers had to get clearance from both MLB and the owner of the Yankees, George Steinbrenner. When speaking with ESPN in 2016, David S. Ward revealed that he didn’t get the approval from the Yankees’ owner right away but eventually got the go-ahead, and he believes it was partially because Steinbrenner happened to be from Cleveland.
‘Mr. Baseball’ Bob Uecker Largely Ad-Libbed His Iconic Dialogue In Major League
To this day, one of the best things about Major League is Bob Uecker’s iconic performance as radio announcer Harry Doyle with quotes like “Juuuust a bit outside” and “This guy threw at his own son in a father-son game” among other zingers. During the Sports Illustrated oral history of the movie, Uecker (the radio announcer for the Milwaukee Brewers and iconic WrestleMania celebrity guest) revealed the producers told him to just riff while filming and that he didn’t have to follow the script. They told him to just do his thing and the rest is history.
Jeremy Piven Played An Insult-Hurling Bench Jockey But His Scenes Were Cut
As mentioned earlier, the Major League cast is one of the best ever assembled for a baseball movie, but the group of actors was originally included another future star before a last-minute decision left their performance on the cutting room floor. During the Sports Illustrated oral history, David S. Ward revealed that Jeremy Piven played an insult-hurling bench jockey who was featured at various points throughout the movie but he cut the character because the material didn’t really work. Piven would go on to find fame and later became a fixture of the Entourage cast.
Major League Originally Had A Different Ending But It Performed Poorly With Test Audiences
Major League has one of the all-time great sports movie endings with the Cleveland Indians overcoming the odds and defeating the New York Yankees while also foiling owner Rachel Phelps’ (Margaret Whitton) plan of moving the team to sunny Florida after an abysmal season. Well, the original plan for the movie, which was thankfully walked back, had a scene where Phelps revealed that she didn’t want to move the team and her diabolical plan was just a way to motivate the team and avoid bankruptcy by building a roster of cheap players.
According to the Los Angeles Times, a drastically different alternate ending made it as far as early test screenings but audiences reacted to it poorly because they hated the owner so much. With that in mind, the producers dropped the “good guy” twist and filmed more of those iconic shots of her being annoyed by the team’s success, which made for one of the most incredible moments in a baseball movie.
Well, now all there is to do is find a copy of Major League, pop it in, and take in the timeless story of one of the most remarkable seasons in baseball movie history. And after that, there are so many other great sports underdog stories to revisit.
