Newsgroup: it.sport.americani
Titolo: [MLB] Major League: son già passati 20 anni...

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090407&content_id=4147526&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
Popularity of 'Major League' remains
Classic baseball comedy celebrates its 20th anniversary
04/07/09 10:00 AM ET
The film "Major League," which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this 
year, 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.
"I grew up in Cleveland, and the Indians hadn't won anything in, like, 40 
years," said Ward, who won the 1974 Best Screenplay Oscar for "The Sting."
"I figured the only way they were ever going to win anything in my lifetime 
was to do a movie and they'd win. I thought this would be a chance to 
combine two interests of mine, comedy and baseball -- with my team, the 
Indians.
"Now, of course, right after I do this film the Indians become a good team 
and go to the World Series twice -- they lose twice, but still they go and 
become a good team for a while, which was kind of gratifying in a way."
"David Ward was and is a big, big baseball fan," said legendary broadcaster 
Bob Uecker, who played Harry Doyle, the team's irrepressible play-by-play 
man.
"He knew what he was talking about, and, with me, he allowed me to freelance 
with my character, ad lib, do whatever I wanted, and that was really great."
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.
"It was always important to me that the guys in the movie could actually 
play baseball, and look like they could play professional baseball," said 
Ward. "I had heard Charlie [Sheen] was a good player in high school and 
Berenger could play pretty well, and he hit well, but he couldn't throw. 
Corbin was a very good player, and Dennis was a really good player who 
actually hit a few real home runs while we were filming. The one person who 
really wasn't a player was Wesley [Snipes], but he was such an amazing 
athlete that he learned to play baseball in about three weeks.
"He could never throw -- that's why you never see Willie Mays Hayes throw in 
the movie -- but he made the catch he makes above the wall in the film and 
he taught himself how to hit all those popups he hits in the beginning of 
the movie. I read a lot of actors, and they would come in and tell me they 
played for the Cardinals' Triple-A team and I'd go out and play catch with 
them and they couldn't throw the ball 15 feet.
"Because he was such a great athlete, Wesley [Snipes] was one actor I let in 
who hadn't played ball before, and he did great."
Uecker concurred.
"When you look at Charlie Sheen throw a ball, you think, 'Wow, he's pretty 
good,'" said Uecker, who played in the Majors for six years. "I always like 
that in sports movies, where guys have talent and it actually looks 
believable. I mean, I saw Anthony Perkins play Jimmy Piersall in 'Fear 
Strikes Out.' Good actor, good movie, but he definitely could not play. Even 
Gary Cooper in 'Pride of the Yankees,' they tried hard to make him look 
good, even making his uniform backwards so he could look like a lefty, which 
Lou Gehrig was."
Ward enlisted former Dodgers catcher Steve Yeager to be his technical 
advisor to make sure everyone looked the part.
"I tip my hat to all the actors who trusted in me and believed in me," said 
Yeager, who was also cast as coach Duke Temple in the film. "They needed to 
believe that I wasn't going to get them hurt and show them the right way to 
do things, and they worked really hard at it. I worked with Berenger for six 
weeks before we started filming and Charlie was out there, too, and we 
worked every day to make sure it looked right and David Ward always told me 
we'll keep filming until it does look right."
In the original script, Phelps, the cruel owner of the club, was actually 
the heroine of the film.
"This has bugged me for many years," said actress Margaret Whitten, who 
played Phelps in the film. "There was this great scene with this wonderful 
character actor, James Gammons, who played Lou Brown, the team's manager, 
where he storms into my office and threatens to quit, and I tell him, 'My 
husband left me with a bankrupt team, and I did my research and found all 
these misfits and I found you, because you could make them win, now go out 
there and take it all.' And he leaves the office and she lifts her eyes up 
and says 'OK, honey, here we go.'"
"When we previewed the film, the audiences didn't like that," said Ward. 
"They had grown so used to hating her throughout the movie, they wanted to 
hate her at the end. They wanted to see her get her comeuppance by seeing 
the Indians win. Margaret was doing a play in London, so we had to fly to 
England and recreate her box at the stadium and shoot all her reactions to 
the final game. Our preview scores went up like 15 points with the re-shot 
scenes."
So, 20 years later, "Major League" is as popular as ever.
"It seems to be playing more now than when it originally came out," said 
Uecker. "It seems every day I run into someone at the ballpark or on the 
street and they say, 'Hey, I saw you in that movie ... it was on again 
today.' I mean, I go into clubhouses all the time and these players today 
are playing it in clubhouses before the game."
"I think it's one of the movies that no matter how many times you watch it, 
you may find something you might have missed," said Yeager. "I was there and 
I still missed a lot of things."
"Some of the elements of 'Major League' have become part of the culture," 
said Ward, who would like to film another sequel with the cast. "Before 
'Major League,' closers didn't come in to music. The first time that ever 
happened was when Rick Vaughn came into the game to 'Wild Thing.'
"I think its staying power is due to the fact that there are some iconic 
characters who have become part of baseball culture, and it's now being 
passed on to another generation."
Said Uecker: "I take it as a compliment that the film is 20 years old and 
the film still does well. I guess it's one of our classics."
"Major League" is available on DVD through Paramount Home Entertainment.
-- 
Gehrig
"L'inverno sta arrivando"

Wild thing, you make my heart sing
You make a everything, groovy
Wild thing
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1321087/wild_thing_you_make_my_heart_sing/

 ha scritto nel messaggio 
news:9fd02937-6f51-47e8...@z15g2000yqm.googlegroups.com...
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E' il 2 questo! :-)
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> E' il 2 questo! :-)
Si, vero.

 Classic baseball comedy celebrates its 20th anniversary
Per me, uno dei piu` bei film di sempre (lo so, ho gusti strani:-).
Peccato solo che fosse impossibile per Mayes Hayes leadoffare il settimo 
ed essere di nuovo up nel nono con due out (considerando il 2-run homer 
di Cerrano).
-- 
Roberto Ricca
2009: GO GIANTS (Anybody but the Dodgers)  [Magic Number: 163] 

 Per me, uno dei piu` bei film di sempre (lo so, ho gusti strani:-).
E' uno di quei film che pur non essendo capolavori sono nel loro piccolo 
"perfetti"
Major League, Ritorno al futuro e i Goonies sono i miei 3 must che non posso 
non vedere tutte le volte che li passano in tv :-)
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 posso non vedere tutte le volte che li passano in tv :-)
Wow. Concordo appieno anche su "Ritorno al futuro". I "Goonies" non li
conosco, ma a questo punto mi faccio un appunto e cerchero` di vederli
al prossimo passaggio. Visto il due su due precedente e che tifiamo
entrambi per gli Orange&Black (stai per caso vedendo la prima della
stagione?:-), e` un film che dovrebbe piacermi!
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 stagione?:-),
No purtroppo
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Brividi ogni volta che la vedo/sento
CIAO
TEO

 target, però anche a 30 anni continuo a vederlo se mi capita :-)
Super Slot!!!