Year: 1989
Director: David S. Ward
Summary: The new owner of the Cleveland Indians puts together a purposely horrible team so they’ll lose and she can move the team. But when the plot is uncovered, they start winning just to spite her.
Times Watched: about 5
My Experience: One of the better baseball movies I’ve seen. Making fun of the (then) hapless Indians was great, giving them a bitchy owner reminiscent of Marge Schott (though not nearly as hateful) who wants them to tank so she can move the team. Tom Berenger is the main character because he’s the team veteran, but probably so we can get a pointless romantic subplot with Rene Russo. But the rest of the movie is just good fun. Everyone seems to be having a blast, especially Bob Uecker, who provides so many great one-liners as the play-by-play announcer that some of them were adopted by his real-life counterparts. What also helps is that for the most part, the baseball feels realistic. Charlie Sheen is the closer who is wild but has a crazy-good fastball; you don’t doubt it watching the movie. Sheen couldn’t quite hit 100 MPH, but he came close enough and his mechanics were sound. Little details like that are really appreciated by this baseball fan.
Death By Troggles 
I wouldn’t call this romantic subplot pointless. I mean, it could fail to exist and that would be fine, but it’s handled well. We have the scene with the upscale friends and the short scene with Willie, Wild Thing and Jake at the bar, and that makes it worth having.
I’ve seen this movie no fewer than twenty times. I went to it in the theater, actually, and it’s one of very few movies I can think of that lived up to my unlikely hopes at that time.