When David S. Ward’s “Major League” slid into multiplexes on April 7, 1989, a lot of people wrote it off as a pro baseball clone of the minor-league-set “Bull Durham.” A wise veteran catcher (Tom Berenger) with bad knees looking down the barrel of a forced retirement? Check. A screwy rookie pitcher (Charlie Sheen) with a flamethrower for an arm and no semblance of control? Check. A superstitious slugger (Dennis Haysbert) who demands to sacrifice a live chicken to get him out of a hitting slump? Check.
The very existence of these familiar elements was enough for many of the nation’s critics to dismiss “Major League” as a meatheaded comedy (Roger Ebert, who reviewed almost everything, skipped it entirely). Moviegoers did not concur. The film grossed $50 million in the U.S. on an $11 million budget, and earned an A- CinemaScore before turning into a home video/pay cable sensation. By the time the next baseball season rolled around, “Major League” was considered a full-fledged, off-color classic about America’s pasttime (it’s one of /Film’s 30 best baseball movies of all time).
And this never would’ve happened had Ward not hired Bob Uecker to play the long-suffering, hard-drinking play-by-play man, Harry Doyle.
The only people who didn’t consider Uecker perfect casting as the radio announcer for the team then known as the Cleveland Indians (the organization changed its name to the Guardians in 2021) were fans of the Milwaukee Brewers, who’d been listening to “Mr. Baseball” call games for their squad since 1971. But the former pro baseball player who once shared a dugout with Milwaukee Braves greats Hank Aaron and Warren Spahn was bigger than the city and far more than just a sports celebrity when he took on the role of Doyle. He was the star of many a Miller Lite commercial in the 1980s, and played the beloved TV dad George Owens in the long-running ABC sitcom “Mr. Belvedere.” He was also a fixture on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,” where he built his reputation for being quick on his feet with the perfect quip.
There was nothing surprising about Uecker stealing scene after scene in “Major League,” which may be why so many critics took the film for granted.