BASEBALL LEGEND: The film Major League originally had a dramatic twist at the end involving the team's owner.

STATUS: True.

Very few movies about sports have been embraced by a sports team as much as the film Major League has been embraced by the Cleveland Indians. At the time of 1989 release of the film, the Indians were mired in one of the worst three decade patches of baseball that you could imagine. After finishing second in 1959, the Indians would not finish above third for twenty-nine of the next thirty seasons (a third place finish in 1968 would be the only break in the streak). Not only that, but when the American League went to two divisions in 1969, the Indians finished last or second-to-last in sixteen of the twenty-one seasons (up to and including 1989).

So when a film about an Indians team made up of scrappy underdogs who somehow make the playoffs after everyone counts them out, well, that's just the sort of thing a fan base loves to embrace, and embrace them they did. And when the actual Indians team started actually winning in the 1990s (including five straight division titles and a trip to the World Series in 1995 AND 1997), it was almost as if the film blessed the Indians (sort of like Jo-Bu blessing Pedro Cerrano's bat)! So even today, when the Indians are once again in pretty bad shape, you'll see promotional giveaways of Major League-related memorabilia at Indians games.

However much of a sports film classic Major League is, there's always been a pretty major plot hole in the film. First off, if Rachel Phelps (the owner of the team, who is trying to get out of her lease with the stadium so that she can move the team to Florida, so she plots to make the team so bad that it will fail to make the minimum attendance requirements within the lease) is so set against the team winning, why not just cut the good players or send them to the minors? Secondly, once it is evident that the team will meet the minimum requirements, why does Phelps (who is played by Margaret Whitton) continue to rally against the team when going to the playoffs will make her more money than not going to the playoffs?

Well, screenwriter David S. Ward had a very good explanation for that - you see, in the original script, Phelps was secretly trying to help the team!