Corbin Bernsen, Charlie Sheen and Tom Berenger on the set of “Major League.” (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

“Major League writer/director David Ward talks with actor Charlie Sheen, right, on the set of the film. (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

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Charlie Sheen played Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn in the film “Major League.” (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

Actor Dennis Haysbert as superstitious slugger Pedro Cerrano on the set of “Major League.” (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

“One of the reasons I wrote Major League is because I figured the only way the Indians would win something in my lifetime is if I wrote a movie about it,” said David Ward, a Chapman University film school professor who wrote and directed the popular film and its sequel.



James Gammon was memorable as Indians manager Lou Brown in the film “Major League.” (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

Tom Berenger and Charlie Sheen from a scene in “Major League.” (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

David Ward wrote the film “Major League” because he didn’t think the real Cleveland Indians would ever win the World Series, but their recent play has many calling the 2017 Indians World Series favorites. (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

The faces of three smiling Indians adorned the cover of Sports Illustrated on April 6, 1987: Cory Snyder, Joe Carter and Chief Wahoo. “Believe it!” the cover read. “Cleveland is the best team in the American League.”

Only the Indians did not win the American League in 1987. Or in 1988. Cleveland’s sinister cycle of high hopes dashed by disappointment continued. So did the so-called “Sports Illustrated cover jinx.” Monday at Angel Stadium, prior to a game between the Indians and Angels, David Ward still remembers that cover.

“One of the reasons I wrote Major League,” Ward said, “is because I figured the only way the Indians would win something in my lifetime is if I wrote a movie about it.”

Related Articles Angels vs. Indians: Wednesday game time, TV channel, starting pitchers Twenty-eight years after the film’s release, it seems Ward might be onto something. The Indians are still in search of their first World Series title since 1948.

At least the last month has been a rewarding one for Ward, an Ohio native and a professor at Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. The Indians set an American League record by winning 22 consecutive games, a streak that ended last Friday.

The timing of the Indians’ only visit to Southern California was nearly perfect for Ward, who tries to attend at least one game in person each year. Like any long-suffering Indians fan, he was enthralled by The Streak.

“I thought a Major League film where the Indians win 22 in a row would strain credibility to the point where nobody would take it seriously.”

Coming from the mind that devised Jobu and Wild Thing and a game-ending stolen base/suicide squeeze to drive in a run from second base, that says a lot.

“In my lifetime of watching the Indians I’ve never seen them this hot,” Ward said. “I’ve never seen any team this hot.”

Ward wasn’t the only one who thought the Indians had a chance to break their 68-year championship drought – now the longest in Major League Baseball – last October. Game 7 of the World Series between Cleveland and the Chicago Cubs was tied, 6-6, after nine innings. But then it rained, causing a delay that stalled the Indians’ momentum and left fans at Progressive Field wondering what might have been. Chicago won in 10 innings, 8-7.

While Major League has endured as a classic, the Indians’ recent success only further separates the film from the present. In 1989, the Indians hadn’t finished higher than fourth in the American League East in 20 years. They hadn’t won a division title, or been to the World Series, since 1954. A movie in which the Indians won their division seemed preposterous.

“I wrote the movie about four years before it was actually made,” Ward said. “I took it around. Nobody really wanted to make it. They didn’t think anybody was interested in the Indians. But it wasn’t really the Indians. It was a team of made up of players who might be good characters.”

Turns out, the characters resonated. Ward said the actors brought the script to life. Images of a bespectacled Charlie Sheen or a dancing Wesley Snipes are easy to conjure. From the time the film was tested before an audience for the first time, people enjoyed rooting for the eccentric players. Ward said that audiences enjoyed rooting against the Indians’ subversive owner (played by Margaret Whitton) so much, the script was changed at the last minute.

“In the original version of Major League we hate her for the whole movie, but in the end she’s been an evil genius: her husband didn’t know anything but she knew baseball,” Ward said. “She put the team together, scouted the players in the minors. She knew they had talent but one major flaw. She knew Lou Brown was the one manager who could bring this team together – this was the old George Steinbrenner trick – by uniting around hating him. We played that ending and preview audiences just hated it. They had so much fun hating her, they didn’t want to stop. They wanted to see her have to wear the Indians winning the pennant, so we changed it.

“I had to fly to London where Margaret Whitton was in a play. … We had to re-shoot the whole last scene in her personal box in a soundstage in London.”

When the actual 1989 Indians attended the premiere and warmed to the movie, Ward found immediate gratification. That affection still persists. At Monday’s game, Ward noticed a fan wearing an Indians jersey with the name “JOBU” and the number 13 on the back.

Ward said he’s already written a script for Major League III, but it won’t reach theaters unless he can reach a deal with the production company that owns the rights to the series (a 1998 film, Major League: Back to the Minors was produced with only a few members of the original cast involved).

“We’re working on it,” he said, “but I can’t promise it.”

The Indians might win the World Series in real life first. In 2017, the idea doesn’t seem just a bit outside after all.