“MAJOR LEAGUE” THE MOVIE THEME

I like to make themes that I would participate in. Not too crazy and not too arbitrary but within some rigid guidelines that serve to tie the owners’ hands like in real life. Except this is a movie theme.

I am not able to run leagues but you can have this theme and if you run a league like this let me know and I will join it.

This is a theme I designed based on the favorite baseball movie for many of us, “Major League”.

I have chosen eight central characters from that movie. We will apply aspects of them to players on select rosters and moves will be made accordingly. The characters are, of course, Roger Dorn, Willie Mays Hays, Pedro Cerrano, Jake Taylor, Eddie Harris, Ricky Vaughn, Rachel Phelps and the Uecker guy, Harry Doyle.

Owners will be given a team from between 1960 and 1999 and will upload that roster. They will have to use 8 players from that roster, each corresponding to the characters mentioned above and rules pertaining to their use. The other 17 players will come from the roster of your selected team.

What teams will be given? Well, I have learned that from between 1958 and 2002 there have only been 25 teams that ended the season at exactly .500. In fact, did you know that Colorado, Miami, NY Mets, Seattle and Toronto have never finished a season with a .500 winning percentage? Owners will be randomly awarded with one of these 25 teams.

What could possibly be more equal than to distribute teams that all finished .500? In “Major League”, the 24 teams will be distributed randomly so owners don’t have to work out all the permutations on each team before choosing. When an owner gets their roster (i.e., 1988 Montreal Expos) they will be required to keep eight of those players and use that season. So, if, say, Tim Raines fits one of the following criteria, they will have to use his 1988 season.
What is the criteria? First, pull up your team on Baseball-Reference.com. Sort all the players on that team by age. You MUST select players that fit each of these eight criteria.
Roger Dorn A guy who has been around and by now is in it for the money. As long as he is offered contracts, he’s going to sign ‘em. You must keep the oldest player on your team that has 250 or more AB.
Willie Mays Hays Young player, plenty of skills but don’t know if how it’s going to shake out on the field yet. You must keep the youngest player on your team that has 150 or more AB.
Pedro Cerrano Free-swinging power hitter. You must keep the batter with the most Strikeouts AND 100 or more Games Played.
Eddie Harris Grizzled old-timer on the hill. Looks like a jar of Vaseline. You must keep the oldest pitcher on your team with 90 or more IP.
Ricky Vaughn Wild Thing. He makes my heart sing. You, on the other hand, must keep the pitcher on your team with the highest BB/9 AND 50 or more IP.
Jake Taylor As the veteran catcher, Jake is here to help shepherd some of the young arms through a long season You must keep the youngest pitcher on your team with 125 or more IP.
Harry Doyle Old-timer who might have been a star on the team a decade or so earlier. You may identify and add to your roster any player who played for your franchise either 8, 9, 10, 11 or 12 years prior. (Using 1988 Expos – You can take any player off the roster of the 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, or 1980 Expos).

Rachel Phelps Unpopular new owner who wants the team to fail. She’s going to try to hamstring your roster by sticking you with an overpaid bum. You must have on your roster the highest-paid player from any of the five previous seasons. The only caveat is that this player must have poor stats, like an albatross on the owner. For batters, a sub-.255 Batting Average and for pitchers a 4.40-or-higher ERA. Using 1988 Expos, the single-highest-paid Expo from 1983-87 would be chosen, assuming they fall below the stat line. (Turns out it’s 1984 Tim Wallach).

The remaining 17 players: You may twist two batters, and two pitchers. But, along the theme of “we coulda used this guy a few years ago” and “I wish we had the version of this guy from the future”. Thus, you will twist one pitcher to a future season in their career, and one pitcher to a season in their past. The same for batters. This gives us all a total of 12 players who are slotted. You may pay any salary for these players. The remaining 13 players must be the ones from that team’s .500 season. If a place is left empty, you may fill in with a 300K player from that franchise.

That last part embraces the concept of .500 teams. They were good enough to win half their games and probably gave their hometown fans plenty of thrills by winning more-than half of their home games. But, something was lacking. Did we have this guy too soon or that guy too late? Fine, we can twist but we’re going to be hamstrung a little by potential for mediocrity in the above 7 or 8 players.

These positions are to be filled in the order presented above. If a player is already slotted, they are to be omitted from the new position’s consideration.

Using the 1988 Expos as my example, these were the players who filled these criteria:
Roger Dorn - 1988 Hubie Brooks RF
Willie Mays Hays – 1988 Dave Martinez OF
Pedro Cerrano – 1988 Andres Galarraga 1B
Eddie Harris – 1988 Dennis Martinez
Ricky Vaughn – 1988 Jeff Parett RP
Jake Taylor – 1988 John Dopson SP
Harry Doyle – 1977 Steve Rogers SP
Rachel Phelps – 1984 Tim Wallach 3B

These 8 must be used. The owner may decide who to twist, keeping in mind one twisted player must be in the future and one in the past among both batters and pitchers. The rest of the roster must be filled with any remaining 1988 Expos.

In my exercise, I ended up twisting Mitch Webster to 1986 (would have liked to twist a 43-year-old Graig Nettles but Wallach is fixed at third and Galarraga is fixed at first in the event I’d be willing to stick one or the other over there) and 1997 Jeff Reed. For pitchers I twisted to 2004 Randy Johnson and 1985 Bryn Smith.


Just for fun, among the other 24 teams that finished .500 were the 1982 Padres, 1973 Cardinals, 1967 Pirates, 1989 Brewers, 1969 Astros, 1985 Red Sox, 1984 Angels and more.

Anyway, I can’t run leagues, but I would be interested to see how this theme played out. If you start it, let me know and I will join.