By Eric Anderson
Arizona Daily Wildcat
April 23, 1998

Catch the Buzz

Temperatures are rising, flowers are wilting, clothing is more revealing, and the smell of suntan lotion fills the air.

Unless it's El Niño throwing everything out of whack, it can only mean one thing: summer has arrived. And you know what that means - time to get out those bats and gloves and head out to the old ball park - oops, I mean movie theater.

That's right, the boys of summer are back again, in full swing, for a third time, in "Major League: Back to the Minors."

Sorry to all you Cleveland Indians fans out there who worshipped the first two "Major League" movies because they were the closest thing to victory you had or ever will experience. They had their shot. This time the role of America's team goes to the Buzz of South Carolina, a minor league franchise, managed by a washed-up veteran pitcher named Gus Cantrell (Scott Bakula).

Gone from the lineup are the likes of Ricky "Wild Thing" Vaughn (Charlie Sheen), Willie Mays Hays (Wesley Snipes) and catcher Jake Taylor (Tom Berenger), making way for some fresh new faces like pitcher Hog Ellis (Judson Mills), Lance "the Dance" Pere, a ballet dancer turned baseball player (Kenneth Johnson), and the power-hitting phenom, Downtown Anderson (Walton Goggins).

Fortunately, there is still some veteran leadership around from the first film to guide this group of newcomers, including everybody's favorite voodoo-practicing outfielder Pedro Cerrano (Dennis Haysbert); the prince of minimal effort, Roger Dorn (Corbin Bernsen), who has traded in his bat and glove for the owner's chair; and even the quick-witted, often half-sober, announcer, Harry Doyle (Bob Uecker), is back. And yes, even the revered Jobu makes a cameo appearance in the clubhouse. Plus, don't forget the all-offense, no-defense catcher Rube Baker (Eric Bruskotter), and Japanese star Taka Tanaka (Takaaki Ishibashi), who are still on the roster from "Major League II."

Major League newcomer Jensen Daggett ("The Single Guy"; "Fabulous Baker Boys") plays Bakula's supportive girlfriend Maggie Reynolds, but in all honesty, her character has absolutely no purpose in this film, except to utter cheesy lines like, "You can do it. I believe in you, Gus." But hey, every movie needs a sexy leading lady.

Add feuding managers played by Bakula and Ted McGinley (best known as Jefferson Darcy of "Married With Children") to the mix and you've got a flick that won't garner any Academy Awards - and nobody ever expected it to - but provides just as much laughter, sarcasm and utter silliness as "Major League II."

So how does it compare to the first "Major League"? Well, let's not get carried away. "Major League" was close to, if not the, greatest sports movie of all time; far and away, it was the best sports-comedy of all time, so there will be no comparisons drawn here.

But don't let that serve as a deterrent. Few sequels ever live up to the original. In fact, compared to "Major League II," this movie is more enjoyable because producer James G. Robinson and director John Warren did not try to duplicate the first "Major League," which they unsuccessfully attempted with the sequel.

Bakula does an excellent job of portraying the seemingly always down-on-his-luck Cantrell, and McGinley is equally convincing, if not more so, as the ridiculously arrogant and over-confident opposing manager, Leonard Huff, who manages the Buzz's major league affiliate, the Minnesota Twins.

With the exception of a few cast members, the only common bond between this movie and the first one is the game of baseball. This movie probably won't be on anybody's 1998 Top Ten lists, but if you're sittin' around on a hot summer day with nothing to do, go check it out - you're guaranteed to laugh out loud more than once.