It’s a battle of Major League vs. Rookie of the Year.
There’s no way for me to be objective in predicting the outcome of tonight’s World Series Game 7 between the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Cubs. I’m from Cleveland. And until the time I was 14-years old, I was a die hard baseball fan. That is, until Cleveland lost in heartbreaking fashion in the 1997 World Series and broke me, emotionally. This October run for the Indians has brought back a rush of good vibes – my passion for baseball has been peeking out from its hiding place inside my cold, dead heart. And now, as Cleveland might be on its way to its first World Series win since long before I was born, I can’t help but be a little excited.
It’s easy to imagine the same is true for Cubs fans, even those who jumped on the bandwagon more recently. It’s been 108 years since Chicago’s North Side club has won the big one, the longest drought in sports history. Whichever team wins tonight will be exorcising some serious demons, ending a long period of suffering for its fans.
In my search for a way to kill time between now and the first pitch of Game 7, I’ve decided to attempt to find an objective measure by which to predict tonight’s outcome. Because this is a movie site, we’re going to look at two iconic movies from the late-80s and early-90s that are inextricably linked with these two baseball franchises.
In the Cubs corner we have the 1993 Daniel Stern-directed Rookie of the Year, starring eventual American Pie star Thomas Ian Nicholas as a kid whose broken arm heals in a way that allows him to throw 100-mph fastballs and lead his favorite team, the Cubs, to glory. With the help of Gary Busey, of course.
On Cleveland’s side is Major League, the 1989 Tom Berenger and Charlie Sheen-led film that told the story of a devious owner trying to bottom out the Indians so as to be able to move them to Miami (a fact I later found ironic, as it was the Florida Marlins that would later crush our hearts in the World Series). Major League would be defined by its numerous sequels, its memorable performances from the likes of Bob Uecker and James Gammon, and its accurate portrayal of Cleveland’s destitute professional sports situation.
Our prediction is based on a few criteria, a mix of success with fans (Box office, Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb user scores) and success with critics and awards committees (Rotten Tomatoes critic scores, awards).
Here’s how it all shook out:
While Rookie of the Year was the more monetarily successful film, Major League was a clear winner in many of the quality categories. Both critics and fans gave it higher marks over the years. The awards categories – well, those are just there to cancel each other out because we needed seven categories, no one really cares about Saturn Awards.
If this highly scientific method is to be believe, it’s going to be a good night for Cleveland Indians fans such as yours truly. If not, then science is dumb. Obviously.
Here’s hoping it all works out as it did at the end of Major League:
Sorry, Cubs fans.
