Major League’s Original Twist Ending, Explained

Major League is a shining example of the comedy sports movie genre, but its original twist ending would have given it an entirely different story. Released in 1989 to a heap of critical and commercial success, Major League was the perfect spoof of the classic baseball movie and featured a wealth of underdog characters. Besides being sidesplitting, the premise was based on a genuine love of America’s pastime and delivered exciting baseball action on top of its laughs. Major League‘s success justified two sequels in the 1990s, and its reputation as a classic sports movie has only continued to grow over the subsequent decades.

One of Major League‘s strongest aspects is its characters, and it delivers a compelling villain to go along with the conventional inspiring sports movie underdog heroes. Portrayed by Margaret Whitton, Major League‘s villain, Rachel Phelps, is just the right amount of dastardly to make the audience root for her eventual downfall. Her plan is to tank the team so that the league will allow her to move them to Miami, but they make the playoffs despite being undermined at every turn. While the ending might be a bit cliché, it’s the perfect nod to the unconventional triumphs in the world of sports.

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Phelps Wasn’t The Villain All Along

Included in the “Wild Thing” edition of the Major League DVD, the original twist ending involved the reveal that Rachel Phelps had actually used the potential move to Miami as a ruse to get the team to play better. Even with that surprise ending, Major League would still most likely have been one of the best baseball movies of all time, but it was nevertheless scrapped. The twist ending was more in line with the style of humor that was used throughout the movie, but it would have also limited the potential of a sequel and undercut the story itself.

Why The Theatrical Ending Was Better

Even though the twist would have been humorous, and it would’ve transformed Rachel Phelps from the stereotypical “evil woman” character she was shown to be in Major League, the triumphant theatrical ending with the division series win is much better for the movie. The twist ending would have made all the characters look foolish in hindsight and made it seem as if the reason the team was bad was that they weren’t trying hard enough. It also would have taken the wind out of the sales of their win and made it seem less miraculous and more inevitable because Phelps had planned it all along.

Sports movies where the protagonist loses were all the rage in the dour days of the 1970s, but the films of the ’80s were much more inspirational, even if they were funny. Cheesy corporate villains were a staple of ’80s movies, and Rachel Phelps was the quintessential yuppie nemesis, even if it came with a deluge of dated and sexist jokes at her expense. The alternate ending makes for interesting trivia, but it paled in comparison to the much simpler theatrical ending of Major League because the latter sent the audience home happy.

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