Major League 3: Back to the Minors (How Quick Bright Things Come to Confusion!)

A guy I've become pretty good friends with at work leaves in a few days for a new job in Minnesota. His wife is already up there, so he's spent the past week being bored. On my night off, we got together at his house to watch the first mathematically meaningless Cubs game (Cubs games have been existentially meaningless since early September, but the last number has finally been crunched on the wild card race). It was a sodden night at the tail end of a season in which, to quote Bush the Elder, we have been enjoying difficult times, and not enjoying them very much.

The game was canceled early on because of the rain, but not before 137 year old So Taguchi scrambled around the bases for a completely meaningless slapshot double in a completely pointless game. The fact that the double will now be erased from the stat books as a result of the cancellation only makes it even more heroic and amplifies my affection for the strange little man who will almost certainly not even be invited to spring training this winter.

Anyway, with the game canceled and a whole night left to kill, we decided to watch Major League 3. How do I feel about this movie? It stars Teddy McGinley, Corbin Bernsen, and Scott Bakula. That is, hands down, the greatest cadre of aging, second tier celluloid preppies I can think of off the top of my head. It's like Bull Durham meets Revenge of the Nerds. Oh, bonus, unlike Bull Durham, it's actually about baseball, instead of being about how hard Kevin Costner can Matter.

The movie appealed to me for the same reason So Taguchi's double appealed to me. For the same reason colorful deflated balloons lying in the corner after a celebration appeal to me. It's the romance of playing frisbee in the snow. The allure of going to IHOP on Christmas day.