What’s always bugged me about the film (correct me if my understanding is wrong here), is that the owner needed the Indians’ attendance for the season to go below 800,000. That’s around 5,000 per game.
But they became a great team, local cause celebres, and made it to the World Series.
It seems safe to assume that long before they got to post-season play they would have busted through the 800,000 attendance ceiling, and there would be no point in the owner continuing to sabotage them.
Today, the major league minimum is very high. Back in 1989, though, when the movie was made it was “only” about $68,000. While a nice chunk of change, it’s not exactly top 1% we’re talking about. Remember, time differences, time differences. Also, in researching this, I found out that in 1989 the average player earned just under $500,000. Today, the average player makes just under $2 million. The difference a decade makes.
And ISiddiqui, it’s not portrayed that way in the movie. The owner acts like she can still “win” if the Indians lose the series; it’s not spite. Unless you can produce dialogue to that effect.
As imdb was loading up, I kept going “no, couldn’t be…”
But yep, apparently Cerrano got rid of the accent, changed his name to an innocous “David Palmer”, and ran for Senator and then president (apparently faking a US birth certificate along the way).
Now for the last couple “24” episodes, I’m going to imagine Palmer telling the VP “Very bad to take Jobu’s presidency…”
As neurotik points out, today’s league minimum is $300,000 a season, far from someone struggling to get by and driving that crap car Berringer was tooling around in. But does anyone know what the minimum was in '89 when the movie came out? It was still probably a relatively high salary compared to your average schmoe, but I don’t think it had reached the $100,000 a season mark (though I could be wrong).
Crap, disrtegard that above post, I just saw Neurotik’s answer to the league minimum in 89. Someone hid that entire post the first time I read the thread. Honest.
However, I worked out (and by “I worked out” I mean I used some website had a converter) what $68,000 would be equivalent to in 2002 dollars. About $100,000. I wish I was making $100,000. So that’s not bad. But you don’t know what kind of debts or whatever Berenger had.
You want a logical flaw? How about an aging catcher with bad wheels deciding the best way to get on base is to leg out an infield hit. Yep. It’s so crazy, * it just might work.* Or not.
Actually Tom Berenger is trying to woo a librarian, not a college professor. Rene Russo portrays a rare books librarian.
As a librarian, I wish I worked with women who looked like Rene Russo. But I don’t.
When “Major League” came out, I believe the Major League minimum was already at least $100,000. And a veteran catcher would have made more than that. Not a lot, but at least something.
The minimum salary is usually for rookies and 2nd year players.
So Tom Berenger goes from a nobody with no money. Playing for beer in Mexican leagues.
To a one year gig where he’ll make $100,000. (by todays money, I understand it was $68k in 89) Granted a nice chunk of change, but he’ll have to use it to pay off his debts, and hopefully be able to use it to create some sort of life after this one year. And we assume that because he has one year where he’ll pull in some decent scratch that he’s suddenly absolved of all monetary problems he’ll ever have?
Plus, he’s in some party of upper-class a-holes who believe that he’s “one of them” so to speak. He has to admit in front of them and his ex g/f’s boyfriend that he is basically lucky to be there, when he’s already got egg on his face from crashing the party and showing up at the wrong house. And then the ex b/f is sure to point out to everybody that his life is at best temporary and he’s really not much more than a bum. And after this year, he’ll be back to being a bum.
He was the manager of some kind of tire/automotive store. If you remember, his response to the job offer was to say he had someone on the other line about some whitewalls.
