Don't you think the owner could've gotten below the attendance really easy by trading/releasing the players who were playing well and replace them with single A minor league players or even worse players than that? There's so many things a owner can do to ruin a team but the only thing this owner did was mess with the amenities and the way the team travels. I know it's a movie so it doesn't matter.
shareThat's kind of a plot hole for the final third of the film. After Donovan spills the beans to Lou, Lou even tells the team that if they can't fail properly, she'll just replace them with someone who will. Why exactly would she wait until after the season? The only thing I can think of is that once the team starts playing well, it would be rather transparent that they're trying to lose if she started releasing/trading everyone and bringing up low minor chaff.
Someone should go teach them how to change the channel.
Yea, the covert thing would be very important. Major League baseball is a regulated monopoly and has stadium deals going with the cities. She could end up with all kinds of political heat if they figured out something was up.
sharehttps://www.cbr.com/movie-legends-revealed-was-the-owner-in-major-league-secretly-the-hero/
Her plan was working pretty well, with the team one game under .500, despite Brown doing some excellent managing of the young misfits. Things change, however, when hapless general manager Charlie Donovan reveals Phelps’ plot to Brown, who then uses her evil scheme to inspire his players to win. In a famous sequence, he finds a nude photo of Phelps (during her days as a showgirl) and turns it into a clothed cardboard cutout (along with a word balloon of her telling the players that they stink). Every time they win a game, he removes one piece of clothing until she’s completely naked. This keys a turnaround in performance, as the team soon rattles off a long winning streak and gets back into playoff contention.share
However, there’s always been a pretty major plot hole: First off, if Phelps is so set against the team winning, why not just trade or release the good players or send them to the minors as soon as they begin winning? Secondly, once it is evident that the team will meet the minimum attendance requirements, why does Phelps continue to rally against the team when going to the playoffs will make her more money? Well, screenwriter David S. Ward (who also directed the film) had a very good explanation for that. You see, in the original script, Phelps was secretly trying to help the team!
In reality, she actually wanted them to win. wanting them to lose was all an act. Theres a deleted scene telling you this. She even mentions that is she really wantedthem to lose she could have just got rid of players.
shareThey said the test audience hated the original ending. Personally I think it would have made more sense.
shareThe ending when you really think about it, doesn't make sense. I mean, does Rachel Phelps really get her comeuppance when the Indians win the one game playoff against the Yankees? After Lou tells the team of Rachel's plan to count on them to lose, Jake pretty much says that they have to win the World Series (since she was going to do it regardless). But the Indians when the movie ends, just reached the League Championship Series (since this movie came out in 1989, the Division Series didn't exist yet). There's no guarantee that Rachel isn't going to release everybody in favor of inferior talent. And it's revealed in Major League II that the Indians lost the ALCS to the Chicago White Sox so it was all for naught.
shareTrue they didn't win the World Series, but they were able to block her attempt to move the team just by reaching the playoffs.
As Lou had told the team, if she were successful in her attempt to move the team, then she would have dumped all those guys for better players, and they probably wouldn't be invited to any other teams camps since the whole league saw that they sucked. But by going on their winning streak, and playing so well, the league now saw how good the guys could be. Even if Phelps released everybody, the younger guys like Vaughn, Hayes and Cerano would be immediately picked up by someone else. Plus it would become very transparent to the league and the city what she was doing.
Deleted scenes mean nothing.
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You also have to still have the team somewhat attractive to the new city or their attendance will be really bad there too once the move is made.
shareThe funny part is that the baseball team that is now in Miami has the worse attendance in the league. If the movie were real, the team would have moved back to Cleveland!
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