Ward directs his actors as adroitly as he has written for them, and the vulnerability that he allows his three stars to reveal is really what makes the movie work.

It skims along agreeable surfaces, expertly balancing its comedy with melodrama and fulfilling expectations right on schedule.

It has its moments, but it also has long, slow stretches where you feel like standing up and wandering around and maybe going out to hunt up a beer. That's fine for baseball, but it's not the way movies are supposed to work.

Over 35 years after its release, the hysterical Major League remains one of the best baseball movies ever made.