Major League II is a
comedy dealing with the ups and downs of a baseball player,
the women in his life and his attempt to change his image.
Rick "Wild Thing" Vaughn is an ace pitcher who has
lost his ability on the mound, but is more concerned with his
new girlfriend/manager and her plans to make him a media
mega-star.
The rest of Vaughn's
team, the Cleveland Indians, is also doing more poorly by the
minute. One player has gotten into Zen, giving him an ultra-
peaceful, passive demeanor, which is non-conductive to the
demands of the game. Another player has just starred in a
Rambo-like action movie, and while doing the stunts, injured
himself badly for the rest of the season. There are many other
obstacles for this team to overcome as they go from bad to
worse.
Through the coarse
of events, the team becomes focused. Vaughn regains his sense
of identity, his pitching talent, and the nice girl that he
had left while under the spell of his agent. The team
ultimately goes on to win the world series.
Animal action
consists of a flock of pigeons flying over the ball park. A
fly ball hits one of the birds, sending it crashing down onto
the field. The Zen ball player picks up the bird and rubs it.
The bird revives and the player releases it, tossing it gently
into the air. The bird then flies up and away. The flock
flying over the ball park consisted of homing pigeons released
by the trainer. For the scene with the single pigeon, the
actor released a tumbler pigeon, which flew to the handler off
camera. Where the pigeon was hit by the ball, a real bird flew
against a blue screen background. In seperate filming, a
baseball was pitched against a blue screen background. The
effect of the bird being hit by the ball was thus achieved by
superimposing the film of the bird with the film of the tossed
ball.
