It's been 15 years since sports fans were graced with Major League, the funniest baseball film ever conceived. It's a shame the studio ruined what could have been a decent franchise with dud sequels. Still, you can always keep memories of the original classic alive with this long overdue special edition DVD release, complete with Astroturf covering on the case.

This is a classic example of a sports movie. It has a slew of great actors, most in their prime (Charlie Sheen, Wesley Snipes), great writing, hilarious quotes, and a clichéd story that is just so enjoyable you can't help but fall in love with it. Added benefits include full license to use all real life logos, lending an air of authenticity to this offbeat comedy.

Major League avoids being a standard sports movie in that it’s more than a simple story of a team rising from the bottom. Its characters become well established to the point that you’re not rooting for the Indians, but the specific characters the script wisely takes the time to build up.

That does come back to the drop the movie down a spot. An overdrawn subplot between Tom Berenger’s character and Corbin Bernsen's (along with a rather dull romance with Rene Russo) lack the comedic edge the film builds so strongly towards. These scenes take over the movie at a few points and just drag the pace down right along with them.

Out of the bullpen for the save comes play-by-play announcer Bob Uecker, and when he takes over, all is forgiven. His priceless one liners lift the film into classic status. It’s a shame his screen time feels cut short on occasion.

Director David S. Ward would also helm the first sequel, and handled another solid sports effort in 1993, The Program. Neither come close to this energetic comedy. Major League should rank highly on any list of sports comedies.

Major League is presented in its original aspect ratio and is very clean, almost perfect at times. Sadly, almost nothing has been updated for this special edition. Solid colors reveal some compression issues, which are only mildly less noticeable than they used to be and the scratches on the print become annoying in a few sequences. The film deserves a proper clean up.