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The 1989 film "Major League" is the story of make-believe Cleveland Indians owner Rachel Phelps assembling a roster full of misfits and has-beens in order to destroy the team’s attendance records, in hopes of moving the Tribe to Miami. Despite Phelps’ attempt at sabotaging baseball in Cleveland, the team comes together as the city embraces its uniqueness, and wins its division in a one-game playoff.
The star of the movie is whacky and wild pitcher Rick Vaughn "Wild Thing" Vaughn, played by none other than everyone’s favorite warlock, Charlie Sheen. On Tuesday, Sheen — who donned an Indians hat in a number of headline-making interviews last month — made his return to the city in which he portrayed Vaughn, and in the process affected the city’s sports teams with his "winning" attitude. Sheen’s "Violent Torpedo of Truth" tour got off to a tumultuous start just a few days earlier. During the tour’s first stop Saturday in Detroit, Sheen ended the show after being essentially booed off stage. Just 170 miles away, in Cleveland, the Indians would have been booed off the field — if only there was anyone at Progressive Field to do the booing. Te Indians were opening their 2011 campaign with their second consecutive loss to the Chicago White Sox, in front of a record-low crowd inside of their home stadium.
A day later, the Tribe picked up its first win of the year, 7-1, against the White Sox, and Sheen bounced back with a show in Chicago Cubs that received mixed reviews. And as their paths crossed on Tuesday, Sheen injected the city with a much-needed shot of Tiger Blood.
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