In the top of the 9th during the one game playoff against the Yankees, the stadium clock reads 10:20 PM as Vaughn is coming in from the bullpen. In the bottom of the 9th right as the Duke comes in from the bullpen, the stadium clock still reads 10:20 PM.
After the Indians start winning and have a record that is roughly 60-61, a series of newspaper articles sequentially appears with news of the Indians' latest success. The dates on the newspapers are inconsistent. The first one is some time in May. (A team can't have played 121 games by May.) Then, as the season progresses and the Indians move toward first place, the newspaper dates move backward into April.
In the final "bunt and steal" scene, after the signs have been given by Lou Brown and the base coach, Taylor is knocked down by an up and in fastball by the Duke. Hayes should have been running on the pitch as he would have assumed Taylor was bunting based on the signs. There's no way the signal would have included a "run on the 2nd pitch" instruction as Taylor already had one strike on him. Hayes steals on the next pitch and scores on Taylor's bunt single.
Just after all the players report to spring training, there is a shot of Roger Dorn walking with his duffel bag over his shoulder in the room with all the bunk beds. Right behind him, an extra, playing one of the baseball player hopefuls (He has a mustache and is carrying a bag.), is walking behind him. The scene cuts to Dorn saying hello to Jake Taylor. When it cuts back to just Dorn, the same extra can be seen doing exactly the same walking pattern he just did a second ago, like he just arrived twice.
When Dorn (#24) gets his hit in the 7th inning of the playoff game, the shot of the base runner rounding first base shows his number as #8, and the first base coach has #2. When his face is shown again, Dorn's number is back to #24, and the first base coach is shown to be wearing #16 in all other shots.
During the pre-game prayer the smoke from Pedro's altar sets off the locker room sprinklers. That type of sprinkler is activated by heat, not smoke, so they would not have gone off.
When Pedro Cerrano gets mad at Harris in the locker room, he shouts "¡Chíngate Cabrón!" Cerrano is supposed to be Cuban, but that expression is Mexican Spanish and rarely heard in Cuba.
After Harris gives up the walk in the top of the 9th inning, the scoreboard shows 7 hits for the Yanks. Vaughn comes in and gets a strikeout. After Hayes gets a hit in the bottom of the 9th, the scoreboard shows 9 hits for the Yanks when, in fact, they only have 7.
When Jake first follows Lynn to her fiancé's apartment, he is able to just walk right in without needing a key or being allowed in. Considering that it's most likely a high-class building, Jake would have had to break in.
In the film Yankees first baseman Clu Hayward has a handlebar mustache below his lip. In real life, Yankee players are forbidden from wearing facial hair below the lip.
However, this isn't a documentary; rules are allowed to be different.
However, this isn't a documentary; rules are allowed to be different.
It is not an ejectable offense (then or now) in Major League Baseball to run the bases while carrying a bat, unless the umpire believes it will disrupt the play, e.g., the ball is live and there will be a play at the base where the batter/runner is going. Even then, the umpire will probably just call the batter out for interference. Carrying the bat is an ejectable offense in girls' fast-pitch softball.
In the bus, Lou Brown tells Vaughn that he is starting Harris in the Yankee game instead of him. Vaughn is clearly a starting pitcher and, thus, would not normally be in the bullpen for the final out of the game. However, it is not uncommon for all pitchers (including starters) to be available during winner-take-all games. For example, Randy Johnson pitched in relief for the Mariners and was the winning pitcher in Game 5 of the 1995 ALDS against the Yankees.
It is mentioned in the film that the Indians had not been able to beat the Yankees. In a one game playoff, the team with the better record is awarded home field advantage. The 1 game playoff should have been played in New York. At the time of the movie, home field for a one game playoff was determined by a coin flip in league offices upon such a game becoming a possibility. The process of awarding home field for a one game playoff based on the teams' head to head record was not adapted by Major League Baseball until the 2010's.
The Spring Training site for the Indians is in Tucson, Arizona, according to the advertisement on the taxi Jake Taylor gets out of. While it has since moved, this was correct at the time of the film.
Cerrano and Haywood tossed their bats and their helmets to the ground, which (then and now) is believed to be an ejectable offense in Major League Baseball. However, this is only true when an umpire feels the player is "showing up the umpire." Any umpire would see this is in disgust of their own action and would never throw out a player for that.
In the last game of the series, whenever they pan to the score board, the clock says 10:20 every time it's shown, no matter how much time has passed.
When the Indians start making their run, and newspaper articles are shown, the first 3 headlines include the same article. It reads "Kansas City" even though none of the first three games mentioned were against Kansas City. Furthermore, the article mentions Doug Jones, an actual Indians reliever in the late-'80s/early-'90s.
During the first game, there are several shots of the stadium scoreboard with the clock indicating it is approximately 10:50AM. No regular season major league game would start that early in the morning.
The newspaper article showing the Indians winning 5 in a row and move into 4th spot, is dated may 28th, after 120 odd games they should be into August, not still in May.
When the team is traveling on the team bus, the movie cuts twice to an outside shot of the moving bus. It is clear that the bus is empty.
Though released in 1989, the Cleveland Indians are still wearing their 1986-1988 uniforms. In 1989 the Indians debuted stripes down the uniform and pants and would retain those uniforms until the 1993 season before moving to the new Jacobs Field.
The away game footage supposedly against the Rangers is from Milwaukee County Stadium as the Right Field bullpen and scoreboard are still visible as Harry Doyle announces the final out.
When Clu Hayward hits the homerun off of Vaughn at Yankee Stadium, Harry Doyle says "That ball is headed for South America." Actually Left Field at old Yankee Stadium faced east meaning the homerun ball would have headed towards Europe which is east of the United States. If Hayward hit the ball to right (facing south) then Doyle would be in the right saying the ball is headed for South America.
When Lou Brown talks to Vaughn about sending him back to the minors to work on his control, he says "take Ryan there," motioning to a picture behind him as an example of a pitcher who turned it around in the minors. Yet the audio of "Ryan" is clearly dubbed in; Brown mouths "Koufax" and a picture of the left-handed Sandy Koufax (Ryan was a righty) is shown when Brown stands up. This line was likely changed after someone informed the writer/director David S. Ward that Sandy Koufax never played a day in the minor leagues, having joined the Dodgers directly out of high school.
When the guy hits a home run and the fans are arguing that it's too high or too hard and then the other guy says, "Who gives a shit, it's gone," the words don't match his mouth.
In the Indians locker room prior to the opening game, Ricky Vaughn is sitting in a chair and nervously flipping and catching a baseball into the air with one hand. Jake Taylor comes over and says, "Relax kid, we've got 161 of these games left to go." On the next flip, Vaughn is supposed to be rattled by Taylor's comment and miss the catch (evidenced by the audible "thud" of the ball on the floor). However, looking at the bottom of the frame, Vaughn can be seen to catch the ball in his hand.
Before the first game as the camera is panning across to harry doyle it is reflected in the glass before it gets to him.
The stadium that the Cleveland Indians play their home games in throughout the movie is actually the old Milwaukee County Stadium, former home of the Milwaukee Brewers. Some billboards/ads in the stadium were not removed, like advertisements for area radio stations 94 WKTI and 620 WTMJ.
At the home opener (April) and the playoff game (October) the fans in Cleveland are attired in summer clothing.
Early in the film when Charlie Donovan calls Jake Taylor up from Mexico, Taylor thinks it's a joke and disapprovingly hangs up. Yet the very next time Taylor is seen he is at the major-league training camp ready to start the preseason.
When Jake confronts Roger in his house after tanking the next to last play in the Oakland game, Jake says he didn't come up with the ball Riker hit. The player who hit it had Alcantara on his jersey. Riker was the following batter (who Jake distracts by talking about his wife).
In the ninth inning of the final game against the Yankees, Vaughn comes out to retire the last hitter. With the bases loaded, Jake (the catcher) gives only one set of signals. In such situations, there are two, sometimes even three, sets of signals to prevent on-base players from stealing signals and communicating to the batter what is coming.
When Dorn throws out a Yankee to end the top of the first inning in the final game Harry Doyle (Bob Uecker) says that he threw over to "Metcalf" but the first baseman's name was Ward, as that was what was on the back of his jersey.
When Harris pitches he does not go into a full stretch to be able to throw a ball at MLB speeds. He also doesn't have a leg kick to propel his pitch making it look like hes just lobbing the ball. All other pitchers have a full stretch and Vaughn has a very high leg kick.