Sports logo, uniform, & stadium inaccuracies in Movies & TV Shows

[eastfirst107]

Bull Durham: they're all wearing annoyingly cheap-looking adjustable caps. (The real Bulls wore regular wool fitteds at the time).

 

Spy Game: Brad Pitt wears a post-'92 Padres cap...the movie is set before that time.

[eastfirst107]

6 hours ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

What's this about?  Why did the filmmakers want to use the Brewers?  And why did Major League Baseball prefer that they use the Mariners?

One would assume that all parties' natural preference for the road team would be the Yankees.  At least it would in that case have been a team that Jay Johnstone had actually played for.

From https://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/news/naked-gun-baseball-game-scene-national-anthem-angels-mariners-dodgers-stadium-enrico-pallazzo/zztjoa4obui818oo9waqjyf34

This game features the Mariners and Angels, two real-life baseball teams. But that was never the plan. The Zuckers and Abrahams, three Wisconsinites, hoped for some hometown flair.

"We wanted the Brewers," David Zucker said. "We applied to MLB and they said you have to take the Mariners. … I think they were trying to help that franchise. That was a weak franchise (at the time) and must've been weaker than the Brewers."

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

5 hours ago, eastfirst107 said:

From https://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/news/naked-gun-baseball-game-scene-national-anthem-angels-mariners-dodgers-stadium-enrico-pallazzo/zztjoa4obui818oo9waqjyf34

This game features the Mariners and Angels, two real-life baseball teams. But that was never the plan. The Zuckers and Abrahams, three Wisconsinites, hoped for some hometown flair.

"We wanted the Brewers," David Zucker said. "We applied to MLB and they said you have to take the Mariners. … I think they were trying to help that franchise. That was a weak franchise (at the time) and must've been weaker than the Brewers."

 

This is a fascinating look at a comedy classic.

 

The piece says that the filmmakers wanted to use the Dodgers as the home team, but then settled for the Angels when the Dodgers refused to participate. (Presumably the filmmakers got the idea to use the Brewers — then, of course, in the American League — as the visiting team after it was established that the home team would be the Angels.)

 

But the most shocking revelation in the piece is this:

 

Quote

One might assume that Jackson's part was a happy coincidence of the Angels' participation in the film. Nope. The filmmakers wanted him all along, even if the teams had been different. (And never mind that he was a year into retirement at that point.)

 

"We would've used Reggie anyway. We would've put him in a Dodger uniform," David Zucker said.

 

Wow! We are very lucky that that didn't happen! Having to see Don Mattingly in a Dodger uniform in real life was bad enough. But if Reggie had been immortalised in that uniform in this screen classic, that would have been too much to take. That would definitely have ruined the entire movie for me.

[M4One]

Eazy E, wearing a White Sox hat that wouldn't be debuted until 1990, in the movie Straight Outta Compton that was set in 1986.

 

[MattMill]

The lonely island did a mockumentary on the bash brothers. It released on Netflix in May. 

 

It's tough to rate accuracy on obvious spoofs. 

 

They're wearing snapbacks and the cap is obviously wrong. The A's should be White.  An all dark green cap with yellow A wouldn't have shown up until 1994. 

 

Unless it was their choice, it's almost harder finding that hybrid snapback than the real thing. 

 

I wish I could remember a few other examples. I tend to see the new era flag on the side of caps in movies, when that design element wasn't introduced until just recently. Like the Brad Pitt and eazy e example, a mis timed era cap is common in movies. 

 

For the LI example, I would've been fine if the caps were accurate and the jerseys were fake. Or generic. But they kind of did opposite. Which makes it a tad puzzling. 

[Gothamite]

The filmmakers are from the Milwaukee area, and they wanted to use their hometown team.

 

This great Sporting News piece tells the story:

 

Quote

Many movies would've used generic-sounding teams for this kind of sequence, perhaps not wanting to go through the process, cost and potential headaches of licensing official team names and logos from MLB.

 

"The Naked Gun" would take no such shortcut. 

 

This game features the Mariners and Angels, two real-life baseball teams. But that was never the plan. The Zuckers and Abrahams, three Wisconsinites, hoped for some hometown flair. 

 

"We wanted the Brewers," David Zucker said. "We applied to MLB and they said you have to take the Mariners. … I think they were trying to help that franchise. That was a weak franchise (at the time) and must've been weaker than the Brewers."

 

But to keep this on-topic, there’s a reason the Angels are playing in Dodger Stadium. 

 

Quote

That was actually one of two team rejections the filmmakers encountered. Given their Los Angeles setting, they tried to get the Dodgers to participate but were met with only partial cooperation. 

 

"The Dodgers didn't want to be mentioned," David Zucker said. "They certainly didn't want to be one of the teams. They were willing to rent us their stadium, but didn't want it to say Dodger Stadium." 

 

(A Dodgers spokesman told SN the team didn't want to participate because of an on-field brawl at the end of the sequence. We'll get to that.)

 

So they snagged the other local team, the Angels. This kept an LA connection, but produced the odd sight of the Mariners and Angels playing in the very recognizable Dodger Stadium - leading to decades of questions among fans of the film. (Adding to the confusion is an establishing shot that's actually Angels Stadium). 

 

And speaking of the nonsensical, there's also a shot during the sequence that's obviously Chicago's Wrigley Field. Some might assume this was intentional, meant to add to the randomness. Not so.

 

I don’t remember that, time to watch the film again!

 

 

[THRILLHO]

Jim Morris played for the 99-00 Devil Rays. Dennis Quaid wore a 2001 Devil Rays uniform in “The Rookie”

 

[kmccarthy27]

On 7/29/2019 at 11:19 PM, eastfirst107 said:

From https://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/news/naked-gun-baseball-game-scene-national-anthem-angels-mariners-dodgers-stadium-enrico-pallazzo/zztjoa4obui818oo9waqjyf34

This game features the Mariners and Angels, two real-life baseball teams. But that was never the plan. The Zuckers and Abrahams, three Wisconsinites, hoped for some hometown flair.

 "We wanted the Brewers," David Zucker said. "We applied to MLB and they said you have to take the Mariners. … I think they were trying to help that franchise. That was a weak franchise (at the time) and must've been weaker than the Brewers."

Isn't that the reason Bernie Mac's Mr 3000 was the Brewers was because they went to MLB and said that the Brewers merch at that time was not the best so they wanted that movie to help boost sales. 

[Gothamite]

8 hours ago, kmccarthy27 said:

Isn't that the reason Bernie Mac's Mr 3000 was the Brewers was because they went to MLB and said that the Brewers merch at that time was not the best so they wanted that movie to help boost sales. 

 

No, it was about Miller Park and Milwaukee being receptive to filming (and the White Sox turning them down when asked, as Bernie Mac was a huge Sox fan).

 

https://reelchicago.com/article/throwback-thursday-reelscene-mr-3000/

[MilSox]

On 7/29/2019 at 8:56 AM, Gothamite said:

 

I really wish MLB had let them use the Brewers as the road team, as the filmmakers intended. But no, the league wanted to push the Mariners. 

Then these gorgeous duds would have been known for something other than that head case Gary Sheffield. Damn you forever, MLB!



But speaking of Milwaukee.  The WTMJ-TV 4 logo is prominently displayed on the scoreboard in some scenes of Major League.  Interesting that they went through the effort to make "Milwaukee County Stadium" say "Cleveland Municipal Stadium" on the board, and put Chief Wahoo where the BiG or Packers helmet was usually displayed.  Yet they didn't think to take the WTMJ logo off until halfway through the film.

[SFGiants58]

On 7/30/2019 at 2:10 AM, M4One said:

Eazy E, wearing a White Sox hat that wouldn't be debuted until 1990, in the movie Straight Outta Compton that was set in 1986.

 

 

Admittedly, Easy E wouldn’t look nearly as cool with a “Winning Ugly” cap. Of course, Dr Dre was the one NWA member with the dorkiest outfit:

 

 

Guys, Original Gangstas is a must/read or must/listen book.

[Gothamite]

On 8/3/2019 at 5:45 PM, NicDB said:

Then these gorgeous duds would have been known for something other than that head case Gary Sheffield. Damn you forever, MLB!

 

What a crime.  Those absolutely deserve to have been enshrined in cinematic history.

 

On 8/3/2019 at 5:45 PM, NicDB said:

But speaking of Milwaukee.  The WTMJ-TV 4 logo is prominently displayed on the scoreboard in some scenes of Major League.  Interesting that they went through the effort to make "Milwaukee County Stadium" say "Cleveland Municipal Stadium" on the board, and put Chief Wahoo where the BiG or Packers helmet was usually displayed.  Yet they didn't think to take the WTMJ logo off until halfway through the film.

 

There was also an ad for WTMJ Radio and WVTV Channel 18 on the press boxes above home plate, since those were the Brewers' broadcasters at the time.  The radio ad even features a Brewers logo, you can juuuust about see it in this screenshot!

 

 

And the ads are present for the entire film, from the first scene where Jake runs the bases on an imaginary home run through the Big Game at the end. 

 

 

It wasn't that they "didn't think" about removing them.  I worked on Major League in the prop department, and even at my extremely low level there was a discussion about those ads.  I'm pretty sure that it's a direct quote from the production designer that most people watching the movie wouldn't know or care, and the only people who would know or care were also knew that the interior shots of County Stadium didn't match the helicopter exteriors of Municipal Stadium. 

 

Personally, I think it might have had more to do with not wanting to spend the money on that level of set dressing; for his own part, Ward often framed his shots to put those ads just out of frame.

[FiddySicks]

On 7/29/2019 at 1:14 PM, Discrimihater said:

90s BP jersey.

 

I've mentioned this here before, but I got (what I have to assume was) a team issued Giants BP jersey from that era. I had to get rid of it though because I'm almost 100% sure it was Darryl Hamilton's jersey 

[MJWalker45]

On 7/31/2019 at 10:51 AM, THRILLHO said:

Jim Morris played for the 99-00 Devil Rays. Dennis Quaid wore a 2001 Devil Rays uniform in “The Rookie”

 

I remember listening to the Rangers broadcast in 2001 when they mentioned they were having an extended break between innings to shoot scenes for the movie. That's why he's wearing the wrong uniform. The Rangers may have been in the wrong uniform too for that game too. 

 

17 minutes ago, Gothamite said:

There was also an ad for WTMJ Radio and WVTV Channel 18 on the press boxes above home plate, since those were the Brewers' broadcasters at the time.  The radio ad even features a Brewers logo, you can juuuust about see it in this screenshot!

 

 

They TV channel ads actually matched the Cleveland TV station in design at the time so people watching in Cleveland that didn't know better would've thought they just didn't get permission to use WKYC. 

[MilSox]

27 minutes ago, Gothamite said:

 

What a crime.  Those absolutely deserve to have been enshrined in cinematic history.

 

 

There was also an ad for WTMJ Radio and WVTV Channel 18 on the press boxes above home plate, since those were the Brewers' broadcasters at the time.  The radio ad even features a Brewers logo, you can juuuust about see it in this screenshot!

 

 

And the ads are present for the entire film, from the first scene where Jake runs the bases on an imaginary home run through the Big Game at the end. 

 

 

It wasn't that they "didn't think" about removing them.  I worked on Major League in the prop department, and even at my extremely low level there was a discussion about those ads.  I'm pretty sure that it's a direct quote from the production designer that most people watching the movie wouldn't know or care, and the only people who would know or care were also knew that the interior shots of County Stadium didn't match the helicopter exteriors of Municipal Stadium. 

 

Personally, I think it might have had more to do with not wanting to spend the money on that level of set dressing; for his own part, Ward often framed his shots to put those ads just out of frame.

 

I suppose you're right... something like that would have been much less of a concern before the internet was really a thing.

 

I also keep forgetting that's where the TMJ logo used to be. When the Brewers moved to WCGV a couple years later, their logo replaced TMJ's which was moved tp below the clock.

 

[THRILLHO]

17 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

I remember listening to the Rangers broadcast in 2001 when they mentioned they were having an extended break between innings to shoot scenes for the movie. That's why he's wearing the wrong uniform.

 

Thats interesting.  A lot of movies use extras to fill a stadium that they can use exclusively.  Sometimes you’ll see scenes shot during an actual game like Ferris Buellers Day Off and Field of Dreams.  I guess budget dictates these things.  I also wonder why they couldn’t have all the actors in the real uniforms.  

 

Movies that have sports elements need consultants on stuff like this 

[MJWalker45]

11 minutes ago, THRILLHO said:

 

Thats interesting.  A lot of movies use extras to fill a stadium that they can use exclusively.  Sometimes you’ll see scenes shot during an actual game like Ferris Buellers Day Off and Field of Dreams.  I guess budget dictates these things.  I also wonder why they couldn’t have all the actors in the real uniforms.  

 

Movies that have sports elements need consultants on stuff like this 

They were using current Rangers and Devil Rays players that were involved in the actual game, changing uniforms would have been out of the question for either team.

[Gothamite]

For Major League, they actually shot the season in reverse to take advantage of the excitement in Milwaukee. 

 

The first days scheduled were the climactic game, where they needed a full stadium.  Everyone in town was excited, and willing to come out and sit in the stadium all night for a chance to be in a movie.  As the summer wore on, the production needed to bring in fewer and fewer extras.

[BJ Sands]

County Stadium was actually a really good stand-in for Cleveland Municipal. Both were charming old dumps whose time was coming to an end, and the upper decks looked similar.

 

Camden Yards... not so much.

[Green27]

I'm pretty sure the 1996 movie The Fan got it right when doing the Giants. Also, it's a weirdly good movie I loved as a kid.