cast : scott bakula , corbin bernsen , dennis haysbert , ted mcginley , walt goggins , eric bruskotter , thom barry , takaaki ishibashi , jensen daggett , bob uecker director : john warren producer : james g . robinson screenplay : john warren cinematography : tim surhstedt music : robert folk u . s . distributor : warner brothers from a major league baseball radio broadcast , featuring play-by- play man harry canary and color man whitey hashbrown , with special guest commentator james berardinelli . hc : as we go to the top of the 8th , we're joined in the booth by film critic james berardinelli , who's here fresh from seeing the new baseball movie , major league : back to the minors , the third in the popular saga taking a lighter look at the majors . nice to see you , jim . as a big baseball fan and a movie reviewer , can you give us the scoop on the new flick ? jb : my opinion : the producers should have stopped while they were ahead , and that was nine years ago . one entry was definitely enough , and i'm surprised there was a third after the anemic showing and low quality of major league 2 . this latest installment has all the earmarks of something that should have been released direct-to-video . it's worse than a mediocre made-for-tv feature . i should also mention that this movie likely won't play all that well in cleveland . now that the real indians are perennial contenders , they have been replaced by the minnesota twins as the cinematic sadsacks . actually , most of the action involves the twins' aaa minor league club , the buzz , rather than the actual major league franchise . hc : sorry to interrupt , jim , but we still have to do play-by-play for the game on the field . leading off this inning is john warren . he steps into the batter's box and takes kent's pitch low for ball one . wh : so , the story's strictly minor league , right ? what's it about ? jb : scott bakula , the guy from quantum leap , plays career minor league pitcher gus cantrell . when twins owner roger dorn , once again portrayed by corbin bernsen , needs a new manager for his aaa team , he offers the job to gus , who is now faced with two daunting tasks : turn the team around and groom hot prospect downtown anderson ( played by walt goggins ) for a promotion to " the show . " with the help of former major leaguers pedro cerrano ( dennis haysbert ) , rube baker ( eric bruskotter ) , and isuro tanaka ( takaaki ishibashi ) , gus gets the buzz on the right track . in fact , he is so successful that he earns the enmity of the jealous manager of the big-league club , leonard huff ( played with over-the-top relish by ted mcginley ) . soon , dorn has arranged an exhibition game that pits gus' overachieving group against huff's overpaid , last-place bunch . 
