Roger Dorn (Corbin Bernsen), the former third baseman for the Cleveland Indians, is the new owner of the Minnesota Twins.  There’s a hotshot hitter playing for the Buzz, the Twins’s Minor League affiliate.  Downtown Anderson (Walton Goggin) can hit the ball over the fences but he still needs to learn about teamwork before he’ll be ready to move up to the majors.  Roger recruits an old friend, an aging pitcher named Gus Cantrell (Scott Bakula), to manage the Buzz and mentor Downtown.  Under Gus’s leadership, the Buzz starts winning games.  Even some former Indians, like Pedro Cerrano (Dennis Haysbert) and Taka Tanaka (Takaaki Ishibashi), are recruited to play for the Buzz.  When the manager of the Twins, Leonard Huff (Ted McGinley), insults Gus and the Buzz over dinner, Gus challenges the Twins to an exhibition game, the minors against the majors.  Huff accepts the challenge.

I had always heard that Major League: Back To The Minors was the worst of three Major League films but I liked it.  It wasn’t as good as the first one but it wasn’t as boring as the second one.  A lot of it has to do with the cast, who give it their all.  Walton Goggins is great as the cocky Downtown Anderson but really, all of the actors playing entire team did a good job.  They’re all misfits, of course.  I especially liked Doc (Peter Mackenzie), a medical student-turned-pitcher who has the slowest fastball in the game.  This movie had a little of the warmth and insider humor that made the first Major League film so special.  It’s an underdog story, with the minor league players proving that they’re just as good as the spoiled players in the big leagues.

I didn’t find the idea of an exhibition game between the Twins and the Buzz to be believable.  In the movie, they actually play two games against each other and they both take place during the regular season.  When did they find the time to play each other?  I guess they gave up one of their travel days but it still doesn’t seem like something that would happen.

I enjoyed this movie more than I thought I would.  It helped that I love baseball.  And I love the minor leagues, even if they don’t get the same respect as the majors.  Some of the best baseball I’ve ever seen has been in minor league games.  They may not have the huge contracts but they’ve got the talent, they’ve got something to prove, and they’ve got the love of the game.