Major League, Major Cocktails: Sipping Through the Comedy and the Comeback of Cleveland’s Unlikeliest Team

Rachel Phelps (Margaret Whitton) is a former Las Vegas showgirl finds herself stuck with a failing baseball team located in Ohio at her late husband’s request. Finding a loophole, she is determined to have a loosing season so she can get out of Cleveland, Ohio and move the team to Miami, Florida. Her first move is to hire an aging-out manager from the minor league Lou Brown (James Gammon). Without experience, nor connections in the major league, he is forced to bring together a rag-tag team made of unremarkable rookies and washed-up major leaguers. The bones of the team become Jake Taylor (Tom Berenger) a catcher with bad knees; a power slugging outfielder Pedro Cerrano (Dennis Haysbert) who cannot hit a breaking ball; third baseman Roger Dorn (Corbin Bernsen) who is more interested in stock trades; fast runner and terrible hitter Willie May Hayes (Wesley Snipes)in the outfield; and fast-pitching, ex-con Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn (Charlie Sheen) the inspiration for our first cocktail.

Wild Thing , the nickname and walk out song for Ricky Vaughn one of the pitchers of a team that looks pretty bleak with the fan-stands looking bleaker still. Sometime into the season, the manager has Ricky outfitted with glasses which improves his pitching accuracy significantly. This quickly makes him the hottest pitcher to enter Cleveland, Ohio. Hot is what we were going for in the Wild Thing cocktail and a couple of obvious spirit choices just like the humor in this movie. Equal parts Fireball Whiskey, Screwball Whiskey and Nixta Corn Liqueur start off this cocktail. Can you see where we’re going with this? We finish it off with a little bit of Creme de Cacao, Pineapple Juice for a little bit of sweet acidity, and to bring the heat, Habanero Bitters. The result is a spicy, sweet cocktail that tastes like a box of cracker jacks. Serve it in a rocks glass garnished with a white sphere to look like a baseball. So you can take a drink and sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”, then take another drink and slide into “Wild Thing”.

No baseball team is complete without its most important member, and that is the team totem Jobu where most of their superstitions lie. Most especially for Pedro Cerrano who needs Jobu to help him hit the break away balls. To make this cocktail we need two things a cigar, and rum. We used these as an inspiration to make a cocktail that is made with rum and reminiscent of a fragrant cigar and the best part of this cocktail is that it is equal parts. Spice Rum, Creme de Banana, and Pineapple Juice combined bring in all the flavors of a good Cuban cigar. Add in Mezcal and smoking out the rocks glass with a cinnamon stick to get that earthy smokiness Jobu would really love. So next time you ask Jobu to come to take the fear from bats to hit the curveball, make this cocktail. He will come.