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Cleveland Indians World Series: MLB Should Make ‘Wild Thing’ Charlie Sheen First Pitch Happen

By Joseph Karbousky
Published on: 12:50 PST, Oct 22, 2016

The Cleveland Indians World Series appearance surely has baseball fans in C-Town in a frenzy, and it also has actor Charlie Sheen fired up as well. Sheen, the star of the hit movie Major League instantly became a “baseball super star” as he led the Indians to new heights as the hard throwing pitcher Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn.

Vaughn along with Roger Dorn, Jake Taylor, Willie Mays Hayes, and Pedro Cerrano took the Indians to new heights on the silver screen, something the real baseball club hasn’t done for nearly 70 years. However, the one thing these fictional characters did do is bring the Indians under a different light.

For baseball fans like myself, Major League got me to like the Indians, and dare I say, actually made part of me want to see them win a World Series. That’s something that Detroit Tigers fans don’t like to admit. The movie was made in 1989 — a year where the Indians finished fourth in the American League East. Yet, in a strange way, the popularity of a team that hasn’t won a World Series title since 1948 started to grow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Mi3KNEpbA4

Now the team is at the pinnacle — four wins away from a championship as they prepare to host Game 1 of the 2016 World Series. What could be better than to bring Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn out of the bullpen to throw the first pitch?

Charlie Sheen certainly wanted to resurrect Vaughn. In fact he took to Twitter saying he would be “honored” to do such a thing. Unfortunately, Major League Baseball has nixed the idea already.

According to a Washington Post report, Major League Baseball and the powers that be have already made its choice to throw out the first pitches for Games 1 and 2, which will be played at Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio, this Tuesday and Wednesday. A spokesman reported that the Indians are going to go with “former franchise greats” to do the honors. An official announcement of who and when those pitches will take place is expected early next week.

That is tradition in baseball, and there is nothing wrong with it.

Teams always bring back the best players from the past to do the honors, but in this case it seems like the Indians and MLB should have brought in Sheen, and here is why.

The Cleveland Indians obviously love the movie — and the recognition that comes with it. In late June of this season, Indians players Jason Kipnis and Mike Napoli thought it would be great to bring Jobu into the Tribe’s locker room.

In the movie Major League, clean up hitter Pedro Cerrano prayed to Jobu, his voodoo statue, that he believed would help his bats hit a curveball. He would reward Jobu for his help by giving him shots of rum. Kipnis and Napoli hung a sweater with a picture of Jobu and the inscription, “It is very bad to drink Jobu’s rum. Very bad,” in a locker in the far corner of the Tribe’s locker room.

“We’ve had Jobu there for a little bit,” said Kipnis, after Tuesday’s 6-0 victory over the Rays. “He’s been working. He didn’t like the first airport vodka we left him. So we tried Bacardi (rum) and that seems to be working. Right now it’s working so we’re not going to mess with what works.”

From then on, Cleveland played flawless baseball, running away with the Central Division title and knocking off the favored Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays to make it to the World Series. Cleveland was the biggest underdog in the American League when the postseason began, yet here they are, getting ready to host Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday night.

Jobu may have had a little to do with that, don’t you think?

The ghosts from Cleveland’s past should get the honor to throw out the first pitch for each game, however, in this particular situation, Sheen is one of them.

The old expression “art imitates life” can be used in so many instances, but the Indians have a chance to let Sheen turn that around and let life imitate art, at least for one moment in time. Many fans on social media agree.

How cool would it be for Indians fans and baseball fans in general to hear the Cleveland announcer say “Now entering the game for the Cleveland Indians, Ricky ‘Wild Thing’ Vaughn!” and have Sheen run in from the bullpen in full uniform to toss out the first pitch?

[Featured Image Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images]

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