The filmmakers wanted Diane Cannon as owner Rachel Phelps, while the studio wanted Margaret Whitton, who got the role.
Jeremy Piven played a bench jockey whose material was deleted from the finished movie.
Rene Russo’s appearance is noted as her first movie role, although it is biographical context rather than an alternate casting.

Rejected roles, alternate endings, Milwaukee production logistics, baseball-player casting, injuries and stunts, Wild Thing history, sequel tensions, cast friendships, and Margaret Whitton’s dispute with Ron Shelton

In the discussion (23)

Approx. transcript time · 00:57:38Read transcript

Wesley Snipes reportedly turned down Do the Right Thing, although the role is not identified in the discussion.
Tom Berringer reportedly turned down the Crockett role on Miami Vice.
An alternate ending exposed Rachel Phelps as secretly supporting the team, but test audiences preferred her as a straightforward villain.
Milwaukee stood in for Cleveland during filming, including County Stadium and local crowd scenes.
About 20,000 extras were recruited for the Yankee-game crowd scenes.
Dennis Haysbert recalled being emotionally overwhelmed when the team ran onto the field as the crowd roared.
Former player Steve Yeager was the technical adviser, played the third-base coach, and doubled for Tom Berenger at catcher.
Former major-league player Willie Mueller played Yankees pitcher Duke Simpson.
The discussion says Chelcie Ross had pitched in college, although twenty years had passed since he had thrown a ball.
Steroid use reportedly helped raise Charlie Sheen's fastball for the movie.
A filming shoulder injury led Charlie Sheen to stop for cortisone shots and anti-inflammatories on the way to work.
Mitch Williams adopted Wild Thing with the Cubs, and the movie sequence is credited with creating the closer-entrance-music tradition.
Wesley Snipes complained about repeated sliding after getting strawberries, and Steve Yeager answered that he had done it for twenty years.
The fictional owner plans to move the team to Miami, and the discussion connects that premise to later Cleveland and Florida baseball history.
The hosts find Willie Mays Hayes’s wall of dirty black gloves creepy when imagining him bringing a date home.
A Jake-and-Lynn marriage scene intended to follow the Yankee game was filmed and deleted.
Dennis Haysbert's Yankee-game home run reportedly traveled 315 feet down the left-field line and hit the top of the wall.
In Dennis Haysbert's account, the close cast went to bars together and joined James Gammon’s poker games.
Charlie Sheen recalled James Gammon arriving badly hungover and called him an absolute warlock.
The oral history says Sheen coordinated women flying into Milwaukee, and Sheen compared it with women passing each other on the road during Young Guns.
Burnson mistakenly punched Charlie Sheen while filming the ending and left a welt.
Stacey Carroll's limited acting career and departure from the business are discussed in connection with Dorn's wife.
Margaret Whitton’s work on Major League and a settlement involving Ron Shelton and Bull Durham are discussed at the end of the research block.

Picking Nits

Jake Taylor’s supposed catching greatness, his healthy-enough-to-bunt knees, player finances and roommates, his abrupt lack of sexual interest, bullpen-car travel, Tom Berenger’s intended appeal, Roger Dorn missing a TV camera, Vaughn’s accessibility to Dorn’s wife, and lineup continuity in the final game

In the discussion (9)

Approx. transcript time · 01:08:59Read transcript

Jake Taylor is called a great catcher even though the movie offers little evidence of elite catching.
Jake’s bad knees are emphasized, yet he can execute and run out the decisive bunt.
The players’ salaries, housing, and roommate arrangements do not consistently fit their major-league status.
Despite Jake Taylor’s stewardess and paternity-suit backstory, the hosts call him asexual because he never tries to hook up with anyone in the movie.
The bullpen car’s slow road travel makes Jake’s arrival at Lynn’s house implausible.
Tom Berenger is described as probably an ’80s rugged, handsome type.
Roger Dorn somehow fails to notice the television camera crew filming him leave a hotel with another woman.
The hosts cannot explain how Dorn’s wife finds Ricky Vaughn alone at an empty bar when he is famous and the team is about to play a playoff game.
The final-game batting order and lineup continuity raise questions about who bats where and when.

Probably Unanswerable Questions

Willie Mays Hayes’s stolen-base total, Pedro Cerrano’s strikeout and home-run balance, pitcher-win logic, and whether Bull Durham would improve if Charlie Sheen played Nuke LaLoosh

In the discussion (4)

Approx. transcript time · 01:19:36Read transcript

Willie Mays Hayes’s batting average and stolen-base totals prompt questions about how often he reached base.
Serrano's strikeouts and home runs and the staff's credited wins are compared with the team's record.
The hosts debate whether Charlie Sheen in the New Lerush role would make Bull Durham better enough to justify replacing him in Major League.
One host initially favors the Bull Durham substitution, while the other wants both movies preserved; the question remains unresolved.