Why a Mariners/Angels Game at Dodger Stadium? Your 'Naked Gun' Questions Answered Here

Why a Mariners/Angels Game at Dodger Stadium? Your 'Naked Gun' Questions Answered Here

Dodger Stadium is the closest Major League ballpark to Hollywood and thus appears regularly in television and film. In the first "Naked Gun" film, "The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!," Chavez Ravine back-dropped the pivotal third act.

Spoiler alert: The film climaxes with a plot to assassinate the Queen of England being foiled by a bumbling police detective who goes undercover as an opera singer, and then as a home plate umpire. It's all set against the California Angels hosting the Seattle Mariners in the midst of a pennant race. Obviously, there has never been an actual Angels-Mariners game played at Dodger Stadium.

We can also safely say that baseball has never seen: a shortstop get hit by a moving car while in play on the diamond, a base runner mauled by a tiger at second base or an outfielder decapitated by a fly ball.

Let's answer some of the questions you may have about one of the best sports comedy sequences ever.

Why aren't the Dodgers in it?

A club spokesman told the Sporting News in 2018 that the team didn’t want to take part due to the on-field brawl in the film. They were happy to rent out the stadium for filming, however, but wanted no brand mentions.

Why Mariners vs. Angels?

Filmmakers David Zucker, Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams are Wisconsinites who had hoped to use their home state Milwaukee Brewers, an American League team at the time. Major League Baseball said no, and told them they must take the Mariners. Prior to the arrival of Ken Griffey Jr. in 1989, the Ms were toiling in obscurity and needed whatever exposure they could get.

As for the Angels, they actually played at Chavez Ravine for three seasons while their home, now known as Angel Stadium was being built.

Any real-life ball players in the movie?

For the Mariners, only Jay Johnstone. But ironically, Seattle is not one of the eight teams for which he played. He was three years retired when this film was released in 1988, with his final team being the Dodgers. His first team was the Angels, and his appearance thus embodies the circle of life.

Reggie Jackson, portraying a character inspired by the Manchurian Candidate, is the only real-life Angel, but he had retired from play by then. He has just one line of dialogue, in which he repeats: "I must kill the queen." In his playing career, Jackson hit 563 career home runs, made 14 All-Star Game appearances, but, thankfully, made no attempts to commit regicide.

Who portrays the ball players?

The nearby San Bernadino Spirit (now the Inland Empire 66ers), a Mariners affiliate for which Griffey played, provided a majority of the stand-ins. Joey Banks, son of "Mr. Cub" Ernie Banks, served as baseball advisor to the film. In a twist on the traditional, controversial real-life umpire Cowboy Joe West gets tossed from the game by the main character, Lt. Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen).

A seven-person movie broadcast booth ("How about that?!") was used, with Curt Gowdy, Jim Palmer, Tim McCarver, Mel Allen, Dick Enberg, Dick Vitale and Dr. Joyce Brothers appearing as themselves.

Does the Big A make an appearance?

Yes, there is an Angel Stadium establishment shot, but confusingly, it follows stock footage of Wrigley Field in Chicago. 

No attempt is made to disguise Dodger Stadium, with its mountain vistas, clearly a more attractive backdrop than the nothing-but-concrete freeway-views of Anaheim.

What is the legacy of this movie?

People are still writing about it more than 30 years later. In 2018, the L.A. Times called the conclusion of the "Naked Gun" the best baseball scene in movie history. The New York Times labeled it one of the best 1,000 movies ever made in 2003.

Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly contributes to WGN TV, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Now and SB Nation.