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'''A League of Their Own''' is a 1992 film which tells a fictionalized account of the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). It starred Geena Davis, Tom Hanks, Madonna and Lori Petty. It was adapted by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel from a story by Kim Wilson and Kelly Candaele, and was directed by Penny Marshall.
A 1992 TV series[1] based on the film aired on CBS in April 1993, with Garry Marshall, Megan Cavanagh, and Jon Lovitz reprising their roles. It was quickly canceled.

Contents

Plot

Cast

Rockford Peaches

Others

Reception

Production

Quotes

Historical accuracy

External links

Plot

When World War II threatens to shut down Major League Baseball, candy manufacturing magnate Walter Harvey (Garry Marshall) decides to create a women's league to make money. Ira Lowenstein (David Strathairn) is put in charge and scout Ernie Capadino (Jon Lovitz) is sent out to recruit players.
Capadino likes what he sees in catcher Dottie Hinson (Geena Davis). She's a terrific hitter and, almost as important, a "doll". He offers her a tryout, but the married woman is content where she is, working in a dairy and on the family farm in Oregon. He's less impressed with her younger sister, pitcher Kit Keller (Lori Petty), who loves the game passionately, but appears to be less talented. He finally lets her come along when she persuades Dottie to give it a try. Along the way, he also checks out Marla Hooch (Megan Cavanagh), a great switch-hitting slugger from Fort Collins, Colorado, but the blunt-speaking scout finds her too unattractive and rejects her. Dottie and Kit refuse to leave without her, and Ernie reluctantly gives in.
When they arrive at the tryouts in Chicago, they meet Doris Murphy (Rosie O'Donnell) and Mae Mordabito (Madonna). They are all assigned to the same team, the Rockford Peaches, which is managed by drunken former baseball great Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks). Initially, Jimmy treats the whole thing as a joke, leaving the coaching duties to Dottie. But he eventually takes over, as he sees how hard and well his team is playing.
At first, the league attracts little interest. In one memorable scene, Lowenstein tells the Peaches that things aren't going so well and that the owners are having second thoughts. With a ''Life'' magazine photographer in attendance, he asks them to do something spectacular. Dottie obliges: When a ball is popped up behind home plate, she catches it while doing the splits; the resulting photograph makes the cover of the magazine. Jimmy is (predictably) disgusted, while the opposing coach and catcher are stunned. Gradually, more and more people show up and the league becomes a success.
The sibling rivalry between Dottie and Kit becomes more intense as the season progresses: Kit has a massive inferiority complex because Dottie is a better player, a better hitter and much more beautiful. Dottie offers to have herself traded to another team, the Racine Belles, to prevent the conflict between her and her sister from interfering with the game. Lowenstein, who had been publicizing the photogenic Dottie as the "Queen of Diamonds", has Kit traded to Racine instead. Kit blames her sister for getting her traded.
The two meet again in the championship game of the AAGPBL World Series. In the top of the ninth inning, Kit pitches to Dottie and Dottie hits a home run off her, scoring two runs for Rockford. In the bottom of the inning, Kit comes up to bat, with her team trailing. Although Dottie gives the pitcher advice on Kit's weaknesses as a hitter, Kit hits the ball into the outfield and rounds the bases, ignoring a stop signal from the third base coach. Dottie catches the ball and blocks home plate, but Kit runs into her hard. Dottie drops the ball (possibly intentionally) and Kit scores the winning run. Dottie quits baseball to be with her husband Bob (Bill Pullman), who has returned from the war, but before she leaves, she and Kit reconcile.
Many years later, the two sisters, who haven't seen each other in quite a while, are reunited, along with many of their Peaches teammates, at the opening of a women's section in the Baseball Hall of Fame. (Many of the older women shown in the final scenes had been actual players of the AAGPBL.)

Cast

Rockford Peaches

★ Tom Hanks - Jimmy Dugan (manager). The character was loosely based on real-life Baseball Hall of Fame player Jimmie Foxx.

★ Geena Davis - Dottie Hinson (catcher). Debra Winger was originally set to play the lead, but dropped out after Madonna signed on.

★ Lori Petty - Kit Keller (pitcher)

★ Anne Ramsay - Helen Haley (first base)

★ Megan Cavanagh - Marla Hooch (second base)

★ Rosie O'Donnell - Doris Murphy (third base)

★ Freddie Simpson - Ellen Sue Gotlander (shortstop/pitcher)

★ Tracy Reiner, daughter of director Penny Marshall and Rob Reiner - Betty "Spaghetti" Horn (left field)

★ Madonna - Mae Mordabito (center field)

★ Bitty Schram - Evelyn Gardner (right field)

★ Renée Coleman - Alice "Skeeter" Gaspers (left field/center field/catcher) (as Renee Coleman)

★ Ann Cusack - Shirley Baker (left field)

Others

★ Jon Lovitz - Ernie Capadino

★ David Strathairn - Ira Lowenstein

★ Julie Croteau - Helen Haley (baseball double for Anne Ramsey)

★ Garry Marshall - Walter Harvey

★ Bill Pullman - Bob Hinson, Dottie's husband

★ Téa Leoni - Racine first base

★ Don S. Davis - Racine coach Charlie Collins (as Don Davis)

★ Eddie Jones - Dave Hooch, Marla's father

★ Justin Scheller - Stillwell, Evelyn Gardner's obnoxious young son

★ Mark Holton - Stillwell as an adult

★ Pauline Brailsford - Miss Cuthburt, the Peaches' chaperone

★ Laurel Cronin - Maida Gillespie

★ David Lander - Racine's announcer

Reception

The movie was released on July 1, 1992, and was #1 by its second weekend (July 10-12). It was a commercial success, making $107 million in the United States on a $40 million budget (and an additional $25 million worldwide), and was well-received by critics.

Production

All of the actresses did their own baseball playing; they did not have stunt doubles (except for Anne Ramsay). There was one exception: Davis could do the splits, but not while sliding at the same time to catch the ball.
League Stadium, located in Huntingburg, Indiana, served as the homefield for the Rockford Peaches. Many game scenes were filmed at Bosse Field in Evansville, Indiana. It is the nation's third oldest ball park (and the oldest minor league ball park), and was depicted as the home of the Racine Belles. The scenes that take place in fictional "Harvey Field" were shot at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois. As with his film counterpart, Chicago Cubs owner P. K. Wrigley was the original sponsor of the league.
Madonna ("This Used to Be My Playground") and Carole King ("Now and Forever") contributed songs to the soundtrack.

Quotes

Jimmy Dugan exclaims, "There's no crying! There's no crying in baseball!" when his tirade against Evelyn Gardner for making a costly playing error makes her break out in tears. This was rated 54^th on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest film quotes of all time. Hanks has said in several interviews that this line remains his favorite.

Historical accuracy

★ Although many players enlisted or were drafted into the military, Major League Baseball did not shut down for World War II. As mentioned in the film, President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided that keeping professional baseball and football active, even with the necessarily depleted talent pool, would be good for the morale of American soldiers overseas.

★ Children were not allowed in the dugouts in reality and only very special exceptions were made to have them with their mothers on the road at all- for exactly the reasons depicted in the film with Stillwell-Angel.

★ The real AAGPBL, contrary to what is shown in the film, did not play regulation baseball. In the real first season of the league, they played with a softball-sized ball and the bases were only 65 feet apart. Subsequent seasons would see the ball gradually shrunk to regulation size and the basepaths gradually lengthened to 85 feet (regulation basepaths are 90 feet).

External links

★ History vs. Hollywood - ''A League of Their Own''

★ ESPN.com - Page 2 - Reel Life: 'A League of Their Own'

★ Movie stills