A League Of Their Own
Directed by Penny Marshall, the film stars Geena Davis, Tom Hanks, Madonna, and Lori Petty.
The screenplay was written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel from a story by Kim Wilson and Kelly Candaele.
A 1993 television series based on the film aired on CBS in April 1993, with Garry Marshall, Megan Cavanagh, Tracy Reiner, and Jon Lovitz reprising their roles. It was quickly canceled.
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 of public relations and scout Ernie Capadino (Jon Lovitz) is sent out to recruit players.
Capadino likes what he sees in catcher Dottie Hinson (Geena Davis). 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 finally lets her come along when she persuades Dottie to give it a try. Along the way to the tryouts in Chicago, he also checks out Marla Hooch (Megan Cavanagh), a great switch-hitting slugger from Fort Collins, Colorado.
Dottie and Kit refuse to continue on without her and Ernie reluctantly gives in.
When the trio arrive at the tryouts in Chicago, they meet Doris Murphy (Rosie O'Donnell) and Mae Mordabito (Madonna). They are all assigned with 10 others to form the Rockford Peaches; 45 other prospects are assigned to either the Racine Belles, Kenosha Comets, or South Bend Blue Sox.
Jimmy initially treats the whole thing as a joke, leaving the managerial duties to Dottie. Meanwhile, the players have to attend mandatory etiquette classes to maintain a "lady like" image, which they consider a ridiculous and condescending waste of time.
After they initially think it will make it difficult to slide into bases, they conjure up the phrase "dirt in the skirt!"
The league attracts little interest at first. In one memorable scene, Lowenstein tells the Peaches that things aren't going so well and that the owners are having second thoughts about keeping the league going beyond the 1943 season.
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 splits; the resulting photograph makes the cover of the magazine.
More and more people gradually 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. After Kit gets upset when Dottie has Jimmy pull her for a relief pitcher, Dottie offers to have herself traded to Racine 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. In the top of the ninth inning, Kit pitches to Dottie and Dottie hits a line drive over her head, scoring two runs for Rockford.
Kit comes up to bat with her team trailing in the bottom of the inning. 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 quits baseball to be with her husband Bob (Bill Pullman), who has returned from the war, but she and Kit reconcile before she leaves.
Many years later, the two sisters, who haven't seen each other in quite a while, and many of their Peaches teammates (except for Dugan and Evelyn Gardner who had died some years earlier) are reunited 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). Moira Kelly was chosen to play the part, but suffered an injury during the filming of The Cutting Edge.
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, stepdaughter of director Penny Marshall and daughter of 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 Ramsay)
Garry Marshall - Walter Harvey
Bill Pullman - Bob Hinson, Dottie's husband
Janet Jones - Racine pitcher
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
Production
League Stadium, located in Huntingburg, Indiana, served as the homefield for the Rockford Peaches. Many other game scenes were filmed at Bosse Field in Evansville, Indiana.
The roadhouse scenes were filmed at the Hornville Tavern (2607 Baseline Rd.) in Evansville, Indiana.
All scenes on the train and at the train stations were filmed at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois. The Nebraska Zephyr, now part of the museum's collection, was prominently featured.
Madonna ("This Used to Be My Playground") and Carole King ("Now and Forever") contributed songs to the soundtrack.
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.
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
A League of Their Own
The Jimmy Dugan exclamation, "Are you crying? 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, was rated 54th on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest film quotes of all time.
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