A League of Their Own (1992)

Two sisters join the first female professional baseball league and struggle to help it succeed amidst their own growing rivalry.

Director:

Penny Marshall

Writers:

Kim Wilson (story), Kelly Candaele (story),

Stars:

Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Lori Petty

Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Another 6 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tom Hanks	...	Jimmy Dugan
Geena Davis	...	Dottie Hinson
Lori Petty	...	Kit Keller
Madonna	...	Mae Mordabito
Rosie O'Donnell	...	Doris Murphy - 3rd Base
Megan Cavanagh	...	Marla Hooch - 2nd Base
Tracy Reiner	...	Betty 'Betty Spaghetti' Horn - Left Field
Bitty Schram	...	Evelyn Gardner - Right Field
Ann Cusack	...	Shirley Baker - Left Field
Anne Ramsay	...	Helen Haley - 1st Base (as Anne Elizabeth Ramsay)
Freddie Simpson	...	Ellen Sue Gotlander - Shortstop / Pitcher
Renée Coleman	...	Alice Gaspers - Left Field / Center Field (as Renee Coleman)
Robin Knight	...	'Beans' Babbitt - Shortstop
Patti Pelton	...	Marbleann Wilkenson - 2nd Base
Kelli Simpkins	...	Beverly Dixon - Outfield

Storyline

During World War II when all the men are fighting the war, most of the jobs that were left vacant because of their absence were filled in by women. The owners of the baseball teams, not wanting baseball to be dormant indefinitely, decide to form teams with women. So scouts are sent all over the country to find women players. One of the scouts, passes through Oregon and finds a woman named Dottie Hinson, who is incredible. He approaches her and asks her to try out but she's not interested. However, her sister, Kit who wants to get out of Oregon, offers to go. But he agrees only if she can get her sister to go. When they try out, they're chosen and are on the same team. Jimmy Dugan, a former player, who's now a drunk, is the team manager. But he doesn't feel as if it's a real job so he drinks and is not exactly doing his job. So Dottie steps up. After a few months when it appears the girls are not garnering any attention, the league is facing closure till Dottie does something that ...

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Plot Keywords:

baseball | oregon | softball | rivalry | friend | 

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Taglines:

There's no crying in baseball!

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Sport

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 July 1992 (Canada)

Also Known As:

Une ligue en jupons

Filming Locations:

Bosse Field - 1701 N. Main Street, Evansville, Indiana, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$40,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$107,458,785 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation, Parkway Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

128 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The soldier who did most of the dancing with Madonna in the bar scene was a recurring character on director Penny Marshall's Laverne & Shirley (1976) TV show. The actor, Eddie Mekka, was Shirley's boyfriend and his occupation was a dance teacher.

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Goofs

The child actor playing Stillwell looks off camera (presumably towards the director) before falling, after he is hit with the baseball glove thrown at him. But he's stunned so he doesn't necessarily know where he is looking.

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Quotes

Jimmy Dugan: Hey, where did you come from?
Dottie Hinson: Well, we got as far as Yellowstone Park... then we turned back.
Jimmy Dugan: Have a little trouble with the bears, did ya?

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Crazy Credits

As the real-life players' scenes play out, the final lines are given to an umpire whose call of "strike" is questioned. He retorts, "This is *my* opinion! Yesterday that might have been a ball, tomorrow that might be a ball, but today it's a strike."

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Connections

Referenced in Mike and Mike in the Morning: Episode dated 4 September 2013 (2013)

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Soundtracks

It's Only a Paper Moon
Written by Harold Arlen, E.Y. Harburg, and Billy Rose
Produced and Arranged by Don Grolnick
Performed by James Taylor
Courtesy of Columbia Records

User Reviews

Entertaining look at an obscure piece of sporting history

Like most Englishmen, I know about as much about baseball as the average American knows about cricket. I am also not a great fan of sporting films in general, although there are a number of exceptions. Despite this, however, I generally love baseball films, of which there were a number of good examples in the late eighties and early nineties. ('Eight Men Out', 'Field of Dreams' and 'The Natural' all spring to mind). There is something about the sport that seems to lend itself to the cinema; perhaps British filmmakers should consider making a film about cricket, as the two sports have a lot in common.

During the Second World War many of America's male baseball stars were drafted into the forces, and it appeared that the nation might be deprived of its favourite sport. An entrepreneur therefore had the idea of creating an all-female baseball league. 'A League of their Own' tells the story of some of the women who played in that league.

At the centre of the drama is the rivalry between two sisters, Dottie and Kit, who sign for the same team, the Rockford Peaches. The sisters have contrasting characters. Dottie is the more talented player, but Kit is more aggressive and determined to succeed. Kit's aggression and the sibling rivalry between her and Dottie lead to dissension in the team's dressing room, and Kit is traded to a rival team, the Racine Belles. The climax of the film comes when Rockford and Racine meet in the finals of the league championship, with Kit and Dottie on opposite teams.

The film has some interesting observations about the social values of the era in which it is set. During this period there was a conflict between traditional views of femininity and the need, caused by wartime conditions, for women to take on what had historically been masculine roles. Before the war, there had been only very limited opportunities for women in professional sport; most sports, such as tennis and athletics, in which women were permitted to compete were strictly amateur. During the war, they were allowed to take part, but were still expected to conform to the ideal of being 'ladylike'. In the film, players are selected as much for their sex appeal as for their talent (Ernie Capadino, the cynical, sexist talent scout, wants to leave one player out of the team because he considers her insufficiently glamorous) and they are required to attend a 'charm school' and to conform to a strict code of sexual morality. Dottie and Kit can be seen as representing the two sides of this conflict. For all her talent, Dottie's heart is not really in professional baseball, and her real wish is to return to her old life as a housewife as soon as her husband returns from the war. Kit, on the other hand, is single, and sees the game as a way of escaping from her previously dull existence.

Although Geena Davis was quite good as Dottie, the two best performances came from two actors I had not previously heard of, Jon Lovitz in the cameo role of Ernie Capadino, and Lori Petty as Kit, who brought out the fierce determination and will to win of her character. I am surprised that she has not gone on to become a bigger star than she has. It was interesting to see Madonna (normally found in starring roles) in a supporting role as Mae, one of the Peaches who rebels against the strict moral code.

Tom Hanks stars as Jimmy Dugan, the coach of the Rockford Peaches, in a role created largely because the filmmakers felt that they needed a big male star. Dugan was himself a famous baseball player in his time, but his career was wrecked by his heavy drinking. At the beginning of the film, Dugan is played as a figure of fun, making blunders such as urinating in front of the women, but being too drunk to notice or to care. Later on, Dugan sobers up and develops into a mixture of inspirational coach and dispenser of homespun philosophy along the lines of 'There's no crying in baseball'. At neither stage, however, does the film bring out the genuinely tragic aspects of Dugan's fall from grace as a great, or potentially great, athlete ruined by alcoholism. (One can think of modern parallels such as George Best or Diego Maradona). The actor may be at fault here; during the early part of his career Hanks always seemed a limited actor, convincing in 'Mr Nice Guy' roles but unable to portray more unsympathetic characters. ('Bonfire of the Vanities' being another example).

There were one or two other things about the film that I did not like. I felt we should have seen more of Kit between her transfer to Racine and her reappearance in the finals. The opening and closing scenes, showing a reunion of the surviving players more than forty years later, did not add much to the story. (They did, however, correct the misleading impression given in the rest of the film that women's professional baseball came to an end with the war; in fact, it survived until 1954). Overall, however, this was an entertaining film, well worth watching. 7/10.