Film Appreciation - There's No Crying in Baseball

Cody Hamman pitches some Film Appreciation for 1992's A League of Their Own.

The parents of the friends I had growing up had much stricter rules about what their kids could watch than mine had. My friends weren’t allowed to watch horror movies. I became a horror fan when I was 3 years old. My friends weren’t allowed to watch R-rated movies. I had been watching R-rated movies from the start. So I used our sleepovers as a chance to show my friends the R-rated movies and horror movies they wouldn’t have been able to see otherwise. But there is one “this thing is not like the others” standout among the list of movies I showed to friends that weren’t allowed to see them. Director Penny Marshall’s PG-rated 1992 sports movie A League of Their Own. One of my friends wasn’t allowed to see the movie simply because Madonna had a small supporting role in it. Madonna was perceived as being like the devil in a pointy bra, my friend could not see her in action no matter what she was doing. And I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that he wasn’t allowed to see such a nice, amusing, heartwarming movie simply because Madonna did some acting in it. So when a sleepover coincided with A League of Their Own airing on cable, I made sure he watched the movie. And he enjoyed it.

To this day, I would still recommend A League of Their Own to anyone who’s interested in seeing a pleasant and funny sports movie that’s based in historical fact (although the filmmakers changed plenty of facts for dramatic purposes). I went a couple decades without watching this movie, but when I returned to it I found that I loved it now just as much as I did when it was first released.

The film exists because Marshall had seen a PBS documentary about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which was formed during World War II, and decided she wanted to make a fictional movie built around the concept. Kelly Candaele and Kim Wilson crafted a story that was then worked out into a screenplay by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel. That story is set in motion by World War II; with the majority of able men going off to fight in the war, there was a fear that the professional baseball leagues might have to shut down. So Walter Harvey, owner of the Harvey chocolate bars company, decides to start the AAGPBL – the idea being that a baseball league filled with women would keep baseball alive in the hearts and minds of the public while the men were away. (In reality, one of the founders of the AAGPBL was chewing gum company owner Philip K. Wrigley. Wrigley and his gum were replaced by Harvey and his chocolate for the movie.) The characters we follow into the AAGPBL are highly competitive, baseball-loving sisters Dottie Hinson (Geena Davis) – whose husband is one of the many men who have gone off to war - and Kit Keller (Lori Petty).

Dottie and Kit are recruited into the AAGPBL by scout Ernie Capadino, played by Jon Lovitz... and while Lovitz isn’t in the movie for long, his minutes of screen time are quite memorable because he turned in an incredible comedic performance. Ernie Capadino is a very sarcastic person who delights in insulting those around him, and in the editing Marshall whittled his dialogue down to the punchlines and the meanest comments. It’s really funny, and I have clear memories of my father laughing at Ernie’s lines when I watched the movie with my parents. My father, who passed away in 2017, wasn’t a big fan of comedy despite the fact that movies could usually make him laugh out loud with their humorous lines, and he had a great laugh. I miss hearing that laugh, so remembering that he laughed at these moments in A League of Their Own is a great memory to have.

Dottie is reluctant to join the league, but Ernie will only take Kit if her sister joins her, so Dottie agrees to go. Despite this bit of noble self-sacrifice, Kit - who has always felt overshadowed by her sister - will still find plenty of reasons to have problems with Dottie as the story goes on. This largely one-sided sibling rivalry will even lead to the sisters competing against each other on different teams in the World Series... but at first, they end up on the same team. They play for the Rockford Peaches, earning $75 a week. Kit is a pitcher and Dottie a catcher. Their teammates on the Peaches include Rosie O’Donnell, in a breakthrough role as the wisecracking Doris; Bitty Schram as Evelyn, who has to bring her nightmare of a little son Stillwell Angel (Justin Scheller) along with her; Anne Ramsay as Helen; Tracey Reiner as Betty Spaghetti, who is notified along the way that her husband has been killed in the war; Ann Cusack as Shirley; Freddie Simpson as Ellen Sue; and Megan Cavanagh as Marla. We see Eddie recruit Marla as well, and he nearly doesn’t take her. Even though she is a skilled baseball player, she doesn’t meet the league’s beauty standards. But she gets through anyway. And yes, Madonna is Rockford Peaches teammate Mae, who behaves like you would expect a Madonna character to behave. But it’s not so naughty that it should have kept my friend from seeing it.

The women are forced to wear uniforms that have skirts and have to go through charm and beauty school before they can take the field. They also have to follow strict rules against smoking, drinking, and hooking up with men. Some things don’t sit well with the women and they have to deal with a lot of sexism, but they bear it (while secretly breaking some rules) to be able to play the game and show what they can do. The Rockford Peaches have an extra burden other teams don’t carry, as they have been stuck with an alcoholic manager, baseball player turned burnout Jimmy Dugan. 

And while Jimmy causes them plenty of frustration, the character also boosts the film up to a whole other level of entertainment, as this rude drunk is played by Tom Hanks – another cast member turning in a great comedic performance. After chastising one Peach too vehemently, he also delivers one of the most iconic lines of 1990s cinema in response to her reaction: “There’s no crying in baseball!” But while Jimmy has his bad moments, there’s also a warmth and humanity buried down in there.

Although Geena Davis received a Golden Globe nomination, and Madonna also received one for the song “This Used to Be My Playground”, A League of Their Own was not considered to be an Oscar-worthy movie when it was released. There were no Academy Award nominations for this one... but there absolutely should have been. The movie would have faced tough competition that year and might not have actually won any of the statues, but it should have been in the mix. Best Picture, Marshall for Best Director, Madonna for the song, Davis for acting, and put Hanks in there as well. And give a special Casting award to Ellen Lewis and Amanda Mackey for choosing Lynn Cartwright to play 1992 Dottie in the book-end scenes. Cartwright looks so much like Davis, I spent years believing that was Davis in jaw-droppingly realistic old age makeup.

Baseball may be, or was at one time, America’s favorite pastime, but I can’t say I have ever had any interest in it. Thankfully, having an interest in baseball isn’t necessary to enjoy A League of Their Own. All that is required is an appreciation for good storytelling, solid character work, strong acting performances, and amusing dialogue.