| A League of Their Own | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Penny Marshall |
| Screenplay by | Lowell Ganz Babaloo Mandel |
| Story by | Kelly Candaele Kim Wilson |
| Produced by | Elliot Abbott Robert Greenhut |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Miroslav Ondříček |
| Edited by | George Bowers |
| Music by | Hans Zimmer |
Production company | Parkway Productions |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 128 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $40 million[1] |
| Box office | $132.4 million[2] |
A League of Their Own is a 1992 Americansportscomedy drama film directed byPenny Marshall that tells a fictionalized account of the real-lifeAll-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). It starsTom Hanks,Geena Davis,Madonna,Lori Petty,Jon Lovitz,David Strathairn,Garry Marshall,Rosie O'Donnell, andBill Pullman and was written byLowell Ganz andBabaloo Mandel, from a story byKelly Candaele and Kim Wilson.
It was a critical and commercial success, grossing $132.4 million worldwide and garnering acclaim for Marshall's direction and the performances of itsensemble cast. In 2012, theLibrary of Congress selected it for preservation in the United StatesNational Film Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[3][4][5]
In 1988, Dottie Hinson attends the opening of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League exhibit at theBaseball Hall of Fame. She views pictures of many former teammates and friends, prompting a flashback to 1943.
WithWorld War II threatening to shut downMajor League Baseball (MLB),Chicago Cubs owner Walter Harvey persuades his fellow owners to bankroll a women's league. Ira Lowenstein is put in charge. Scout Ernie Capadino attends an industrial-leaguesoftball game inOregon and likes what he sees in Dottie, the catcher for a local dairy. She is not interested and is happy with her life, waiting for her husband Bob to return from the war. Her younger sister, Kit Keller, however, is desperate to escape and make something of herself. Capadino is unimpressed by Kit'sbatting and refuses to watch herpitch but agrees to take her along if she changes Dottie's mind. Dottie agrees for her sister's sake.
Dottie and Kit travel to Harvey Field (a fictionalizedWrigley Field) in Chicago for tryouts; en route, they force Capadino to accept homelysecond baseman Marla Hooch. They meettaxi dancer Mae "All-the-Way-Mae" Mordabito, her best friend, bouncer Doris Murphy, soft-spokenright fielder Evelyn Gardner, illiterateleft fielder Shirley Baker, pitcher/shortstop and formerMiss Georgia beauty queen Ellen Sue Gotlander, left field/relief pitcher Betty "Spaghetti" Horn,first baseman Helen Haley and Alice "Skeeter" Gaspers. They and five others constitute theRockford Peaches, while 48 others make up theRacine Belles, theKenosha Comets and theSouth Bend Blue Sox.
The Peaches are managed by former star Cubs slugger Jimmy Dugan, a cynical alcoholic. He initially treats the whole concept as a joke, forcing Dottie to take over as on-field leader. Dugan is also abrasive toward his players. The team travels with Evelyn's spoiled, bratty son Stillwell and team chaperone Miss Cuthburt. With aLife magazine photographer in the stands, Lowenstein begs the players to do something spectacular, as the league has attracted little attention. Dottie obliges, catching a popped-up ball behind home plate while doing asplit. The resulting photograph makes the magazine cover. A publicity campaign draws more people to the ballgames, but the owners remain unconvinced.
The teammates bond. Marla marries a man named Nelson whom she met on a raucous roadhouse outing and leaves the team for the rest of the season, Mae teaches Shirley to read, and Evelyn writes a team song. Lowenstein promotes Dottie as the face of the league, making Kit resentful. Theirsibling rivalry intensifies, resulting in Kit's trade to the Racine Belles.
The Peaches end the season with the league's best record, qualifying for the World Series. Betty receives a telegram, informing her that her husband was killed in action in thePacific Theater. Grief-stricken, she leaves the team. That evening, Dottie receives a surprise when Bob shows up, having been wounded and discharged from the Army. Jimmy discovers that Dottie is going home with Bob. Unable to persuade her to play in the World Series, he tells her she will regret her decision.
The Peaches face the Belles in the World Series, which goes the full seven games. Dottie rejoins the Peaches for the seventh game, while Kit is the starting pitcher for the Belles. With the Belles leading by a run in the top of the ninth, Dottie drives in the go-ahead run. Kit is distraught, but gets a second chance when she comes to bat with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. She gets a hit and, ignoring the third base coach's sign to stop, scores the winning run by colliding with Dottie at the plate. After the collision Dottie drops the ball, so the run counts.
The sellout crowd convinces Harvey to give Lowenstein the owners' support. After the game, the sisters reconcile before Dottie leaves with Bob.
Back in the present atCooperstown, Dottie is reunited with the other players – including Kit – Capadino and Lowenstein, and reveals that Bob died the previous winter. She also discovers that Jimmy died a year earlier, in 1987, and she meets a grown up Stillwell, who tells her that Evelyn died a couple years earlier. The surviving Peaches sing Evelyn's team song and pose for a photo. During the closing credits, they play baseball once again at Doubleday Field.
Director Penny Marshall was inspired by the 1987 TV documentaryA League of their Own, about theAll American Girls Professional Baseball League. She had never heard of the league, and contacted the film's creators, Kelly Candaele and Kim Wilson, to collaborate with the screenwriters, Babaloo Mandel and Lowell Ganz, on producing a screenplay for20th Century Fox.[11] Fox eventually passed on the script and Marshall signed withSony Pictures, which was eager to produce it.
OnMLB Network'sCostas at the Movies in 2013, directorPenny Marshall talked about her initial interest inDemi Moore for the part of Dottie Hinson: "Demi Moore, I liked, but by the time we came around, she was pregnant."[12]Debra Winger was then cast as Dottie[13] and spent three months training with theChicago Cubs in preparation.[14] However, she dropped out of the production four weeks before the start of principal photography,[15][16] later saying that the casting ofMadonna was the reason for her decision.[14] Marshall choseGeena Davis to replace Winger.[17]
USC assistant baseball coach Bill Hughes was the film's technical adviser and put the film's ensemble cast through baseball camp three months before filming.[18]
Principal photography began July 10, 1991.[15] Filming the game scenes involved many physical mishaps among the actors:Anne Ramsay broke her nose with a baseball mitt while trying to catch a ball, and the large bruise seen onRenée Coleman's thigh at one point in the movie was real.[11]Discussing the skirts they wore playing in the film, Geena Davis said onMLB Network'sCostas at the Movies in 2013, "Some of our real cast, from sliding into home, had ripped the skin off their legs. It was nutty."[19] In a 2021 interview, Petty claimed to have broken her foot during filming,[13] but reiterated her enjoyment of the shoot and the understanding of the film's importance at the time.[13]
The tryout scene, at a fictional Major League Baseball stadium in Chicago called Harvey Field, was filmed at theChicago Cubs' home stadium,Wrigley Field.[15] The Rockford Peaches' home games were filmed atLeague Stadium inHuntingburg, Indiana, and the championship game against Racine was filmed atBosse Field inEvansville, Indiana.[15] Additional games were filmed at Jay Littleton Ball Park inOntario, California.[20] The house where the Rockford Peaches lived is inHenderson, Kentucky; in addition to interior shots, the exterior of the house is visible both when one of the team members weds and drives off with her husband and when Dottie is leaving with her husband.[21] Railroad depot and onboard train scenes were filmed at theIllinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois.[22] The final week of shooting was during late October 1991 inCooperstown, New York, where 65 original AAGPBL members appeared in scenes recreating the induction of the league into theBaseball Hall of Fame in 1988.[23]
Due to the length of the schedule, the cast entertained themselves by putting on an elaborate amateur production,Jesus Christ Superstar Goes Hawaiian.[24]
TheA League of Their Own soundtrack was released onCD andcassette tape byColumbia Records on June 30, 1992. The album peaked at #159 on the USBillboard 200 albums chart on July 25, 1992.[25] Although Madonna contributed "This Used to Be My Playground" to the film, featured over the closing credits, her recording was not included on the soundtrack album for contractual reasons.[26]
A League of Their Own was released on July 1, 1992, and grossed $13.2 million in its first weekend, finishing second at the box office behindBatman Returns. In its second weekend it dropped just 15%, making $11.5 million and finishing first. It ended up a commercial success, making $107.5 million in the United States and Canada, but only $24.9 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $132.4 million against a production budget of $40 million.[2][1][27]
A League of Their Own was well received by critics, who praised the cast.[28][29][30][31][32]Onreview aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, it holds an approval rating of 82% based on 82 reviews, with an average score of 7/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Sentimental and light, but still thoroughly charming,A League of Their Own is buoyed by solid performances from a wonderful cast."[33] OnMetacritic, the film received aweighted average score of 69 based on 21 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[34] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[35]
Vincent Canby ofThe New York Times wrote: "Though big of budget,A League of Their Own is one of the year's most cheerful, most relaxed, most easily enjoyable comedies. It's a serious film that's lighter than air, a very funny movie that manages to score a few points for feminism in passing."[36]Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times gave it three out of four stars, and wrote: "The movie has a real bittersweet charm. The baseball sequences, we've seen before. What's fresh are the personalities of the players, the gradual unfolding of their coach and the way this early chapter of women's liberation fit into the hidebound traditions of professional baseball."[37]
On December 19, 2012, it was announced thatA League of Their Own would be preserved in the United StatesNational Film Registry.[38]
Jimmy Dugan's (Tom Hanks) remark to Evelyn Gardner (Bitty Schram), "There's no crying in baseball!", was ranked 54th on theAmerican Film Institute's 2005 listAFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes.[39]
A League of Their Own was released as a 20th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray on October 16, 2012.[40]
Forty-seven former AAGPBL players reunited in New York to celebrate the film and the real women who inspired it. Events included a trip toCooperstown for a special program at theNational Baseball Hall of Fame, reminiscent of the film's final scene depicting AAGPBL players and family meeting to honor the Women's Professional Baseball League. The reunion wrapped up with a game of softball held atAlliance Bank Stadium in nearbySyracuse.[41]
Former players also made an appearance atBosse Field inEvansville, Indiana on June 6, 2012, where many of the film's game scenes were filmed. Bosse Field still retains many of the Racine Belles themes from the movie. The event included an outdoor screening of the film, and a display of cars featured in the film.[42] In addition to Bosse Field, the production usedHuntingburg, Indiana'sLeague Stadium, anotherSouthwestern Indiana field older than Bosse, that was renovated for it.
Ashort-lived series of the same title based on the film aired onCBS in April 1993, withGarry Marshall,Megan Cavanagh,Tracy Reiner, Freddie Simpson andJon Lovitz reprising their roles.Carey Lowell took overGeena Davis's role. Only five of the six episodes made were broadcast.
On August 6, 2020,Amazon Video ordereda reboot series with the same title as the movie.[43] The series debuted on August 12, 2022, onAmazon.[44] The series was renewed in March 2023 for a four-episode final season, but in August 2023, Amazon announced that the second season would be scrapped due to delays caused by theWGA strike.[45]
cost more than $40 million
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