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A League of Their Own (1992)

Rate: 7
Viewed: 2/04, 7/25

LeagueOwn
7/25: There was a professional baseball league for women during the 40's?

And there was a guy named Jimmy Dugan? He hit 58 home runs in 1938? A former six-time National League home run champ? With a lifetime career of 487 home runs? Three in the World Series, two in Game 4 alone? Yeah, okay. That's what I thought in 1992.

Just about everything in A League of Their Own is fictional. What's not is there was a big tryout, four teams were created, and Walter Harvey was a stand-in for Philip K. Wrigley who founded the league. At the beginning, softball was used, not baseball, and the females pitched underhand instead of over. Unfortunately, the league remained segregated.

But was it popular? Nope. It lasted for twelve seasons and thereafter was totally forgotten by everybody including baseball historians. Who the hell cares about women's sports in general? Most don't watch them. All they do is lose money. Just look at WNBA for proof. How about these fraudulent WWII veterans who had to be taken out of MLB? Almost of them continued to play baseball while in the military and, as a result, saw no combat action whatsoever.

Back to the film, most of it is very cheesy. There's absolutely no way there was not a single lesbian in the league. In fact, many were. Madonna is full of herself while Lori Petty is never likeable and Rosie O'Donnell is the image of "oh shit...fucking run away!" However, Geena Davis isn't bad. The reality is Penny Marshall failed to develop most women's characters. A case in point: what the hell happened to Marla?

That leaves Tom Hanks as the savior with an all-time great line: "There's no crying in baseball!" If it weren't for him, I highly doubt the film would've worked out although the baseball stuff feels like a cop-out to cover up the deficiencies. Having the funniest lines of anyone, Jon Lovitz could've saved the movie further, but his role was cut so short.

All in all, although well-made in spots, A League of Their Own is too butch to be taken seriously.