A League Of Their Own

PLOT

In 1988, Dottie Hinson attends the opening of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League exhibit at the Baseball Hall of Fame. She sees many former teammates and friends, prompting a flashback to 1943.

When World War II threatens to shut down Major League Baseball, 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-league softball game in Oregon and likes what he sees in Dottie, the catcher for a local dairy. She is happy with her life while waiting for her husband Bob to return from the war. Her sister Kit, however, is desperate to get away and make something of herself. Capadino is unimpressed by Kit's batting and refuses to evaluate her pitching, 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 in Chicago for the tryout. They meet taxi dancer Mae "All the Way Mae" Mordabito and her best friend, bouncer Doris Murphy, soft-spoken right fielder Evelyn Gardner, illiterate left fielder Shirley Baker, pitcher/shortstop and former Miss Georgia beauty queen Ellen Sue Gotlander, left field/relief pitcher Betty "Spaghetti" Horn, second baseperson Marla Hooch, first baseperson Helen Haley, and superstitious Alice "Skeeter" Gaspers. They and five others are selected to form the Rockford Peaches, while 48 others make up the Racine Belles, Kenosha Comets, and South Bend Blue Sox.

The Peaches are managed by former star Cubs slugger Jimmy Dugan, a cynical alcoholic. He treats the whole thing as a joke and is abrasive toward his players. The team travels with Evelyn's spoiled bratty son Stillwell and tightly wound team chaperone Miss Cuthburt. With a Life 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 a split. 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 meets on a raucous roadhouse outing and leaves the team, Mae teaches Shirley to read, and Evelyn writes a team song. As Dottie is made the face of the league, Kit becomes resentful and their sibling 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. Jimmy gives Betty a telegram informing her that her husband was killed in action in the Pacific 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 knocking her sister over at the plate and dislodging the ball from Dottie's hand. (Over the years, fans and even cast members have been divided over whether Dottie dropped the ball on purpose.

The sellout crowd convinces Harvey to give Lowenstein the owners' support. After the game, the sisters reconcile before Dottie leaves with Bob.

In the present, Dottie is reunited with the other players, including Kit, as well as Capadino and Lowenstein, but she learns from an older Stillwell that Evelyn is dead. Bob and Dugan are revealed to be dead too. The surviving Peaches sing Evelyn's team song and pose for a photo. During the closing credits, they play baseball at Doubleday Field.

CAST

Tom Hanks as Jimmy Dugan (manager)

Geena Davis as Dorothy "Dottie" Hinson (#8, catcher/assistant manager)

Lynn Cartwright as Older Dottie

Madonna as "All the Way" Mae Mordabito (#5, center field)

Eunice Anderson as Older Mae

Lori Petty as Kit Keller (#23, pitcher)

Kathleen Butler as Older Kit

Rosie O'Donnell as Doris Murphy (#22, third base)

Vera Johnson as Older Doris

Anne Ramsay as Helen Haley (#15, first base)

Barbara Pilavin as Older Helen

Megan Cavanagh as Marla Hooch (#32, second base)

Patricia Wilson as Older Marla

Freddie Simpson as Ellen Sue Gotlander (#1, shortstop/pitcher)

Eugenia McLin as Older Ellen Sue

Tracy Reiner as Betty "Spaghetti" Horn (#7, left field/relief pitcher)

Betty Miller as Older Betty

Bitty Schram as Evelyn Gardner (#17, right field)

Renée Coleman (credited as Renee Coleman) – Alice "Skeeter" Gaspers (#18, left field/center field/catcher)

Shirley Burkovich as Older Alice

Ann Cusack as Shirley Baker (#11, left field)

Barbara Erwin as Older Shirley

Robin Knight as Linda "Beans" Babbitt (shortstop)

Patti Pelton as Marbleann Wilkinson (second base)

Kelli Simpkins as Beverly Dixon (#4, outfield)

Connie Pounds-Taylor as Connie Calhoun (Outfield)

Jon Lovitz as Ernie Capadino, AAGPBL scout

David Strathairn as Ira Lowenstein, AAGPBL general manager

Marvin Einhorn as Older Ira

Garry Marshall as Walter Harvey, candy bar mogul and AAGPBL founder (Based on Philip K. Wrigley)

Julie Croteau as Helen Haley (baseball double for Anne Ramsay)

Bill Pullman as Bob Hinson, Dottie's husband

Janet Jones as Racine pitcher

Téa Leoni as Racine first base

Don S. Davis as Charlie Collins, Racine manager

Eddie Jones as Dave Hooch, Marla's father

Justin Scheller as Stillwell Gardner, Evelyn's son

Mark Holton as Older Stillwell

Pauline Brailsford as Miss Cuthburt, Rockford chaperone

Rae Allen as Ma Keller

DeLisa Chinn-Tyler in an uncredited role as the Black woman who threw the ball back to Davis in an iconic scene

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

On MLB Network's Costas at the Movies in 2013, director Penny Marshall talked about her initial interest in Demi Moore for the part of Dottie Hinson, saying: "Demi Moore, I liked, but by the time we came around, she was pregnant." Debra Winger was also considered for Dottie.

In 2012, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant"