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Women in Baseball

In 1943, some baseball team owners got together and formed a women's professional baseball league, called All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. They wanted to keep the game of baseball in the limelight while the men were away fighting in World War II. The movie A League of Their Own, is a fictionalized story of this event.

The movie directed by Penny Marshall, stars Geena Davis as Dottie Hinson, the catcher for the Rockford Peaches, Tom Hanks as Jimmy Dugan, the manager for the Peaches, and Lori Petty as Kit Keller, pitcher for the Peaches and Dottie's little sister. It also stars Rosie O'Donnell and Madonna.

Tom Hanks portrays Manager Jimmy Dugan as a drunken former baseball player. At first, he considers this job as just that, a job in which to earn money to drink. After he makes one of his players cry, he delivers the classic line "There's no crying in baseball!" As the movie progresses, he realizes his team isn't just a bunch of girls, but a team who possess talent and can actually play baseball.

Geena Davis does an outstanding performance as Dottie Hinson. Dottie is a woman who awaits her husband's return from the war. She takes on this challenge as something to do to keep her mind off the danger her husband is in. She is probably the best player on the team. Her classic scene is when, in order to keep the spotlight on the League, she does the splits while catching a flyball.

Lori Petty also does an outstanding job of portraying Dottie's little sister, Kit. Kit has been in Dottie's shadow all of her life. She is jealous that Dottie is the star of the League. She resents that Dottie got her into the league by telling the scout that she won't go unless Kit comes along. After an argument with Dottie, she gets traded to the Racine Belles. Of course, she blames Dottie for that. Kit comes into her own at the championship game, where she and the Belles face the Rockford Peaches and Dottie. There are two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Kit goes to bat. Hitting the ball into the outfield, she rounds the bases and crashes into Dottie at homeplate. Dottie drops the ball and the Belles win the game.

This movie will make you cheer and laugh. The most amazing thing about this movie is the women actually played baseball. There were no stunt doubles, except for Dottie's split scene.

While this movie is a fictionalized account of the league, several things in it actually did happen. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was a real baseball league. There were two teams called the Rockford Peaches and the Racine Belles, as well as many other teams. Several of the things in the movie were true to the league as well. The women's uniforms were short skirts. They had to wear lipstick and wear their hair long. And at no time were they permitted to wear slacks or trousers. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League existed from 1945 to 1954.