There’s no crying in baseball!!

To continue our earlier baseball theme, my husband and I decided to re-watch A League of their Own. This is one of my all-time favorite movies; it has to be up there in my top three. And each time I watch it I realize I love it even more than the time before.

Set during WWII, A League of Their Own is about 2 sisters in constant competition with each other with the younger trying to come of age in the shadow of her older sister. Dottie Hinson (Geena Davis) is an army wife whose husband is overseas and she’s currently living at home with her parents and younger sister, Kit (Lori Petty). Ernie (Jon Lovitz), a talent scout, digs them up out of their dairy farm in Oregon and drags them back to Chicago to train for the All American Girls Baseball League to temporarily replace the men who are all overseas fighting.The movie follows their ascent to the World Series of the A.A.G.B.L, and tension rises between Kit and Dottie, when Kit is ejected from a game for being too tired by counsel of Dottie, and continue to escalate until they are barely even speaking with each other. The Rockford Peaches, with other players such as Mae (Madonna), Doris (Rosie O’Donnell), and Evelynn (Bitty Schram)…also known as Stillwell-Angel’s mother… are coached by a famous but washed-up ball player, Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks). Hanks doesn’t immediately care about coaching and is drunk for most of the beginning of the movie, which is why he is no longer able to play for himself. Then, of course, the turning point: the girls are really enjoying themselves and feel like they’re making a difference not only for themselves, but for their country, and making their own living aside from their men. But Mr. Harvey (Garry Marshall), the team’s owner, does not feel it prudent to continue for another season, so they really have to up the ante and make it to the series, and create a name for themselves.

This movie has so many hilarious one-liners, and the acting is absolutely fantastic. I feel like this is one of Tom Hanks’s best roles, or at least one of his most noteworthy. His character is so disgusting and rude, but you can’t help but fall in love with him. Rosie O’Donnell nearly steals the show with all of her rude banter that you continue to hear throughout the whole movie; her character just continues to talk whether or not someone is listening. My husband and I have each seen it about 300 times, yet we laughed all through it. I just wish Jon Lovitz’s character was in the movie more as he and Hanks pretty much make the entire movie. The only gripe I have, and it must be this way to create such a predominant plot, is how whiny Kit is! She’s crying through most of the movie, and I don’t feel bad for her! Sure her older sister is a better player than she is, but suck it up and work on your game, lady!

This movie is a must-see for anyone: baseball fan or not. It’s a classic comedy that will stand the test of time, even with the modern-day scenes. The filming is pretty much flawless and so true to its era: the clothes and the architecture and vehicles. It just absorbs you into the ’40′s and you feel a part of it. And this is one movie that, no matter how many times I’ve seen it…I’m gonna cry. I just cannot help it! It’s just that kind of movie. If you haven’t seen it yet, do yourself a favor and watch it. Five stars from me!