A League of Their Own

During the off-season, I like to watch my collection of baseball movies.  One of my favorites is A League of Their Own, which was based on the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

The league was founded during World War II, when all healthy men were being drafted.  We’ve all heard of Rosie The Riveter, the symbol of all of the women who stepped in, and took over jobs that traditionally belonged to men.  Well, this same thing happened in baseball, too.  Phillip K.  Wrigley, of chewing gum and Chicago Cubs fame, came up with the idea.  In the movie, he is called Mr. Harvey, and had a candy bar empire.

Maybe I was born in the wrong era.  I played ball in the 70′s…real baseball, not softball, as these girls did.  Maybe if I’d been born 30 years earlier, I could have had a career playing in that league.  Such as it was, I didn’t make my high school softball team as a pitcher, because I simply did not know how to “throw like a girl”.

But then again, a lot of the rules they had back then were silly.  First of all, those silly little shirt skirted uniforms.  Sheesh, I can only imagine what would happen if you tried to slide into home plate wearing something like that…I’d get my legs all bruised and bloody, and probably suffer from a bout of vaginal dryness to boot. I think they did wear shorts underneath those dresses, and not just dainty little panties, but still, that’s not quite enough to protect the girly bits, yanno?

And the girls had to be ultra feminine, they even made them go to charm school, just like in the movie.  If you didn’t meet the league’s standards of physical attractiveness, you didn’t make the team, no matter how well you could play.  However, in the movie, a scout (Jon Lovitz) who recruited Geena Davis’ character, also went to check out this other girl named Marla.  Marla was an awesome player, but rather homely, and Lovitz didn’t want her.  But Geena got pissed at this, and said that if he didn’t take Marla, then he’d not be getting her, either.  I don’t know if anything like that ever happened in real life, but I thought that was cool in the movie.

And they expected these women to be in full makeup at all times.  According to something I read in the Ken Burns Baseball book, if a player came up to bat wearing no lipstick, she would get sent back to the dugout so she could apply it.

Maybe it was for the best that I wasn’t around to be a part of this.  But it was still an interesting part of baseball history, and definitely something worth learning more about.  You can read all about the league at their official website.  Also, if your should ever make that pilgrimage to Cooperstown, there is an exhibit at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Museum devoted to the AAGPBL.

And Doubleday Field, at the end of the movie?  That is real, too.  They actually filmed those scenes there.  It’s only a couple of blocks away from the Hall of Fame museum.  Even when there isn’t anything going on in there, you can still go in and check it out.

Now, I am anxious to go back to Cooperstown!  Maybe this fall, after the Red Sox win the World Series again!