League of their Own was based on 1943 events

The movie, A League of their Own was based on the 1943 events of the All American Girls Professional Baseball league, which was created by Phillip K Wrigley. (Owner of the Chicago Cubs for 5 decades). This baseball league was created, at the time of World War II, in which Professional Mens Baseball was shut down, due to the many of the men serving in the war.

The movie begans as Candy bar owner Walter Harvey (Gary Marshall) recruits agents to scour America looking for girls that could play baseball. Scout Ernie Capadino (Jon Lowitz) finds two sisters Dottie Hinson (Gennia Davis) and Kit Keller (Lori Butler) in rural area in Oregon, Dottie was the catcher and power hitter, while Kit was a pitcher, and not such a good hitter. Ernie bring them to Chicago for tryouts with girls from across the America. One particular character with a lot of spunk, was Mae Mordabito (Madonna), who ended up on the same team as Dottie and Kit. (the Rockford peaches)The team was coached by Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks) a fall down drunk, who at one time was the home run leader in the Major league, but because of his alcoholism wrecked his career. Jimmy Dugan wanted nothing to do with the girls league, but needed money to support his drinking, so he took the job. During the movie Jimmy transition, from being passed out drunk in the dugout, to actually coaching was mostly due to Dotti Hinsons ability to play baseball better than any girl in the league. During the movie, Dottie and Kit (sisters) had a falling out, because Dottie was stealing the lime light from Kit. Kit was traded to Racine (one of 3 other teams in the league) because of this fallout. This fallout set up the epic battle between Dottie and Kit, in which the final game, and final scene brought together Dottie and Kit colliding at home plate and Dottie dropping the ball, and Kit scoring the winning run for Racine. This game Kit the fame she wanted and longed for, by always being overshawdowed by her sister Dottie. The movie creates an image of baseball originality and competiveness, but brought to light in comedy, eventhough its based on girls playing baseball. Many of the characters, especially Jimmy Dugan, in a humorous way, depicts coaches from that era, and even today. Maybe, not as drastic. This movie shows the historic events that took place to keep professional baseball an evolution during times of war. The reason I like this movie so much, is because my dad coached baseball all my life growing up, and I can compare funny situations in the movie, that were reality for me. My dad coached baseball teams that utilized both boys and girls, and he had to teach them differently, but still as a team. The roller coaster baseball experience, I had with my dad coaching, from being the hero, to watching other kids being the hero in games was priceless. Tom Hanks character was exactly how my dad was (excluding the Alcoholism). It was hard for him to coach girls, but as Tom charater through humor changed, so did my dad those years of coaching. To this day, me and my dad still talk about those days, and not because of girls playing baseball, but how equal, these girls were to us boys, in the game of life and baseball.

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