A League of Their Own Family Review

Two sisters join the first female professional baseball league and struggle to help it succeed amid their own growing rivalry.During World War II when all the men are fighting the war, most of the jobs that were left vacant because of their absence were filled in by women. The owners of the baseball teams, not wanting baseball to be dormant indefinitely, decide to form teams with women, so scouts are sent all over the country to find female players. One of the scouts passes through Oregon and finds a woman named Dottie Hinson, who is incredible. He approaches her and asks her to try out but she's not interested, but her sister Kit has been wanting to get out of Oregon and offers to go with him; he agrees only if she can get her sister to come along. When they try out, they're chosen and are on the same team. Jimmy Dugan, a former player who's now a drunk, is the team manager. But he doesn't feel that it's a real job, so he drinks and is not exactly doing his job, so Dottie steps up. After a few months when it appears the girls are not garnering any attention, the league faces closure until Dottie does something that grabs attention. Before long, Dottie is the star of the team and Kit feels like she's living in her shadow.—[email protected] sisters, Kit and Dottie (Lori Petty and Geena Davis) participate in the Women's Baseball Association, along with other girls on the "Rockford Peaches" managed by interesting, drunk manager Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks) and wild girl Mae Mordibeto (Madonna) they find themselves surrounded with drama and troubles.Grandmother Dottie Hinson has just stepped onto Liberty Field in Cooperstown. She is there, somewhat reluctantly, to attend the unveiling of the new exhibit at the Baseball Hall of Fame that celebrates the first professional women's baseball league,for what she was a catcher. The league was created in 1943 by businessman Walter Harvey, solely in light of the threat to the MLB with many men being away at war. Dottie and her younger sister Kit Keller, from a farming community in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, were among the 64 players cobbled together from all over North America to form the four teams representing Midwestern cities in that first year. Her coach was ex-MLB player Jimmy Dugan, whose drinking cut short his playing career, which led to problems with her as she, the one with skill, needed to take over many of his responsibilities for the team in his inability and his unbelief in the league. Beyond Jimmy, Dottie's reluctance in attending the reunion is in part due to a combination of problems of the league, which treated the players more as eye candy than athletes, her relationship with Kit, a pitcher who always felt caught in her older sister's shadow and whom she has not seen in a while, and the way Dottie ended her tenure with the league at the end of the first year.—HuggoIn a small town in Oregon, farm girls Dottie Hinson (Geena Davis) and Kit Keller (Lori Petty) are sisters who compete with each other, even over the little things. Older, prettier, more settled, and married, Dottie is the catcher for the local softball team sponsored by Lukash Dairy. Kit is her younger sister, and pitcher on the same team, who feels that she can't measure up to Dottie in her own eyes, or in the eyes of others. With so many young men overseas fighting the Axis, there is a danger that professional baseball will be shut down for the duration of the war. A well-known candy manufacturer, Walter Harvey (Gary Marshall), contrives the idea to create a professional baseball league for women; both to keep the sport alive and to make a buck or two. Dottie is recruited by a scout (Jon Lovitz) for this new league but refuses to go unless her sister is allowed on the team. On the way to Chicago they also intervene to get an outstanding batter, Marla Hooch (Megan Cavanaugh), a try-out as well. Once in Chicago, they are introduced to the other girls who will be on one of the four teams: Mae and Doris (Madonna and Rosie O'Donnell) are close friends from New York; Shirley Baker (Ann Cusack) is an illiterate farm-girl. These women, along with their teammates, begin a journey that opens up a whole new world, far beyond that of the baseball diamond, led by team manager Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks), a washed-up star ruined by alcohol and angered and embarrassed to be the coach of a girls' team.—SilverMoonSparkling