A League of Their Own, Pt 3: Winning the War but Losing the Game
Saturday, July 1, 2017 at 6:00PM 
25th Anniversary Four-Part Mini Series Event
In Part 1 we met a slew of talented female ball players as they escaped the doldrums of their lives to join the All American Girl's Baseball League during World War II. In Part 2 we got invested in their funny personalities and rivalries and watched as former star and booze hound Jimmy Dugan slowly rose to the challenge of actually managing them. When we left off, the girls were warned that the league might be closing just as its begun unless they could generate more publicity and sell more tickets.
The Peaches are in love wih the game already. They step up when they're asked to give it everything they got...
Part 3 by Jazz Tangcay (on loan from Awards Daily)
1:01:55 ...time to see some ball. Kit pitches and we cut to Dottie displaying her catching skills spilt style. It’s an absolutely amazing shot of Geena Davis and much like Jimmy’s reaction, you’re sitting there, jaw open, thinking wow. “What the hell was that?” Jimmy asks. Don’t we all want to know how she did that?
Dottie even makes the cover of Life magazine
1.03:00 After a quick church prayer, and another quip from Jimmy, “God knows we have a game,” Hans Zimmer’s score starts up 🎵
The big jazz band sound plays over game montages and the headlines the Peaches are making as they head towards the World Series. The music in this sequence to pass time. Soaring horns, jazz drums pulse as the girls go from game to game, traveling around the cities. Zimmer’s score is one to be marvelled at, the vintage jazz with horns, bass and percussion is in full Americana spirit here.
1.03:40 The montage shows the Peaches team catching fouls. Betty catches her foul and ends up in the newspaper with the headline Trading Oven Mitts for Baseball Mitts.
1.03:59 Doris and the girls practise their pitches at Cardboard cutouts of Hitler for some period detail. She strikes a perfect shot.
MAE: What if at a key moment in the game my uniform bursts open and uh Oops, my bosoms come flying out.
DORIS: You think there are men in this country who aint's seen your bosoms?
DOTTIE: ...
1.04:11 'All the way' Mae delivers one of her memorable moments here suggesting a way to attract more fans to the game. Dottie is unimpressed. It’s another fine Doris and Mae moment, with the former continuing her endless wisecracks.
1.04:27 Cut back to the house and the mailman has arrived. You can see how excited they are to receive the letters from their husbands and boyfriends. Marla receives a letter from Nelson. Shortly after Marla, our socially awkward tomboy, blossoms and gets married to Nelson and leaves the Peaches for the season.
1.05:45 The actresses really played baseball during filming which meant they were not free from injuries. Renée Coleman really suffered that injury. Fun fact: it took over a year to heal. Zimmer’s score is still playing.
1.07:44 The girls are travelling to their next venue. Dottie shows Jimmy a photo of her love, her husband, Bob (Bill Pullman). You can see the joy and pride she has when Jimmy says, “He’s good looking and smart, there’s so few of us.”
She tells him she hasn’t heard from him in a few weeks, and you detect the worry in her voice when she tells him he used to write weekly. Jimmy reminds her that “if he’s in combat, there’s not a mailbox on every corner.” Dottie has taken the seat beside Jimmy and the two have an intimate discussion about why he isn’t at war. “I have no cartilage in my knee.” He cracks a joke about being able to bend his trigger finger.
1.08:59 Cut to Mae painting Kit’s nails at the back of the bus asking if her sister is going to be mad at her. “I don’t care.” Kit answers.
1.09:14 We’re back at the front of the bus and Jimmy and Dottie are still in conversation. What’s going to happen when Bob returns from war? Jimmy doubts that Dottie will really quit when Bob returns. “You play like you love it.” he tells her. Jimmy tells her she is the best player in the league. Dottie prods and we learn a bit more about our coach. (The tension is cut with an endearing bit with a refreshing coke bottle that feels so spontaneous you wonder if Geena and Tom ad-libbed it.)
1.10:35 Kit is having trouble pitching at the next game. The sibling rivalry comes to a head here when Jimmy asks Dottie about Kit’s abilities to play. Dottie’s competitiveness fully emerges when she has to choose between her sister or the game. She chooses the game.
She’s done. She’s throwing grapefruits up there.”
Kit’s storms off the pitcher's mound. She’s always felt less than adequate around Dottie and now Dottie has chosen to have her replaced by Betty Spaghetti. Uh-oh.
1.11.57 Frank Marshall’s Mr. Harvey pops up praising Ira for doing a fabulous job with the game. Marshall’s Mr. Harvey points out that the war is being won and soon these women won’t be needed because the men are coming back to the game. With a brief cut back to the pitch, the girls win and they’re in the play-offs.
1.13:27 Ira isn’t happy with Mr. Harvey’s easy dismisall of the women. Are they going to do the same to the women in the factories? Mr Harvey certainly thinks it’s ridiculous to keep the women in the factories and send the men to the kitchen. Ira defends the women pointing out that they’re playing with sprained ankles, broken injuries and they ride a bus. Harvey doesn’t want to hear it so Ira wants to take over the league.
There is no room for girl’s baseball in this country once the war is over.”
Ira thinks he’s wrong. He’s seen these girls play and he knows what they’re capable of.
1.14.19: Mae struts her stuff for the camera, like a pro, introducing herself as “Mae, that’s more than a name, that’s an attitude.” Her friend, Doris comes up. Partners in crime.
1.14:38 Kit unleashes her anger right there on the pitch for the press to see when Doris taunts her about being unable to fight her own battles.
1.16:08 We’re starting to get deep into the sibling relationship, or rivalry that exists between Dottie and Kit. Dottie did what she had to do, but Kit questions her about treating her like a baby.
DOTTIE: I treated you like a pitcher”
KIT: When Betty’s in trouble you nurse her through, you’re out there every damn pitch, backing her up.
Kit feels Dottie is holding her up. “Why do you gotta be so good?” Kit asks Dottie as she starts crying.
1.17:14 Dottie is done. She is leaving. This is not her place. She wants to go home, she has to go home. Ira is in the changing room, surprised by her news. Trying to figure out why she’s leaving. He tries guessing the reason for her departure. He’s wrong with every guess, thinking he can solve the problem. He can trade Mae if that’s the problem. He’d rather trade a player than lose his key player. Dottie gives him a day to figure it out.
1.18:30 Back at the house, Mae is going out on a date, dressed up in her Helen's red hat. It's a fun moment after the scene in the locker room. Doris tells Mae her dress is too tight.
Mae: I don’t plan on wearing it that long.
Doris: Oooohh! I don’t know why you get dressed at all.
You have to love the relationship between Mae and Doris and their scenes that could be taken from real life wisecracks about Madonna.
1.18:54 Ira has gotten it all wrong and has traded Kit instead of Dottie. She comes barging in and confronts Dottie, blaming her. Kit hurls a ball at Dottie.
Bitch! I've been traded to Racine.
1.19:31 Kit who has it all wrong, is so mad at Dottie, this is her chance to tell her how if she did something good, her older sister would do something to push her down. (The girls follow Dottie and Kit as Kit goes upstairs to pack. She wants Dottie to leave her alone. The girls are excited that there’s some action happening.)
1.19.43 Dottie finally tells her, “I’m so sick of being blamed for everything that’s bothering you. I got you into this league.” She says, “I didn’t even want to be here.” Ouch!
The girls are listening outside the door, relaying the “gossip.” The drama and comedy are always playing side by side in this League.
1.20:00 The girls are in the locker room singing their anthem (the one Evelyn was writing), getting ready for the playoff game. Stillwell Angel is right there, his eyes covered, but he takes a peek from time to time with that cheeky smile as he catches a glimpse of leg.
1.22:16 Jimmy has entered to give the girls a pep talk. If the girls get to the World Series he gets a bonus, so now, they have to win. The laughter from Doris’ retort to using their heads, “that lump three feet above our ass” (a callback to the "no crying in baseball scene") is short lived when the mail man enters with a letter from the war department.
It’s the longest moment for one of the girls as he says, “these are the worst.” For a moment, Dottie is filled with dread, she still hasn’t heard from Bob and she thinks it’s for her.
Just to prolong the anxiety, he’s lost who it’s for and has to leave,but Jimmy snatches it from him and shoves him out of the room. It’s a telegram for Betty, her husband has died. The girls gather and console Betty.
1.25:01 Cut to Dottie in her room, this is the first time we see Dottie emotionally break down as the tears roll down her face. It’s a reminder of her struggles. She’s the best player in the league, she’s the Queen of Diamonds, but she hasn’t heard from her husband in ages, and there’s a fear in her.
Enter Bob. Dottie’s relief. He’s here. It’s a beautiful reunion, it’s what Dottie wanted. It’s all she’s wanted. Bob is injured, a sniper got his foot, but that doesn’t matter. He’s here. They’re together. They’re reunited and together at last. Bob has been discharged.
1.26:44 Dottie just wants to hold Bob for the rest of their lives.
1.27:08 Jimmy is barking at the girls rushing them to get on the bus. He’s told by one not to yell before a game but it’s bad luck. Two kids approach him to sign a baseball and he obliges signing it, “Avoid the clap, Jimmy Dugan.” It’s good advice!
1.27:45 His star player is packing a car, we see Jimmy walk over to Dottie as she’s loading the car. She’s driving home she tells him. She’s driving home with Bob.
It’s only a game Jimmy, and I don’t need this. I have Bob, I don’t need this. At all.”
Jimmy really thought she was a ball player but Dottie denies it. Was he wrong? Is the lady protesting too much?
1.28:40 Jimmy reveals more about himself here as he tells her, “I gave away five years at the end of my career to drinking.” He tells her of his remorse and what’d give to get back one day. Dottie tells him they’re not the same, they’re different.
“That’s chicken shit.” He says. He knows her, he knows if she walks away from this and the World Series she will regret it for the rest of her life.
Will the Peaches win the Series? Will Dottie run off and make a hundred babies with Bob? Our retrospective concludes with Chris Feil and Part 4 tomorrow.
Reader Comments (5)
The chemistry between Dottie and Jimmy is so, so good. I desperately wanted them to end up together...I know, I know the movie wasn't about that! I heard there was a deleted scene of them kissing and it was removed.
Frank Marshall? It's Garry Marshall.
Bia: Agreed on the chemistry, but none of the rest. Dottie and Jimmy make a great platonic pair, possibly my favorite. It worked because you knew nothing was going to happen.
Replying to the last post, I linked to the ESPNW oral history, and it mentions the deleted kiss:
http://www.espn.com/espnw/feature/19437746/an-oral-history-league-their-own-25th-anniversary?addata=espn:frontpage
The right decision, even at a time when Hollywood was constantly pushing Bill Pullman aside.
I looooove that the relationship between Jimmy and Dottie is platonic. Clearly, there is an attraction and a mutual respect there, but I think it was very much in line with Dottie's character not to go there. Besides, in what other movies do the two attractive lead characters with good chemistry NOT hook up. Very few. It's refreshing that they stayed true to character and historical context.
Although, it might be a good old movie. I liked it very much to the core.