50 Fun Facts About A League of Their Own

Who directed A League of Their Own (1992)?

She had directed Big in 1988; the film was inspired by a 1987 television documentary of the same name.

Which real wartime women's sports organisation does the film fictionalise?

The AAGPBL ran from 1943 to 1954 and more than 600 women played in it.

Geena Davis plays which character, the star catcher of the film's Rockford team?

She wore number 8; Lori Petty plays her pitcher sister Kit, number 23.

Tom Hanks plays Jimmy Dugan, the Peaches' manager. What is Dugan's back-story?

His 'There's no crying in baseball!' ranks 54th on the AFI's list of 100 movie quotes.

What is the nickname of Madonna's character, Mae Mordabito?

She played centre field in the number 5 shirt; Rosie O'Donnell's Doris Murphy played third base.

Jon Lovitz plays Ernie Capadino, who discovers Dottie doing what?

He is the AAGPBL scout who drags the sisters east to try out.

Which candy-bar mogul bankrolls the league in the film, played by the director's brother Garry Marshall?

He is a stand-in for the real founder, Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley, and fears the war will shut down Major League Baseball.

David Strathairn plays Ira Lowenstein. What is his job?

It is Lowenstein who begs the players to do something spectacular for a Life photographer, prompting Dottie's split catch.

Megan Cavanagh plays which power-hitting second baseman, unforgettably introduced as 'what a hitter'?

Tracy Reiner played Betty 'Spaghetti' Horn and Anne Ramsay played Helen Haley, who broke her nose with a mitt during filming.

Who was originally cast as Dottie before dropping out four weeks before shooting?

She later said the casting of Madonna was the reason; Marshall had liked Demi Moore, but she was pregnant.

The tryout scenes at the fictional Harvey Field were shot at which real Chicago ballpark?

Principal photography began on 10 July 1991.

The Rockford team's home games were filmed at League Stadium in which Indiana town?

The championship game against Racine was shot at Bosse Field in Evansville.

How does Kit score the winning run for Racine in the film's championship game?

Whether Dottie let go on purpose is the film's great unanswered question.

Why does Dottie leave the Peaches just before the World Series?

Bill Pullman plays Bob; she changes her mind and rejoins for the seventh game.

The film opens and closes in 1988 with an older Dottie attending what event?

Sixty-five original AAGPBL players appeared in the Cooperstown scenes, shot in late October 1991.

How many original AAGPBL players took part in the closing Cooperstown scenes?

The real league had been inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1988.

What was A League of Their Own's production budget?

It grossed $132.4 million worldwide after opening on 1 July 1992.

Which film kept A League of Their Own off the top of the box office in its opening weekend?

It made $13.2 million, dropped just 15 percent the next weekend and went to number one.

Madonna's closing-credits song 'This Used to Be My Playground' became her how-manyeth US number one?

It broke her tie with Whitney Houston; for contractual reasons it was left off the film's soundtrack album.

'This Used to Be My Playground', absent from the film's soundtrack, appeared on which compilation?

The album promoted the 1992 Summer Olympics; the song lost the Golden Globe to 'A Whole New World'.

Which studio released A League of Their Own?

Rotten Tomatoes has it at 82 percent, and Roger Ebert gave it three stars out of four.

In which year was A League of Their Own selected for the National Film Registry?

The Library of Congress preserves films deemed culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.

Who took over Geena Davis's role of Dottie in the short-lived 1993 CBS series?

Jon Lovitz, Garry Marshall, Megan Cavanagh and Tracy Reiner reprised their film roles.

Who co-created and starred in the 2022 Prime Video series A League of Their Own?

She played catcher Carson Shaw; the show expanded the story to Black and queer players the real league excluded.

Which original film cast member appeared in the 2022 series as Vi, owner of an underground gay bar?

The series premiered with eight episodes on 12 August 2022.

Why was the planned final season of the 2022 series scrapped in August 2023?

Amazon had renewed it in March 2023 for a four-episode final season.

Chanté Adams plays Max Chapman in the 2022 series. What is Max?

D'Arcy Carden plays the glamorous Peach Greta Gill.

Who founded the real AAGPBL in 1943?

The Cubs owner and chewing-gum magnate wanted baseball kept in the public eye while the men were at war.

Roughly how many women played in the AAGPBL across its twelve seasons?

At its height the league had ten teams, all in the Midwest.

Which team won a league-best four AAGPBL championships?

Their titles came in 1945, 1948, 1949 and 1950; Racine won the first, in 1943, so the film's ending flips history.

Real AAGPBL players were required to attend evening classes at whose charm school during spring training?

Rules mandated lipstick and forbade short hair and smoking in public.

In which year did AAGPBL attendance peak, at over 900,000?

By then pitching had gone overhand and the ball had shrunk from softball toward baseball size.

What did the AAGPBL uniform consist of?

Sliding in a skirt left players with the famous 'strawberries' on their thighs.

The 1988 event that frames the film marked the real league's induction into what?

Penny Marshall was inspired to make the film by a 1987 documentary about the league.

Which cast member broke her nose with a baseball mitt during filming?

She played first baseman Helen Haley.

Kit Keller is eventually traded from Rockford to which team?

The sisters then meet in the World Series.

What spectacular play does Dottie produce for the Life magazine photographer?

The photo lands the league on the cover and saves it from folding.

What is the on-screen number worn by Lori Petty's Kit Keller?

Dottie wears 8, Mae 5, Doris 22 and Marla Hooch 32.

How long did the real AAGPBL last?

Its ten teams were all in the Midwest: Rockford, Racine, Kenosha, South Bend, Fort Wayne, Grand Rapids and others.

Which comedy actress played Doris Murphy, the wisecracking third baseman?

Thirty years later she returned to the franchise as bar owner Vi in the 2022 series.

Jimmy Dugan's most famous line insists there is no what in baseball?

Tom Hanks barks it at a tearful Evelyn Gardner, and the line made the American Film Institute's list of top movie quotes.

The film's World Series between the Peaches and the Belles goes how many games?

Dottie rejoins the team for the decider, only for her sister Kit to bowl her over at the plate and win it for Racine.

Which star did the director want for Dottie before pregnancy ruled her out?

Another actress was cast and trained for three months with the Cubs before quitting, and Geena Davis finally got the part.

A League of Their Own grossed roughly how much worldwide?

Most of it came from the US and Canada; overseas it managed only about $25 million.

Which studio passed on the script before the director took it to Sony?

The project grew out of a 1987 TV documentary about the women's league that the director had never heard of.

The closing-credits ballgame among the older players is played at which Cooperstown venue?

The Cooperstown field is named for Abner Doubleday, the general long credited, wrongly, with inventing baseball.

Where did Dugan's famous rebuke of a tearful player rank on AFI's 2005 top 100 quotes?

It sits a few places below Jack Nicholson's 'Here's Johnny!' and well ahead of anything else Tom Hanks said on film that year.

The championship game was filmed at Bosse Field in which Indiana city?

Bosse Field still carries the Racine Belles colours from the shoot and hosted a reunion of former players in 2012.

Who plays Evelyn Gardner, the tearful right fielder Jimmy Dugan famously rebukes?

Evelyn is the soft-spoken right fielder who writes the team song and drags her bratty son Stillwell along on the road.

Of the six episodes made for the 1993 CBS series, how many were broadcast?

Garry Marshall, Megan Cavanagh, Tracy Reiner and Jon Lovitz reprised their film roles in the short-lived spin-off.