Everything I need to know, I Iearned from “A League of Their Own”
I like baseball movies a lot, you guys. I like baseball a lot, but I like baseball movies even more. A League of Their Own is a movie that my mom made me watch because a) duh, Tom Hanks, but also b) women rule and my mom wanted to make sure I knew that. If you have yet to see this phenomenal and relatively historic film, it’s July! Which means you should watch it stat.
EINTKILF A League of Their Own
Gender roles are bull
No matter what the situation, it is important to note that gender roles in history are usually insanely outdated. In this film in particular, gender roles are not only definitely outdated, they are specifically presented as such. During World War II, Major League Baseball is (/was!) threatened to be shut down because all of the men were at war. Long story short, Kit and Dottie, the main characters in the movie, both end up playing ball.
The most important thing, historically speaking, is that these women (all of them, not just Kit and Dottie) showed up to play a sport that was definitely not encouraged for women to play. BECAUSE WOMEN RULE AND CAN DO ANY/EVERYTHING.
Try new stuff
Okay so speaking of playing baseball as a woman, it is really important for people — women especially — to push themselves past the boundaries that are set before us. The women in A League of Their Own, and the real life women that played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in the 40s and 50s, are heroes.
Basically, even if society / men tell you that you can’t do something, you should push past that and try it anyway. Listen, playing sports is not for all of us — but that doesn’t mean it’s worth a shot.
Push yourself, try new things, change the world.
THERE IS CRYING IN BASEBALL
I love when a relatively un-interesting line in a film becomes a super famous line. Sometimes they are predictable (“I see dead people.”) and sometimes they aren’t (“Say crack one more time.”) but regardless, it is nice to feel connected to all of humanity by a movie line. One of those lines is:
And even though I like to always side with Tom Hanks, it is important to note that there is crying in baseball! Of course there is! There is crying in every sport! How else do you think that Michael Jordan crying meme came about?
But for real, I am all about people just full on feeling their feelings, you know? Sports movies always make me cry and I am certainly not a Certified Sports Person, so IMO, there definitely is crying in baseball. If I were a Rockford Peach, I would for sure be crying like most of the time.
It’s okay to cry, y’all.
Sisters are something else
Full disclosure: I don’t have sisters, but watching this movie and knowing people who have sisters or are sisters, I feel like I can comment on the dynamic at least a tiny bit. Dottie and Kit’s relationship is kind of the underlying (or overlying) theme of A League of Their Own and it is no wonder why. Dottie and Kit have a very stereotypically sibling relationship, which makes all of the sweet stuff at the end (she drops the ball on purpose!) even more meaningful.
The main thing is, regardless of everything else, your sister is the most important person in your life. (And if you don’t have a sister, it’s your brother. And if you have neither, WHAT A PEACEFUL LIFE YOU MUST LIVE.)
Women truly have to fight
So not only are the Rockford Peaches super badasses for going out and playing baseball against all odds and stereotypes, they are heroic in the fact that they are playing baseball to help appease the harsh realities of World War II — a very true to history fact about this movie. While these women were out playing baseball, helping to entertain and distract a country at odds, many of the women were facing their own grief while their husbands were fighting in the war. In the movie, at least one of the women receives terrible news about her husband, and while this movie is fiction, it is important to note that most of this story is at least inspired by truth.
Women are amazing. True, true fighters.
God, you guys. I really love baseball movies. Of all of the sports, I really do love baseball the most, but everyone who knows me knows I am not some crazy sports fanatic — but I love baseball movies. There is something inspiring, motivational, and very summer-centered about baseball (and the movies about it). A League of Their Own is phenomenal. The cast, the story, the history, and the game — for the love of it all. (PS Geena Davis forever.)
