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Are You in a League of Your Own?
The price of being an outlier
Sometimes a movie is just a movie. Sometimes, it speaks to far larger societal issues. For my part, this the case with the sweet, sentimental, very funny but also bittersweet 1992 movie A League of Their Own, which tells the true story of the beginning of women’s professional sports leagues in America.
I ordered it from Amazon last week. When it arrived, I promptly played it. And remembered why I loved it the first time around.
If you missed this lollipop of a good time, don’t. Find it and watch it. Not only are Madonna (you wanna see an athlete? watch the bar dance scene) and Rosie O’Donnell gut-busting hilarious and, forgive me, pitch perfect, but the story speaks to the price so many women have paid to follow their dreams. To be athletes. Different.
When our patriotic boys, including professional baseball’s top player like Joe DiMaggio, signed up to take Hitler on in the 1940s, America was in sore need of good news. Suddenly our summer past time was in danger of being cancelled. Some wag got the idea that since girls were already working in the factories, perhaps they could also play ball.
They sure as hell could. Of course they could. You could try out: at least if you were young, white and pretty at least. Mostly.