ABOVE: “A League of Their Own.” Photo via Prime Video.
Guess what? There is crying in baseball.
“A League of Their Own,” an entertaining, queered-up eight-episode series adaptation of the 1992 movie (of the same name) has dropped on Amazon Prime.
Like the movie, the series is the story of what life was like in 1943 for the players of the Rockford Peaches, one of the 10 teams that made up the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Women got to play because many of the male major leaguers were away fighting World War II.
As in the film, the characters in the reboot are fictional, but the Rockford Peaches and the league were real. From 1943 to 1954, more than 600 women played for the AAGPBL.
The 1992 film was loved by many. But back then, mainstream movies didn’t have much of a queer quotient, and racial injustice was, largely, off the radar.
Thankfully, Amazon’s reboot of “League” expands the narrative to include characters that are lesbian, queer, questioning, trans and/or Latina and Black as well as hetero and white.
The series, created by Abbi Jacobson (“Broad City”) and Will Graham (“Mozart in the Jungle”), deals with racism, homophobia, transphobia, gender and sexism against the life-changing foreground of World War II.
Through Jacobson’s and Graham’s (who are queer) creative sleight-of-hand, “League” is an engrossing dramedy rather than a didactic snooze.
As with any self-respecting baseball story, a voice in “League” is heard saying “there’s no crying in baseball.”
But if you don’t, while watching this series, shed at least a few tears of exhilaration, wistfulness or sadness, you, like the Tin Man in Oz, may not have a heart.
In the reboot, Jacobson plays the Peaches’ catcher Carson. (Geena Davis played the catcher Dottie in the movie).
Carson’s husband Charlie is off fighting in the war. Carson, stuck in a small midwestern town, leaps onto a train. So she can try out for the Peaches.
Carson, once she’s on the team, quickly becomes infatuated with her glam teammate Greta (played wonderfully by D’Arcy Carden). When Dove (Nick Offerman), the Peaches’ coach splits, Carson is called upon to lead the team.
Carson doubts that she has what it takes to step into Dove’s shoes. Like many of the characters, Carson discovers her sexuality and questions what she wants to do with her life. Will she stay with Charlie after the war? How could she live with Greta (or any woman) when polite “ladies” didn’t even say the word “lesbian” in public?
An equally compelling narrative of the series is the story of Max (Chanté Adams). Max is a fabulous pitcher. But there’s no way she could play for the Peaches because the AAGPBL is segregated and no Black women can be in the league.
Max, like Carson, is discovering her sexuality. She’s trying to suss out not only how she can fulfill her dream of playing baseball (given the racism of the sport and society), but how to be queer in a homophobic world.
One of the most intriguing things about “League” is its attentiveness to women’s friendships. Max’s BFF is Chance. Chance creates fab comic books. But she knows she’s playing against racist, sexist odds.
Carson and Max bond over their love of baseball and queerness. They know they’ll likely never see each other after the season ends or overcome the barrier of racial discrimination. But their friendship feels real.
In an homage to the movie, O’Donnell (Doris on Third Base in the film) appears in a lovely scene as Vi, the owner of a gay bar.
“How is any of this possible? How is this allowed?” Carson asks Vi.
“It’s really not,” Vi says.
Yet, though same-sex marriage is clearly illegal, Vi refers to her partner as her wife. They have lived together for six years in a nice home, she tells Carson.
An annoying thing about the series is its anachronisms. Janis Joplin belts out “Piece of My Heart” in the soundtrack of one episode. Joplin in 1943? Fortunately, such misplaced cultural references are infrequent.
The pace of the series is a bit slow in the first two or three episodes. But by the halfway point, you’ll be caught up in the game. “A League of Their Own” hits it out of the park!
