A League of Their Own (1992)
The first movie I watched was A League of Their Own (1992). It is set primarily in 1943 and features a number of well-known actors such as Tom Hanks as manager Jimmy Dugan, Rosie O’Donnell as 3rd base Doris Murphy, and even Madonna as center fielder Mae Mordabito. The film starts with a scene from the present of an older Dottie Hinson, played by Lynn Cartwright, reluctantly getting ready to attend the induction of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Once there she sees a number of her former friends. A flashback to 1943 is where the majority of the movie is set.
During World War II a group of baseball team owners, led by Chicago Cubs owner and candy baron Walter Harvey (Garry Marshall), search for a way to keep their profits up while most of their male baseball players are sent off to war. Their answer is to create a new baseball league made up of all women players they call the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (this is a minor deviation from the actual historic events where the league was founded first as the All-American Girls Softball League but it isn’t a huge deal). Talent scouts are sent out across the nation in search for women players to fill the four new teams, the Rockford Peaches, Racine Bells, Kenosha Comets, and the South Bend Blue Socks. One scout, Earnie Capadino (Jon Lovitz) is sent to rural Oregon and attends a game of catcher Dottie Hinson (Genna Davis) and her sister, pitcher Kit Keller (Lori Petty). He thinks that Dottie is perfect for the league and offers her a spot in tryouts but Dottie, whose husband is overseas in the war, refuses unless he takes her sister Kit also. It is worth m...
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...ller and hits a home run giving the Dodger’s the National League pennant and solidifying their place in the World Series. While the Dodger’s would end up losing the World Series after seven games it shows the world that African-Americans can be just as good, or better, at baseball than anybody else.
I found the movie to be very informative but slightly too long. It set the mood of the times and showcased some of the hardships faced by Jackie Robinson wonderfully but it had periods of what I can only describe as dullness throughout. Despite the great cast and characters it seemed to drag on at times making it more of a chore to watch all the way through in one sitting. If you are looking at learning about that time in history then 42: A Jackie Robinson Story is a great choice but it may be best to consume it in a couple of chunks with some breaks between.
African-American baseball players had been a part of professional baseball when it was first starting in the 1880s. Some black players had signed a contract already with their team, but the International League banned blacks from signing anymore. Blacks that were already under contract were able to finish until it was up, but they were not allowed to renew it. Ever since that, Major League Baseball was a segregated sport until the late 1940s. The major league owners had conspired together and wrote what was called a “gentlemen's agreement” to keep black players out of the game. This did not stop African-Americans from achieving their goal of playing baseball. They organized their own teams and played “pickup games” with anyone that ...
Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play Major-League baseball. His inspiring actions and wise words are remembered even now, and on Jackie Robinson day, all baseball players wear his jersey:“42”. Many biographies have been written, and one biography, The Noble Experiment. Recently, in April 2013, Legendary Motion Pictures released a movie entitled “42”. In many ways, the film and Jackie’s autobiography are alike. However, the are also different in many ways.
Jackie Robinson went on to win rookie of the year that season, 6 world series, and most importantly show African-Americans they can are just as good as Cauc...
“In 1946, there were sixteen Major League Baseball teams, with a total of 400 players on their rosters, every one of the players was white. But when opening day came in 1947, that number dropped to 399, and one man stood apart. (42 2:30)” Jack Roosevelt “Jackie” Robinson made his Major League Baseball debut on April 15, 1947, as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Making Jackie Robinson the first African-American to play Major League Baseball (MLB). Jackie’s transition from the Negro Leagues to MLB was not an easy one. As a player, he transitioned very well, but it was Robinson’s teammates, Dodgers fans, the opposing teams and their fans that tested Jackie every chance they got, some hotels even prohibited the Dodgers to stay in their establishments
Boom! This sound was very common coming off the bat of Jackie Robinson when he was on the baseball field, but it had a resounding echo on society and especially those fighting for the rights of blacks in the United States. While Jackie Robinson was an incredible player on the field, his more significant impacts were actually on areas of society other than baseball. Until 1947, when Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers and manager Branch Rickey, no other African American had ever played in Major League baseball. This was huge news throughout the United States, and Robinson was voted America’s second most popular personality, only behind Bing Crosby (Dorinson, 2012, p. 55). Until this point, African Americans had been dealing with the constraints of the Jim Crow laws, which enforced segregation of African Americans from whites. However, Robinson breaking the color barrier in a previously completely white sport turned some heads and made people rethink the situation of blacks in American society. Rubenstein (2003) attributed that “one of baseball’s most important roles has been to
Jackie Robinson was the first black baseball player to play on the professional level, he was fearless, courageous, willful and strong. He was an advocate for civil rights, as well as a great baseball player. He had to try to keep quiet, and keep to himself while playing, but became a stronger and more extreme advocate over time. A leader on and off the fields dealing with much more than just baseball, he also had to deal with the criticism and racial tensions of a prominently white game. Branch Rickey, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, was a showman who knew how to make money and fame in baseball “he had made a fortune for the cardinals as well as himself, and black talent could argument his bottom line by transforming his struggling dodgers into a power house” (Zeiler, 17). He wanted to make his team great by any means possible. He put his eyes on Jackie Robinson. Jackie Robinson changed the game and the world, and will always be a huge figure in baseball and civil rights.
Although there was a strong sense of inequality amongst the entire American society during this time, African American have prove to be aides in the process of making the game of baseball better for ht future, along with the mentality of the average American. "The African American teams were constant reminder that segregation and inequality existed." (Segregation in Baseball: Internet) What would baseball be without the greats such as Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, or Ken Griffey Jr.?
Jackie Robinson was a black man that played a white man only sport. Jackie Robinson’s life was outstanding regardless of the obstacles that were thrown in his way in order for him to make it to the top. Jackie Robinson overcame the pain people put him through with the support of his family, friends, and his God given talent, which was playing baseball. Jackie Robinson overcame the negativity of white people during the Civil Rights Movement. For this reason, Jackie Robinson never gave up on his dream and proved people wrong. Jackie Robinson became a vocal champion for the African-American athletes around the world (“Robinson, Jackie - Black History”).
For the better part of the 20th century, African American baseball players played under unequal opportunity. On one side of the field, European descendants were given a license to play this children's game for money and national fame. While on the other side of the field, African slave descendants were also given a license to play - as long as they didn't encroach upon the leagues of the Caucasians. What was left over for African American player in terms of riches was meager at best. Though the fortune wasn't there, the love and fame within the African American communities made the players of the Negro Baseball League legends.
team of the American League. Ruth was paid a salary of $600 to play in the
The WWII time period was a hard time for American families. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League helped to change the rights of women in the industrial world. Men took care of their responsibilities and served their time in war, but in the meantime, the world-winning women of the AAGPBL stormed the country by surprise. This league was a major success in our history and will leave its legacy among baseball fans for years to come.
doing what baseball teams have be doing for a hundred years. The Athletics as a whole are very methodical following different procedures depending on the time of year. We see this right away in the movie, we go from the losing game straight into offseason activities. Talking about what players to get to fill holes in the lineup and how to structure the team for next season. Once training camp and the season starts the organization switches into improving and working with players on their current roster. Only trading or acquiring new players when it is needed, they set that aspect of the game aside for the season. Throughout the whole year they will try to develop their team and win games until the offseason come and they will begin the process
The film “A League of Their Own,” depicts a fictionalized tale of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. This league was started during World War II when many of the Major Leagues Biggest stars were drafted to the war. MLB owners decided to start this league with hopes of making money while the men were overseas fighting. Traditional stereotypes of women in sports were already in force before the league even begins. One of the scouts letts Dottie, one of the films main characters she is the perfect combination of looks as well as talent. The scout even rejects one potential player because she is not as pretty as the league is looking for even though she is a great baseball player. The player, Marla’s father said if she was a boy she would be playing for the Yankee’s. Eventually Mara’s father is able to convince the scout to take Marla to try outs because he raised her on his own after her mother died. Her father says it is his fault his daughter is a tomboy. In this case the film reinforces the traditional stereotype that mothers are in charge of raising their daughters and teaching them to be a lady, where fathers are incapable of raising girls to be anything other than a tomboy. The focus on beauty also reinforces the traditional stereotype that men will only be interested in women’s sports when the females participating in
Schemas, the mental structures that we use to organize information around us, were predominate in the movie (Aronson, Wilson & Akert, 2013). The schema of what a professional baseball payer looked like was not what was around to play. All the men were off fighting the war so when the women started playing they did not fit the schema of what most people saw as a baseball player (Marshall, 1992).
Lesko, J. (2005). League History. All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association. Retrieved for this paper Mar 20, 2014 from, http://www.aagpbl.org/index.cfm/pages/league/12/league-history