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.
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
America’s pastime has been complicated in the last couple centuries, and integration has been a big key in the game of baseball. Like most of America in the 1940’s, baseball was segregated, with whites playing in the Major League system and African-Americans playing in the Negro Leagues. There were many factors that made whites and blacks come together, including World War II. Integration caused many downs in the time period, but as baseball grew and grew it was one of the greatest accomplishments in the history. It was hard to find the right black man to start this, they needed a man with baseball abilities and a man who didn’t need to fight back.
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.?
team of the American League. Ruth was paid a salary of $600 to play in the
There was a specific game in Jackie Robinson’s career that made a huge impact on all the segregation on his team. During a game against the Philadelphia Phillies, the manager, Ben Chapman, and his team were yelling racial and derogatory remarks from their dugout, but that wouldn’t stop Jackie from playing the game he loved. Like mentioned above, Jackie’s teammates didn’t even want to play with him because he was an African American, it was not just the other teams that had a problem with him. His own teammates went to the Leo Durocher and complained, they stated that they didn’t want Jackie on their team, and Leo told them that he would rather trade them then give up on Jackie. Jackie got all sorts of racial abuse, especially at the away games, but that didn’t stop Jackie, he ended up starting his career with a batting average of .349 and a fielding percentage of
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
Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play Major League Baseball. This was not an easy task for him to do. People judged him and didn’t like him by the color of his skin. Jackie Robinson said “The hate mail piled up” (Robinson). That shows that no one cared to give him a chance to play in the Major League. The innocence of young kids had a great inspiration on Jackie Robinson because they didn’t care about his color they just wanted him to play good. Jackie Robinson was “proud to be a part of a significant breakthrough” (Robinson) in breaking the color barrier. Even though Jackie Robinson has been through
The Negro Baseball League was a league comprised of professional, African American baseball players. The creation of this league comes from the black players who were not accepted into major or minor league baseball. Generally, The Negro Baseball league was a reflection of America during a time when society was segregated. The Negro Baseball League was influential to the 1920s because it changed the social development of America and demonstrated a sense of equality among men.
Crack! Back, back, back the ball goes. Home run! Who hit it? It was Jackie Robinson, the first black baseball player in the major league. Many people would agree Jackie was one of the best players to ever swing a bat. However, he faced many difficulties on his journey to becoming a professional baseball player. Without Jackie playing in the pros, baseball and civil rights wouldn’t be the way it is today. Baseball may have taken a long time to not be made up of mainly white players. Jackie was a beacon of hope to black people in the fact that they could compete and succeed in a white man’s sport.
Breaking the Racial Barrier in Baseball Although Jackie Robinson was not the best African-American baseball player of his time, his attitude and ability to handle racist harassment led the way for the rest of his race to play Major League Baseball, amongst other sports. Being accepted into professional sports also helped African-Americans become more easily accepted into other aspects of life. Jackie's impact in the world for the black population is enormous. According to Jessie Jackson, "A champion wins a World Series or an Olympic event and is hoisted on the shoulders of the fans.
Shattuck, Debra (2011). “Women’s baseball in the 1860s: Reestablishing a historical memory.” Nine,19(2), 1-26. Retrieved from http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/nine/vo19 /19.2.shattuck.html
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