Tom Hanks – Tribute

Cast: Geena Davis, Tom Hanks, Madonna, Lori Petty, Rosie O’Donnell.

Director: Penny Marshall

Written by: Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel.

When World War II threatens to shut down Major League Baseball, candy manufacturing magnate Walter Harvey (Garry Marshall) decides to create a women’s league to make money. Ira Lowenstein (David Strathairn) is put in charge of public relations and scout Ernie Capadino (Jon Lovitz) is sent out to recruit players.

Capadino likes what he sees in catcher Dottie Hinson (Geena Davis). She’s a terrific hitter and, almost as important, “a doll” and likely to attract male fans. He offers her a tryout, but the married woman is content where she is, working in a dairy and on the family farm in Oregon while her husband is away at war. He’s less impressed with her younger sister, pitcher Kit Keller (Lori Petty), who loves the game passionately but appears to be less talented. He finally lets her come along when she persuades Dottie to give it a try for her sake. Along the way to the tryouts, he also checks out Marla Hooch (Megan Cavanagh), a great switch-hitting slugger. However, the blunt-speaking scout finds her too homely and rejects her. Dottie and Kit refuse to continue on without her and Ernie reluctantly gives in.

When the trio arrive at the tryouts in Chicago, they meet Doris Murphy (Rosie O’Donnell) and Mae Mordabito (Madonna), two tough-talking Brooklynites. They are assigned with 14 others to form the Rockford Peaches; 48 other prospects are chosen for the Racine Belles, Kenosha Comets, or South Bend Blue Sox. The Peaches are managed by drunkard former baseball great Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks). Jimmy initially treats the whole thing as a joke, leaving the managerial duties to Dottie. However, he takes over when he sees how hard and well his team plays. Meanwhile, the players have to attend mandatory etiquette classes to maintain a “lady-like” image, even though they are also required to wear very short (by 1940s standards) skirts as part of their uniforms.

The league attracts little interest at first. In one memorable scene, Lowenstein tells the Peaches that things aren’t going so well and that the owners are having second thoughts about keeping the league going beyond the 1943 season. With a Life magazine photographer in attendance, he asks them to do something spectacular. Dottie obliges. When a ball is popped up behind home plate, she catches it while doing splits; the resulting photograph makes the cover of the magazine. Jimmy is (predictably) disgusted, while the opposing manager and catcher are stunned. More and more people show up and the league becomes a success.