A League of Their Own - Plot

Plot

In 1988, an elderly, widowed Dottie Hinson reluctantly attends the induction of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. She sees many of her former teammates and friends, prompting a flashback to 1943.

When World War II threatens to shut down Major League Baseball, candy magnate and Chicago Cubs owner Walter Harvey (Garry Marshall) creates a women's league to make money. Ira Lowenstein (David Strathairn) is put in charge and Ernie Capadino (Jon Lovitz) is sent out to recruit players.

Capadino likes what he sees in softball catcher Dottie (Geena Davis). She is a terrific hitter and very attractive. He offers her a tryout, but she is content working in a dairy and on the family farm while her husband, Bob, fights in the war. He is less impressed with her younger sister, pitcher Kit Keller (Lori Petty), who is desperate to go. He lets her come along when she persuades Dottie to change her mind. He also checks out Marla Hooch (Megan Cavanagh), a great switch-hitting slugger. Because Marla is homely, he rejects her, but Dottie and Kit refuse to go on without her, and her father makes an impassioned plea. Capadino gives in.

When the trio arrive at the tryouts in Chicago, they meet taxi dancer "All the Way" Mae Mordabito (Madonna) and her best friend, Doris Murphy (Rosie O'Donnell), both tough-talking New Yorkers; soft-spoken right fielder Evelyn Gardner (Bitty Schram); illiterate and shy left fielder Shirley Baker (Ann Cusack); and pitcher and former Miss Georgia Ellen Sue Gotlander. They and nine others are selected to form the Rockford Peaches, while 48 others are split among the Racine Belles, Kenosha Comets, and South Bend Blue Sox.

The Peaches are managed by Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks), a former marquee Cubs slugger who lost his career to alcohol. He treats the whole thing as a joke, forcing Dottie to take on his duties. Jimmy takes over after clashing with Dottie over a game-time decision.

The league attracts little interest. Lowenstein tells the Peaches that the owners are having second thoughts. With a Life magazine photographer attending a game, Lowenstein begs them to do something spectacular. Dottie obliges when a ball is popped up behind home plate, catching it while doing a split. The resulting photograph makes the cover of the magazine. A publicity campaign draws more and more people to the ballgames, but the owners remain unconvinced.

Meanwhile, the sibling rivalry between Dottie and Kit intensifies: Kit resents being completely overshadowed by Dottie in everything. Things come to a head when Jimmy pulls Kit for a relief pitcher on Dottie's advice. After a heated argument between Dottie and Kit, Dottie tells Lowenstein she is thinking about quitting. Horrified at the prospect of losing his biggest star, Lowenstein promises to arrange a trade. Kit blames her sister for being sent to Racine.

Prior to a game, the Peaches' utility player, Betty "Spaghetti" Horn, is informed that her husband has been killed in action in the Pacific Theatre; the same evening, Bob returns, having been honorably discharged after being wounded in Italy. The following morning, Jimmy discovers that Dottie is returning to Oregon with Bob. He tells her she will regret her decision.

The team makes it to the World Series against Kit's Racine Belles. The Peaches win twice in a row to force a deciding seventh game. Dottie unexpectedly rejoins the team for the game. Racine leads 1-0 going into the ninth inning when Dottie hits Kit's pitch and drives in two runs. Kit comes up to bat with her team trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the ninth with two outs. Dottie tells pitcher Ellen Sue about Kit's weakness for chasing high fastballs. After swinging at and missing the first two pitches, Kit hits a line drive and rounds the bases, ignoring a stop signal from the third base coach. Dottie fields the throw to the plate, but Kit slams into her, knocking the ball out of her hand to score the winning run (although it is hinted that Dottie may have dropped the ball on purpose in order to give Kit her moment to shine). The sellout crowd convinces Harvey to give Lowenstein the owners' support. After the game, the sisters reconcile before Dottie leaves to raise a family.

In the present day, Dottie and Kit are reunited during the dedication ceremony of the Women's Professional Baseball League; Dottie is reunited with several players (Doris, Marla, Mae and Betty). Several fates of the characters are revealed: Marla married Nelson, Jimmy and Bob have both died, and after Dottie reunites with Stillwell, she learns of his mother's (Evelyn) passing. All the baseball players sing and take a picture.