The Best Movies You’ve Never Seen podcast – A League of Their Own

A League of Their Own

Podcast: The Best Movies You’ve Never Seen
Date: 23 October 2026
Hosts: Stephen Fenech and Trevor Long

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[00:01:43] Stephen Fenech: The Best Movies You’ve Never Seen, that is our podcast. Welcome to the show. My name is Stephen Fenech, and I’m the person who picks the movies, uh, the movies that you perhaps have never seen. I know definitely Trevor Long, my co-host, has never seen.

[00:01:57] Trevor Long: That’s the way it normally, normally rolls, doesn’t it?

[00:01:59] Stephen Fenech: How it works. I tell Trev what to watch. That’s the only control I have over him, over anything he does. Continuously baffled.

[00:02:05] Trevor Long: When we did Gladiator a few weeks ago. Yep. Um, I, I don’t often get to the trouble of like looking at the comments on like when we post the, the podcast up on, on socials and stuff, but there was a comment I think on Threads, might have even been Twitter, I don’t know, but someone’s saying, as if there’s anyone in the world who hasn’t seen this movie. And I went, uh, I think I just gave a hands up emoji. Yeah, but there will be other people.

[00:02:30] Trevor Long: And I’m confident that today’s show, there will be plenty of people who have heard of it Like me? Yes. I haven’t seen it.

[00:02:36] Stephen Fenech: The movie we’re talking about is A League of Their Own. It’s a sports movie. It’s actually a baseball movie.

[00:02:41] Trevor Long: Yeah, baby!

[00:02:42] Stephen Fenech: Released in 1992, starring Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Madonna, Lori Petty, Rosie O’Donnell, among others. Directed by Penny Marshall. You know who Penny Marshall is?

[00:02:56] Stephen Fenech: Do you remember that show Laverne and Shirley?

[00:02:58] Trevor Long: Oh yeah.

[00:02:58] Stephen Fenech: She was Laverne.

[00:03:00] Stephen Fenech: Penny Marshall.

[00:03:01] Trevor Long: Wow.

[00:03:01] Stephen Fenech: And her brother is in the movie too. He plays Harvey, you know, the rich guy in the movie that’s funding all the league. That’s her brother in real life too. So Penny Marshall, who, Laverne in Laverne and Shirley, and directed many movies including Big, which Tom Hanks starred in. You know the movie Big?

[00:03:19] Trevor Long: Right.

[00:03:19] Stephen Fenech: Penny Marshall.

[00:03:20] Trevor Long: I love that movie.

[00:03:21] Stephen Fenech: Penny Marshall.

[00:03:21] Trevor Long: Did we do that? No, we haven’t.

[00:03:23] Stephen Fenech: You’ve seen that on your own. You’ve seen that off your own back.

[00:03:27] Trevor Long: I’ve seen that from as a kid.

[00:03:28] Stephen Fenech: There you go. There you go.

[00:03:29] Trevor Long: Like FAO Schwartz.

[00:03:31] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, I learned how to play that off of that movie. And anyway, Penny Marshall directed that. And so Tom Hanks is in this movie as well. But Penny Marshall, massive baseball fan, really loves baseball, was inspired to make A League of Their Own after seeing a PBS documentary about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

[00:03:56] Trevor Long: That’s— I was thinking that. I was thinking, you know, this is obviously a great story and you’re going to tell me how much of this fact Fact and fiction later when I get all that. But I was thinking, how does, how does a story get to become a movie? Yeah, there you go.

[00:04:06] Stephen Fenech: Well, I’ll tell you, it was inspired by the career of baseball legend Dottie Collins. Now there is a character named Dottie in the movie.

[00:04:16] Trevor Long: Yep.

[00:04:17] Stephen Fenech: You can obviously say it’s based on her.

[00:04:18] Trevor Long: It’s one of those ones where it’s all loosely based.

[00:04:21] Stephen Fenech: Yes. Now Dottie Collins during World War II played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, pitched 17 shutouts during her 6-year career.

[00:04:31] Trevor Long: Do you know what a shutout is? No, it’s when you pitch them and they don’t score any runs. Yeah. So if they’re zero at the end, shutout.

[00:04:38] Stephen Fenech: Shutout. Yeah. Now to cast the movie was a bit of a challenge, of course. You had to find A, good actresses, B, actresses who could play baseball.

[00:04:49] Trevor Long: At the very least throw a ball and maybe swing a bat.

[00:04:52] Stephen Fenech: She held tryouts for 2,000 actresses. Wow. And even we’re talking not just sort of, you know, up-and-coming actresses that just want to be in the background, but like proper stars who thought, I want to be in the movie, but sorry, you can’t, you can’t play, but you’re not, you know, I think Demi Moore tried.

[00:05:11] Trevor Long: Wow.

[00:05:12] Stephen Fenech: They said, sorry, you can’t throw a ball, you can’t catch, you’re not in it.

[00:05:15] Stephen Fenech: So you had to pass that, not only be a good actress, but you had to be able to play.

[00:05:19] Trevor Long: That’s crazy. Yeah. Sorry, what year are we talking about?

[00:05:21] Stephen Fenech: We’re talking ’92, ’90, ’91. So early ’90s.

[00:05:23] Trevor Long: I’m in year 11. Early ’90s.

[00:05:25] Stephen Fenech: Okay. That’s the year I got married, actually, ’92.

[00:05:28] Trevor Long: Yeah, well, you’re an old man, that’s okay.

[00:05:30] Stephen Fenech: Now Drama in the background though. A few weeks before they were due to begin filming, they started filming. They were set to start filming in June 1990, right? At the time, the 20th Century Fox who owned the film, that’s the chairman of Fox who owned the movie at that time, Joe Roth, changed his mind and went, nah, we’re out.

[00:05:54] Stephen Fenech: Withdrew funding for the movie. They said, nah, We’ve changed our mind. So that’s what they call— the movie was in turnaround. So they thought, sorry, it was our property, but we don’t want it anymore. And so it was just sitting there for another studio to either bid for or whatever. Yeah, luckily for them, Columbia Pictures decided to pick it up, right? And then filming began a year later, July 1991. So they were ready to go. Yeah, right now The— I think in the— in that time, that 12-month period, I understand that Deborah Winger was going to be the star of the show. She was going to be in the Geena Davis slot, so the Dottie slot. Deborah Winger was in a lot of great movies. I think she was in Officer and a Gentleman, a lot of great films in the— in the ’90s, late ’80s and ’90s was her. She was like a gun actress. She was a great actress.

[00:06:46] Trevor Long: I know who we’re talking about.

[00:06:47] Stephen Fenech: Now, yep. She was, as I said, cast in the lead role, quit the movie during pre-production. Do you know why? When she found out they’d signed Madonna to the movie.

[00:07:03] Trevor Long: Like, annoyed that they hired a pop star?

[00:07:06] Stephen Fenech: Well, she was in the— like, Madonna had a chunky role, a decent role in it, and she felt that casting her was a publicity stunt. They said, well, let’s be honest, like, is this really— you’re gonna put her in it? That was her thing. I think she was all right in the movie. I didn’t mind her, great. But she said that would distract the audience from sort of the authenticity of the film because it’s meant to be— they wanted to be—

[00:07:31] Trevor Long: that was a mistake by Deborah Winger, that’s for sure. Because, well, I don’t think—

[00:07:33] Stephen Fenech: well, that was her stance that she thought it would sort of— it would take away from the authenticity of the film.

[00:07:39] Trevor Long: Right, okay.

[00:07:39] Stephen Fenech: Anyway, they said she’s out. So she left and then she said, look, she was scared it was going to turn the movie into a musical. That’s what it was. Is it going to be? Because, you know, like Elvis famously acted in the movies, but he was there for his singing, not for his acting. And she was worried, it was her words, it’s going to turn into an Elvis Presley musical. So she went, see you later. And years later she was asked about it. And she says, well, have a look how Madonna’s acting career turned out.

[00:08:13] Trevor Long: Her—

[00:08:13] Stephen Fenech: she wasn’t really established. The movies she made were all— that none of them really did very well. You know, she’s made a few movies. We’ll talk about that in the casting call. But that was her. She stood by her decision.

[00:08:25] Trevor Long: Yeah, interesting.

[00:08:27] Stephen Fenech: All right, had you any impressions of this at all?

[00:08:29] Trevor Long: I certainly knew of the movie. Okay. I would have— if you mentioned it to me, I’d say I knew that it was about female baseball. I would have named Rosie O’Donnell and Madonna in it.

[00:08:38] Stephen Fenech: I think I mentioned—

[00:08:39] Trevor Long: well, you got Madonna before even I didn’t even ask the question. And I think that’s because I saw Rosie talking about it recently.

[00:08:45] Stephen Fenech: Right, yeah, okay.

[00:08:47] Trevor Long: So yeah, it’s just one of those weird ones that got away. I’ve never watched it.

[00:08:50] Stephen Fenech: Okay, just before this— this was actually after this movie came out, the same week the movie premiered, Tom Hanks got his star on the Walk of Fame.

[00:09:00] Trevor Long: Oh wow.

[00:09:00] Stephen Fenech: So same— this is, this is pre-Forest Gump, pre-Philadelphia, pre-his Oscars. Right, pre-Cast Away. This is early ’90s, so Tom Hanks is still a star on the rise because he’d made big. Yeah, this, and this was sort of what kicked his career up another level, I reckon.

[00:09:19] Trevor Long: Right.

[00:09:20] Stephen Fenech: Roger Ebert.

[00:09:21] Trevor Long: Oh, our man. Let’s go.

[00:09:22] Stephen Fenech: 3 out of 4 stars.

[00:09:24] Stephen Fenech: The movie remembers this period from the present. It begins with Dottie Hinson, the Geena Davis character, now older, taking a trip to Cooperstown for ceremonies honoring the Women’s League. What we learned about Dottie is that she never took women’s baseball all that seriously. She was a She was the best player of her time, and yet in her mind, hers, she was simply on hold until her husband came back from the war. Uh, Dugan, the coach, tells her she lights up when she plays baseball, that something comes over her, but she doesn’t seem to be aware of it. This ambiguity about a woman’s role is probably in the movie because it was directed by a woman, Penny Marshall. A man might have assumed that these women knew how all-important baseball was. Marshall shows her women characters in a tug of war between new images and old values. So The movie is about transition, about how it felt as a woman suddenly to have a new role and freedom. The movie was a real bittersweet charm. The baseball sequences we’ve seen before. What’s fresh are the personalities of the players, the gradual unfolding of their coach, and the way the early chapter of women’s lib fit into the hidebound traditions of professional baseball. By the end, when the women get together again for their reunion, it’s touching. The way they have to admit that, what do you know, They were real pioneers. The end of the film notes that the players of the AAGPBL were the first women ever to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Apparently that’s not the case. They were not inductees. They were actually— the permanent exhibition was named— the first ones were introduced later on in 1988. So it was the— they were not So they weren’t really Hall of Fame. They just had an exhibition about women’s baseball.

[00:11:09] Trevor Long: Yeah, yeah.

[00:11:09] Stephen Fenech: That wasn’t the end of Roger Egan. I was going to say Roger went off to Alptack. That’s another note that I had about the reaction. But he said 3 out of 4 stars.

[00:11:18] Trevor Long: Nice.

[00:11:20] Stephen Fenech: Righto. This is your last exit before the freeway. If you haven’t seen A League of Their Own, we’re going to hit it out of the park.

[00:11:27] Trevor Long: Hey, home run show.

[00:11:29] Stephen Fenech: And if you haven’t seen it, you can catch it on Fetch.

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[00:13:01] Stephen Fenech: Alrighty, uh, we’re back on the— we’ve off the exit from the freeway and you’ve now seen the movie. Just give us your first impressions after your first time.

[00:13:09] Trevor Long: I like the way it was presented, and Roger made this point, it’s, it’s seen from the present day, you know, so that flashback and book— bookended, you know what I mean? It’s a lovely way to do it.

[00:13:18] Stephen Fenech: I like that structure.

[00:13:18] Trevor Long: It’s a good way to go back into the past is to go, we’re going to go there from now, but we’re going to come back here later on, just bear with me.

[00:13:24] Stephen Fenech: There’s a little— I’ve got a great factoid about the early part of the movie.

[00:13:28] Trevor Long: Oh, okay. I want to know about the late part of the movie. I want to know the people on the field. But anyway, yes, I’ll tell you, I’ve got a sense, I’ve got a sense. Anyway, um, you know, so I expected a very different movie. I expected just—

[00:13:41] Stephen Fenech: So I told you it was baseball though. Yeah, I know, I knew it was baseball.

[00:13:44] Trevor Long: I guess I expected not Moneyball for women. I don’t know, I just expected it to be far more focused on the baseball than the story of the time. And I think it is heavily focused on baseball, don’t get me wrong, but I just found myself compelled by the questions about, you know, the role of women in society. And, you know, ’cause there’s a lot of things here about women’s sport and the major backers getting out and someone else having faith in them and people not coming to the game. You know, there’s just so many things here which I think have relevance today as well.

[00:14:15] Stephen Fenech: You’ve seen it once. I’ve seen it more than that. Would you be fair to say that this is a baseball movie or a character movie? It’s more character. I felt it’s more character with a baseball background.

[00:14:28] Stephen Fenech: How did you feel?

[00:14:29] Trevor Long: I agree. So I think I do. I agree with you. It’s a character movie set around baseball. But see, the thing is you get me watching it because I’m a baseball fan, right? So you sell it to different people different ways. You sell it to somebody who doesn’t like baseball by saying there’s a wonderful story about women’s role during the war and women in sport. Boom. That’s fair. It doesn’t matter. It’s for everyone. And I found that fascinating.

[00:14:51] Stephen Fenech: And what’s your social media post here?

[00:14:53] Trevor Long: A League of Their Own is a baseball movie. So of course I think you should watch it, but it’s also a movie that poses a bunch of moral and societal questions, many still relevant today. The cracking cast, it’s faithfully baseball, but not overtly so. That you must be a fan to watch.

[00:15:08] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, I agree. That’s a good point. I think even if you’ve never watched baseball in your life, you can still appreciate the movie and the story and the characters.

[00:15:15] Trevor Long: There’s not a— yeah, I can’t think of a single time where you go, oh, that was a particular play or style of baseball.

[00:15:22] Stephen Fenech: I don’t think it got too technical.

[00:15:24] Trevor Long: Runs and outs and, you know, getting—

[00:15:25] Stephen Fenech: although there was a major blue they had in the, in the Game 7, which we’ll point out, uh, hopefully you might have picked up.

[00:15:32] Trevor Long: I might have, I don’t know.

[00:15:33] Stephen Fenech: Later on, uh, we’ll talk about it. Um, I saw this at the, at the, in the theater with my then fiancée, soon-to-be wife, released on September 10th, 1992. I got married 2 months later.

[00:15:46] Trevor Long: Yeah, right. Yeah, I was just bludging at school.

[00:15:49] Stephen Fenech: Uh, let’s talk cast. Tom Hanks plays Jimmy Dugan. He was in, of course, Forrest Gump, Castaway, Philadelphia, Big, which you’ve seen. Geena Davis plays Dottie Hinson. She was in Thelma and Louise, The Long Kiss Goodnight, which we’ve done Gunn. Do you remember that one? Yep, a few weeks ago.

[00:16:09] Trevor Long: Totally.

[00:16:11] Stephen Fenech: Beetlejuice as well. Uh, Lori Petty was, uh, in it too. Do you remember her from Point Break opposite Keanu Reeves?

[00:16:19] Trevor Long: I don’t.

[00:16:20] Stephen Fenech: She was the girl that, you know, he sort of falls for.

[00:16:22] Trevor Long: Okay.

[00:16:22] Stephen Fenech: She was also in Free Willy. Uh, your girl Madonna also, uh, she plays Mae Mordebeto.

[00:16:29] Trevor Long: I thought she did great.

[00:16:30] Stephen Fenech: She was in Who’s That Girl? Evita, Desperately Seeking Susan. I’ve seen all three of those and I reckon they’re not bad movies.

[00:16:39] Trevor Long: Is Evita good? Because that’d be like a big—

[00:16:40] Stephen Fenech: Evita is sort of a historic— yeah, that was probably her biggest movie she made. Uh, but yeah, Desperately Seeking Susan was sort of in the ’80s, I believe. Rosie O’Donnell plays Doris Murphy. She’s been in a few movies herself. The Flintstones. Oh yeah, Sleepless in Seattle she was in as well. And she’s great, mate. We’ve done that. Great mates with Donald Trump, apparently.

[00:17:02] Trevor Long: Yes, great mates.

[00:17:03] Stephen Fenech: Famous blue, isn’t it? Isn’t that a famous feud?

[00:17:06] Trevor Long: Because she’s like— didn’t she move to Ireland or somewhere?

[00:17:08] Stephen Fenech: I think so.

[00:17:08] Trevor Long: I think she moved to Scotland, right?

[00:17:10] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, the island.

[00:17:11] Trevor Long: Have we done Sleepless Night?

[00:17:12] Stephen Fenech: No, we haven’t.

[00:17:12] Trevor Long: No, no, surely that’s on our list.

[00:17:14] Stephen Fenech: It’s coming up. It’s coming, it’s coming. There’s a lot of movies, mate. They made a lot of movies. We’ve got plenty to get through. Before we get to the top scenes, let’s have a chat about Hisense, our other great sponsor. If you’re in the market for any kind of TV or projector. Hey, check out Hisense. I’m talking projectors today. The XR10. If you’re serious about setting up a home theater, you want that big screen experience, then I recommend you need a serious projector, and that is the XR10. So you can go— if you can display up to 65 inches all the way up to 300-inch screen in 4K with this 600 lumens triple laser projector. So that’s, that’s bright enough for you to watch even during daytime. But the great thing about the, the XR10 is its optical zoom. Now, throw length is something that we talk about with projectors, which means that to achieve a big picture, you need to really take the projector quite far back away from the wall. With this, uh, with the XR10, the optical zoom allows you to zoom in, achieve a big picture without having to be too far from the screen, which is a, it’s a rarity with projectors. It also has lens shift as well, so if you want to mount it on the ceiling, put it on a coffee table, very easy easy to get your picture adjusted as well. And we’re talking 4K quality here as well. And you also get the same screen, the same setup, the same software as you would on a regular high sensitivity.

[00:18:49] Trevor Long: Seems like a normal TV.

[00:18:50] Stephen Fenech: You’ll fire it up, you’ll see the exact same Vida operating system to access all your streaming services, access all your plugged-in devices. You might have a PlayStation or an Xbox, you might have a Foxtel box connected to it, a Fetch Box connected to it, all these other, other components you can actually access through that, through that interface as well. The XR10 4K quality at up to 300 inches truly delivers the big screen experience. And on the audio side, not a bad pair, not a bad set of JBL speakers on board. The, the speakers on board, so it’s a set, it’s a setup that you don’t need to be stuffing around with other speakers in the room. Plug it in and away you go. The Hisense XR10. Check it out, hisense.com.au. Okey-dokey, we go starting off. We start in the, in the present day, let’s say. So 1988, the film opens up. There’s an elderly woman, Dottie Hinson, sort of, she’s packing a bag, reluctantly about to travel to Cooperstown in New York.

[00:19:57] Movie Audio: [Present day: Dottie tells her daughter she doesn’t want to go to the reunion and that the league was never that important to her. Her daughter insists it was special.]

[00:20:56] Stephen Fenech: All right, my interjections, I’m gonna get one right here.

[00:20:59] Trevor Long: Okay, I’ve got a comment.

[00:21:01] Stephen Fenech: Home run hits.

[00:21:02] Trevor Long: Yeah, nice. Okay, good. Yeah, that work? Just needs to be a home run.

[00:21:05] Stephen Fenech: Home run. Okay, my home run. Um, did you notice anything? And I only— funny enough, I’ve seen this a few times.

[00:21:12] Trevor Long: It annoyed me from the get-go.

[00:21:14] Stephen Fenech: Are you talking about her voice?

[00:21:15] Trevor Long: Yes, because I’m thinking, why is this entire thing voiced over? And I’m like, they could have had a mic there. It bugged me. I thought, if this whole movie’s like this, I’m out. And then it wasn’t until You know, another 10 minutes later I realized, oh, that’s not— I thought that was just an aged Geena Davis or something, you know what I mean? Like, I thought they’d just done aging makeup, but then you realized they wanted her voice.

[00:21:33] Stephen Fenech: Voice, correct. So Lynn Cartwright is the actress playing the older Dottie.

[00:21:38] Trevor Long: Cartwright!

[00:21:38] Stephen Fenech: And her voice— sorry, Seinfeld, the Chinese restaurant, I get you.

[00:21:43] Trevor Long: Yeah, I know.

[00:21:44] Stephen Fenech: But her voice is dubbed by Geena Davis to give it some— I think they wanted some symmetry there where you hear the voice, you think, okay, that must be Geena Davis when she’s older. That’s why they did it.

[00:21:56] Trevor Long: Yes, I know, it does sound a little old.

[00:21:57] Stephen Fenech: So you noticed that straight away?

[00:21:59] Trevor Long: Straight away. I noticed that it was dubbed and it annoyed me.

[00:22:02] Stephen Fenech: You noticed that? I never noticed that till this watch, mate.

[00:22:04] Trevor Long: Dubbing in movies is a bugbear of mine because I’m like, you can mic anything. Come on, folks, what are we doing here?

[00:22:10] Stephen Fenech: So we find out she’s reluctantly going to the opening of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League exhibit at the Baseball Hall of Fame. The reunion, she sees elderly players, many of whom played by former real players of the league that are there, which more on that later.

[00:22:29] Trevor Long: Yes, I figured.

[00:22:30] Stephen Fenech: They reconnect and reminisce and celebrate their past. And there’s then a voiceover that sort of transitions from the present to a flashback of 1943.

[00:22:42] Movie Audio: [A 1943 newsreel reports baseball’s biggest stars heading off to war, and candy-bar king Walter Harvey handing Ira Lowenstein the job of keeping baseball going.]

[00:23:38] Stephen Fenech: That voice, that Harry Shearer, I don’t know, is it—

[00:23:40] Trevor Long: you’re right, I looked at it in the— I waited for the bloody—

[00:23:44] Stephen Fenech: so the same guy from The Simpsons? Yeah, because it does— it did sound Simpsons-like.

[00:23:47] Trevor Long: It’s funny when you’re not watching and you’re listening. Yeah. Oh, I picked it straight away.

[00:23:51] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, yeah, right. So now I didn’t— I should have looked this up. I didn’t, but I’m just assuming that with that Joe DiMaggio, did he actually go to fight in the war?

[00:24:02] Trevor Long: Oh my God, I assumed all that was true.

[00:24:03] Stephen Fenech: I assumed that was right as well. I should have checked it. But before the end of the show, let’s hopefully— I may— I’ll try to look up—

[00:24:10] Trevor Long: players in the war. Is that what we’re asking about?

[00:24:12] Stephen Fenech: Did Joe DiMaggio actually go to World War WWII? Did he serve in WWII?

[00:24:18] Trevor Long: Joe DiMaggio? Yep, he did. Selected?

[00:24:21] Stephen Fenech: Wow, okay, so that was all right then.

[00:24:23] Trevor Long: US Armed Forces, physical education and morale instructor.

[00:24:26] Stephen Fenech: Right, so he wasn’t actually on the front line. He wasn’t in the trenches.

[00:24:29] Trevor Long: Yogi Berra was a gunner’s mate. Ted Williams was a fighter pilot. Jackie Robinson, you know, the great, the first colored athlete in the MLB, was a second lieutenant before breaking the MLB color barrier.

[00:24:41] Trevor Long: Okay, Willie Mays in the Korean War, like, yeah, 100%. Okay, there you go.

[00:24:45] Stephen Fenech: There you have it.

[00:24:46] Trevor Long: That would have gutted me if that was not true because it seems so real. It did.

[00:24:50] Stephen Fenech: So we flashed back down to 1943 and we’re in rural Oregon. A dairy farmer, Dottie Hinson, she’s a phenomenal local softball player. Her younger sister Kit is playing alongside her, but she’s kind of in Dottie’s shadow She also won’t listen to Dotty.

[00:25:09] Trevor Long: Yes. Dotty’s got advice.

[00:25:10] Stephen Fenech: So there’s a bit of a sibling rivalry going on. Yeah. And an inability to hit high fastballs. Is that a thing?

[00:25:16] Trevor Long: That’s it.

[00:25:17] Stephen Fenech: High fastball.

[00:25:18] Trevor Long: Yeah. Okay. So above, above the strike zone. Because in baseball, a ball can travel straight or it could travel down or left and right. And so what she’s seeing, she sees the ball coming, she’s expecting it’s going to come down and she’s going to get it there. But no, it never comes down. It’s a way of tricking them into swinging.

[00:25:32] Stephen Fenech: Okay. Okay, and it worked with her.

[00:25:34] Trevor Long: Yep.

[00:25:35] Stephen Fenech: Uh, but we, uh, Major League Scout Ernie Cappadino, uh, played by John Lovitz, travels through the countryside looking for female talent.

[00:25:42] Trevor Long: Great character. Yeah, great. Yeah, great casting because there’s this, there’s this just vibe to him.

[00:25:50] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, but he’s perfectly—

[00:25:51] Trevor Long: yeah, it’s a little, it’s not totally sleazy, it’s just— yeah, you know, you can’t—

[00:25:57] Stephen Fenech: that his part was a lot bigger in the early cut and they, they, they trimmed it back because he was only in the first part of the movie. Yeah, his part was a bit bigger. I think he, he has scenes later on.

[00:26:08] Trevor Long: Yeah, interesting.

[00:26:09] Stephen Fenech: So, uh, he’s out there traveling looking for talent. He spots Kit playing but quickly realized Dottie is the superior player.

[00:26:18] Movie Audio: [Scout Ernie Capadino finds the sisters at the dairy and offers Dottie $75 a week to play in Harvey’s new girls’ league. Kit begs to go too, but he only wants Dottie.]

[00:27:44] Stephen Fenech: So, so what Cappadino offers up, she eventually— Dottie says, look, I’ll go, but she’s coming with me.

[00:27:51] Trevor Long: It was so obvious she was going to do that. Of course, I’ll go if she goes.

[00:27:54] Stephen Fenech: And then we see them running for the train, and she ultimately— they’ve agreed to go to, you know, this is more Kit’s dream than Dottie’s dream. Yeah, isn’t that weird how she’s the better player, but her younger sister’s got a bigger, bigger dream about it?

[00:28:05] Trevor Long: Yeah, that’s the perfect story, right?

[00:28:07] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. So, uh, we are We’re at Wrigley Field, uh, trying out hundreds of hopeful women from across the country to try out for the new— newly formed league. We meet, uh, some colorful characters here.

[00:28:21] Stephen Fenech: Uh, a mix of players including street-smart New Yorker Mae Mordabito, played by Madonna, Doris Murphy, played by Rosie O’Donnell, our quiet second baseman Marla, and wealthy spoiled Evelyn. You know, the blonde girl. Yeah. Yeah, here’s another home run for you. Rosie, did you watch— there’s a sequence here where you see Rosie O’Donnell throwing two balls at the same time. That’s her doing it. She can actually do that. So she’s pretty, pretty handy. Uh, Rosie O’Donnell, according— this is according to Rosie O’Donnell— her part was a lot smaller than what was ultimately filmed. So she, she understood that Penny Marshall’s strong Bronx accent on set, she could understand her easier than others. And so Marshall would occasionally give her a additional scenes to play. So she— they got on really well and she ended up having a big part.

[00:29:13] Trevor Long: And she also probably was pretty good at the balls too.

[00:29:15] Stephen Fenech: So basically it all helps. Absolutely. Uh, now during evaluations, Dottie effortlessly catches a really— remember, she puts up a hand, boom, and catches the ball. And she said, how do you do that? She caught a fastball barehanded, which is— that’s a big deal, eh?

[00:29:29] Trevor Long: Yeah, yeah.

[00:29:29] Stephen Fenech: Uh, which established her as someone who knew what they were doing. Both sisters make the cut.

[00:29:34] Trevor Long: Thank God.

[00:29:35] Stephen Fenech: And Dottie is assigned to catch for the Rockford Peaches.

[00:29:42] Movie Audio: [The new league members are shown their uniforms, short skirts, and protest loudly. They’re told anyone who objects can go home, and that there’s no smoking, no drinking and no men.]

[00:31:01] Stephen Fenech: So they laid the rules down.

[00:31:03] Trevor Long: Yeah, and it’s, uh, so that’s the first moment where you go, this is— I didn’t watch this with anyone else, but I could imagine watching this with my wife and daughter. They would have spurred a whole— we would have to pause the movie and have a whole conversation at that point, you know what I mean? Yeah, just about uniforms and, you know, women’s sport would have started right there, which is cool. Like, it’s a conversation you want to have because You know, that was a different time. But you know, then there’s a question about whether some of those things are the smart thing to do with regards to drawing in a crowd. So it’s this really weird kind of—

[00:31:31] Stephen Fenech: I think that was there, that was what they were hoping for.

[00:31:34] Trevor Long: Yeah, I was there to bring in a crowd.

[00:31:36] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, and Mortabito, the whatever his name is, you know, the scout was saying, you know, we want women who are easy on the eye, right? He said it up front. Yeah, so we understood that. They also sent them to charm school, did you notice?

[00:31:48] Trevor Long: Yes, I mean, I felt like that was a little bit silly, that whole scene. I would have cut it because I don’t I don’t think it added anything to it. It was just to make the point that we’re not just here to play baseball. I got it.

[00:31:57] Stephen Fenech: Factually accurate that they actually did that.

[00:31:59] Stephen Fenech: To charm school.

[00:32:00] Trevor Long: That’s crazy. Okay, then I mean, leaving in the movie if it’s factually accurate.

[00:32:04] Stephen Fenech: The sisters travel to Rockford, Illinois to join the Peaches alongside Mae, Doris, Marla, and Evelyn. And the league, as I said, mandates strict guidelines. So for the women to remain feminine, they wore— they must wear short skirts, attend mandatory charm school, and are assigned a stern chaperone. Their own. Enter Jimmy Dugan, played by Tom Hanks. He’s a former Cubs slugger. He’s hired to be the manager of the Peaches and is pretty much not interested. No, he’s a drunk, cynical, washed-up alcoholic who views the league as a bit of a joke.

[00:32:42] Trevor Long: This scene takes place at this, you know, chocolate— is it chocolate magnate’s place?

[00:32:48] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, that’s earlier.

[00:32:49] Trevor Long: But you’re like, yeah, you meet him and you actually don’t fully understand.

[00:32:54] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, you know, he’s a former player.

[00:32:56] Trevor Long: No, but in that, in this, that it took a little while to understand that because I’m like, is it his son-in-law? Is it his son? Like, but then you realize this guy owned the Cubs. He loved the team. He’s, he’s just loving this guy and that’s why he makes him do this job. But he turns up with the girls, just doesn’t want to be there.

[00:33:11] Stephen Fenech: Not interested. And a few games in, you’re like, Dottie was, was really the—

[00:33:15] Trevor Long: she was the manager.

[00:33:16] Stephen Fenech: She was calling the shots. But after one game, it was really Ira came down to talk to Jim Nice piece of coaching, Jimmy.

[00:33:26] Movie Audio: [After a game, Jimmy Dugan mocks the job he’s been given. When Ira suggests he coach his players, Jimmy says he hasn’t got ballplayers, he’s got girls.]

[00:34:01] Stephen Fenech: So that’s his first—

[00:34:02] Trevor Long: I’m going to tell you straight up, I didn’t love Tom Hanks in this. Yeah, especially this early on, this early character stuff. I don’t think he pulled it off. Like that scene right there, I don’t think he pulled off very well.

[00:34:13] Stephen Fenech: Well, yeah, we knew— well, you— there were scenes like, there was a few scenes ahead of him. Remember when he first arrives and he does massive piss, man.

[00:34:20] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:34:21] Stephen Fenech: And they’re all shocked and he walks out again and then Dottie names the lineup.

[00:34:25] Trevor Long: The character he plays later in the movie.

[00:34:28] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, that’s more Tom Hanks.

[00:34:29] Trevor Long: That’s more Tom Hanks.

[00:34:30] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, I agree. I agree.

[00:34:31] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:34:32] Stephen Fenech: And as I said before, because Jimmy refuses to coach, Dottie steps in. She runs the field and mentors the team. Season unfolds. The Peaches struggle initially due to Jimmy’s apathy and the players’ own errors. But the women are getting closer. They’re bonding. They visit local bars, sing songs on the bus, and experience a new sense of independence and financial freedom, which was unique to that war era.

[00:34:55] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:34:55] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:34:55] Trevor Long: Because again, it’s hard. And like a 20-something-year-old watching this and listening to us right now probably wouldn’t even be exposed to the fact that you’ve got to be of the time to understand that in the— that this era for these women, they were not independent. Women didn’t have independence.

[00:35:11] Stephen Fenech: They were— were they voting at this stage?

[00:35:12] Trevor Long: I don’t know. But you know, like you said, financial independence. That’s crazy.

[00:35:17] Stephen Fenech: They’ll earn the money, you know, to be the earner, full stop.

[00:35:20] Trevor Long: Sure, they had to step up when the husbands went away, but then to actually have like— it’s, yeah, it’s impossible for us to relate to, but it is important of the time.

[00:35:29] Stephen Fenech: There is one turning point that really gets Jimmy up, up and up as a coach. He chews out Evelyn for missing a cutoff and he explodes with one of the iconic lines in the movie.

[00:35:42] Movie Audio: [Jimmy chews out Evelyn for throwing to the wrong base and costing the team the lead.]

[00:36:05] Stephen Fenech: She starts crying.

[00:36:09] Movie Audio: [Evelyn breaks down in tears and Jimmy delivers the famous line: “There’s no crying in baseball!”]

[00:36:21] Stephen Fenech: Oh, you zip it, Doris. So that’s, that’s a, that’s iconic line. There’s no crying in baseball.

[00:36:26] Trevor Long: Yeah, let’s go.

[00:36:28] Stephen Fenech: So that, I think that little incident, they sort of turned the corner.

[00:36:31] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:36:32] Stephen Fenech: Dotty sort of says, listen, she is— they have a chat and she sort of forces him to confront his own issues and his bitterness to the game. And he starts paying attention, begins coaching them properly, and the team goes on a winning streak.

[00:36:46] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:36:47] Stephen Fenech: Now, to combat the low attendance, I think they got photographers there. And Dotty, maybe she catches the ball and does the splits.

[00:36:55] Trevor Long: But it’s interesting because Ira comes out and says, we’ve got a photographer and a reporter here from Life Magazine. And you know, and they’re sitting on top of the dugout, so they’re obvious, then it’s obvious they’re not part of the crowd. And so Dottie turns, sees them, and she— and she— see, this is where you realize Dottie, while she doesn’t give a rats, she cares enough about the team, right? And so she sees the reporter and goes, okay, I’ll give him what he wants.

[00:37:17] Stephen Fenech: That’s it.

[00:37:18] Trevor Long: Does the splits and catches a ball.

[00:37:19] Stephen Fenech: My home run here is for that famous split catch, she had to have a stunt double slide into the split. And then because Davis could, couldn’t, she could do the splits but she couldn’t slide into it.

[00:37:32] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:37:32] Stephen Fenech: So the, the other picture, they slide in, then she’s in the position. Yeah. And then she catches the ball.

[00:37:37] Trevor Long: Nice.

[00:37:39] Stephen Fenech: Uh, Dottie on the bus. This is a nice scene between Dottie and Jimmy. And yeah, she tells him about her husband who’s off fighting the war.

[00:37:49] Movie Audio: [On the bus, Dottie tells Jimmy she hasn’t heard from her husband Bob in weeks. Jimmy reassures her, explains a bad knee kept him out of the army, and tells her she’s the best player in the league.]

[00:39:10] Trevor Long: Well, see, there’s so much about that that is awesome. So firstly, one of the great things about this movie is there’s no hitting on, there’s no sexual tension, it’s no—

[00:39:19] Stephen Fenech: well, hold your horses. My home run here is that in Geena Davis’s autobiography published 4 years ago, 2022, the studio wanted Jimmy and Dottie to get together.

[00:39:33] Trevor Long: Nah, that’s good. I’m glad.

[00:39:34] Stephen Fenech: And they said, well, Penny Marshall, the director, said, look, we’re gonna distract the audience with a love story, and is she gonna cheat on her husband while he’s fighting a war? Like, you’re gonna think she’s—

[00:39:44] Trevor Long: she’s— yeah, you’re gonna lose all respect for her there.

[00:39:46] Stephen Fenech: That’s right. And so I’m glad they actually told the studio, don’t do that.

[00:39:51] Trevor Long: And then the other thing about that scene in particular is it’s a simple thing, you know, but you, you’re initially— you’ve given this thought of, oh, he could be dead. Like, he writes every week and now he hasn’t written for a while. And Jimmy’s like, well, you would have got a telegram. They’ve reached also plants the seed of how they deliver those messages, you know. So the little— there’s a little— that’s important to know that because then it comes in, do you know what I mean? Like just planting that line.

[00:40:12] Stephen Fenech: Also really hearing him talk about that just transported me to Saving Private Ryan. He’s going to be in that role in Saving Private Ryan, which is a few years away. Righto. The rivalry between Dottie and Kit reaches a head during a game. I think she’s—

[00:40:31] Trevor Long: she—

[00:40:31] Stephen Fenech: I think she overruled her in one point and she felt— she’s still feeling overshadowed and held Um, at the same time, Mr. Harvey is in the crowd. Now, Mr. Harvey, played by, um, Penny Marshall’s brother— what’s his first name? I think his name is— oh, it’ll come to me. But he is— they call him Mr. Harvey, who’s got a, a chocolate candy empire. Yes, he’s meant to be Mr. Wrigley.

[00:40:58] Trevor Long: Wrigley, yeah, because it’s Wrigley Field.

[00:40:59] Stephen Fenech: It’s Wrigley, and it’s his— I think he was just chewing.

[00:41:02] Trevor Long: I think they called it Harvey Field at the start, and you said Wrigley Field. They actually called it that.

[00:41:05] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, so that’s kind of their fictionalized part of it. That part, yeah. So Mr. Harvey’s in the crowd, uh, and he stands and talks to Ira Lowenstein about the future of the Women’s League.

[00:41:19] Movie Audio: [Walter Harvey tells Ira the girls won’t be needed now that men’s baseball will carry on. Ira argues for how dedicated the players are and asks to take over the league himself.]

[00:42:52] Trevor Long: Yeah, fair call.

[00:42:53] Stephen Fenech: Ira’s really passionate about— he’s put a lot into it, and he does. We— there’s a—

[00:42:57] Trevor Long: yeah, we realize that.

[00:42:58] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. So, um, Dotty though tells Ira, uh, she needs to go home, um, and he has noticed the clashes with her sister. And in response, management decides to trade Kit to the Racine Bells.

[00:43:14] Movie Audio: [Kit learns she’s been traded to Racine and blames Dottie. The sisters start a bitter argument.]

[00:43:28] Stephen Fenech: This will be better than the movie. Oh my God.

[00:43:30] Movie Audio: [The argument escalates: Dottie offers to quit, Kit says she never wanted to be there anyway, and they part with Kit promising to see her in the World Series.]

[00:44:15] Stephen Fenech: So she’s off to the racing bells. Yes. Now next scene, really, really sad, where a guy comes in with a telegram.

[00:44:25] Trevor Long: A heartless young—

[00:44:27] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, without a bail bond. Like it’s, yeah, pretty hard and it turns out—

[00:44:31] Trevor Long: And he’s mumbling under his breath acknowledging that this is just gonna be someone’s dead husband anyway. You know, like it’s—

[00:44:36] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:44:36] Trevor Long: Horrible.

[00:44:37] Stephen Fenech: And it turns out it’s Betty Spaghetti. Yeah, Betty receives a telegram informing her that her husband was killed in action in the Pacific. Obviously grief-stricken, she quietly leaves the team. Uh, that same evening, Dottie’s husband Bob unexpectedly returns randomly. He’s been wounded and been discharged from the army. So, uh, they— that’s quite a surprise for for her. Now deciding that she wastes no time packing a bag, she’s heading home. She’s gonna go home.

[00:45:08] Trevor Long: They’re all getting on the team bus and she’s getting in the car.

[00:45:11] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, Dottie abruptly quits the team on the eve of the World Series and she says, I’m out, baby, I’m going back to Oregon. But Jimmy tries to persuade her to stay, warning her she might regret walking away, but I think she’s already made her mind up.

[00:45:28] Movie Audio: [As Dottie walks out before the World Series, Jimmy tells her she’ll regret quitting: “It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.”]

[00:46:38] Stephen Fenech: Yes, I think Jimmy’s passion has returned there, don’t you?

[00:46:41] Trevor Long: Yes, I think he’s, uh, he’s— it’s a solid— like, it’s— you always talk about the need for a character arc, you know, you need, you need these stories.

[00:46:48] Stephen Fenech: Yes, this is a story about women’s baseball.

[00:46:50] Trevor Long: Yeah, but then there’s the story of Dotty. Yeah, the story of Kit. Kit’s a story of Jimmy.

[00:46:56] Stephen Fenech: Like, all of them have the right arc.

[00:46:58] Trevor Long: Yes. Yeah, that’s some more prominent than others.

[00:47:00] Stephen Fenech: Absolutely. We’re into the World Series now. Rockford Peaches playing Racine Bells, uh, without Dotty. The Peaches, uh, struggle initially. Now, realizing she misses the game, uh, Dotty returns midway through the series. Do you remember when— I think the scene was where she was, uh, someone catches a ball behind Jimmy and he turns around and Stottie.

[00:47:23] Trevor Long: Yes.

[00:47:23] Stephen Fenech: Saying, look, you need— you know, he sort of— she sort of plays it down thinking, look, I’m back, aren’t I?

[00:47:28] Trevor Long: You just—

[00:47:28] Stephen Fenech: you needed me. And away she goes.

[00:47:31] Trevor Long: I think she says, we got to a certain place and we, you know, turned around and came back. Which also tells you that Bob’s going to be in the stands too, which is—

[00:47:37] Stephen Fenech: oh yeah, kind of husband. Absolutely right. Now the final showdown, the final game, Game 7. It all comes down to a duel between the sisters. Could you not pick this?

[00:47:49] Trevor Long: Did you pick this?

[00:47:50] Stephen Fenech: Coming?

[00:47:51] Trevor Long: No, honestly, uh, yes.

[00:47:53] Stephen Fenech: So Kit is pitching for Racine and Dotty is catching for Rockford. The bottom of the final innings, Racine needs a run to win, and Kit comes up to bat. Were you, were you tense here watching this?

[00:48:04] Trevor Long: I am keen to know what happens for sure.

[00:48:06] Stephen Fenech: Kit hits a deep ball, aggressively sprints towards the bases. The throw comes home just as Kit barrels toward the plate. Dotty catches the ball, blocks the plate. Kit crashes into Her ball falls out of Dotty’s hand and the umpire yells, “Safe!” So they win. Yeah. Now my question for you.

[00:48:27] Trevor Long: Yes.

[00:48:28] Stephen Fenech: Did Dotty drop that on purpose? Do you think that was an accident? Did you reckon she let her win?

[00:48:34] Trevor Long: I didn’t think of it that way, no.

[00:48:36] Stephen Fenech: I immediately thought she’s done that to— so her sister— can you imagine, right? Imagine if Dotty gets her out and Kit, they lose. She again superior.

[00:48:46] Trevor Long: I’ll tell you why it doesn’t matter. She was safe anyway. You can’t block the plate like that.

[00:48:50] Stephen Fenech: Oh, okay.

[00:48:51] Trevor Long: You’ve got to tag them coming in. You can’t block the plate, so she would have been safe anyway.

[00:48:55] Stephen Fenech: Okay, well, I thought— you see, there’s a close-up of her hand, the ball coming out.

[00:48:59] Trevor Long: Yeah, I looked at when she was knocked out, like she was basically knocked out, and that’s why the ball came out.

[00:49:04] Stephen Fenech: My thought was that she did that on purpose to let her win. She let her win.

[00:49:09] Stephen Fenech: Now you reckon that the rivalry between—

[00:49:12] Trevor Long: never crossed my mind.

[00:49:13] Stephen Fenech: She sort of— she let her have that that one.

[00:49:16] Trevor Long: You know, Kit doesn’t want to win.

[00:49:17] Stephen Fenech: She knew it means more to her than to Dotty. Dotty left and came back.

[00:49:21] Trevor Long: Kit doesn’t want to win that way. Yeah, she did.

[00:49:26] Stephen Fenech: So Racine wins the championship, the Peaches lose. Dotty and Kit embrace warmly on the field. Uh, Kit has finally won a major victory entirely on her own merits, we’re supposed to think. Yeah. And the sisters heal their Daddy, you got plenty of time to have kids.

[00:49:46] Movie Audio: [After the World Series, Dottie and Kit say goodbye. Dottie admits she’ll miss her sister, and Kit thanks her for getting her into the league.]

[00:51:04] Stephen Fenech: Oh, oh. So fast forward now to 1988. So we’re back to the present.

[00:51:09] Trevor Long: We come back to the present, the Hall of Fame opening.

[00:51:13] Movie Audio: [At the 1988 ceremony, the women become the first ever inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and Ira is invited to do the honours.]

[00:51:59] Stephen Fenech: Oh, now my home run here. Yeah, the characters at the Baseball Hall of Fame as the credits roll are the real original players.

[00:52:08] Trevor Long: I knew it, I knew it. All the ones playing on the— playing the game.

[00:52:11] Stephen Fenech: For trade, Betty Joachim was the first last living member of the inaugural season of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. She died on May 31, 2025, um, at age 104.

[00:52:25] Stephen Fenech: But she did not appear in the movie, uh, but she did attend that actual— the actual opening in 1988.

[00:52:31] Trevor Long: Right.

[00:52:32] Stephen Fenech: Um, we see, uh, elderly Dottie reuniting with her older sister Kit. Did you pick Kit out? Yeah, as soon as she was surrounded by her kids and grandkids and stuff. And they—

[00:52:42] Trevor Long: which I thought was an ‘Cause see, during the movie it’s like Dottie was gonna be the mom, but Kit never gave off that vibe. And here she is years later as a proper family. So it also—

[00:52:54] Stephen Fenech: Dottie had a daughter, that was her daughter at the start, wasn’t it? So she at least had one kid.

[00:52:57] Trevor Long: Oh no, for sure. But it just shows that Kit wanted the same thing in the long run.

[00:53:03] Stephen Fenech: Absolutely. And I liked how they got together for the photo and then it sort of flashed to the original photo.

[00:53:07] Trevor Long: That was nice.

[00:53:09] Stephen Fenech: Now the movie closes, did you watch the credits and then play it?

[00:53:11] Trevor Long: Bit of it.

[00:53:12] Stephen Fenech: The surviving elderly women take to Doubleday Field, they play a game of baseball together once more.

[00:53:18] Trevor Long: So good.

[00:53:18] Stephen Fenech: Together again. Very nice.

[00:53:21] Trevor Long: Because the thing is, you can imagine when they got together for that actual opening, they probably did do that. They would have come back for the movie.

[00:53:28] Stephen Fenech: Of course. Yeah, well, the movie was only 4 years later.

[00:53:31] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:53:32] Stephen Fenech: So ’88 was actually opening. So they said 4 years later we’re going to reenact this, so come back.

[00:53:37] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:53:38] Stephen Fenech: I’ve got some lines here, some interesting ones. Here’s one, uh, our man Jimmy not happy with a, with a, one of the umpires.

[00:53:45] Movie Audio: [Jimmy hurls a crude insult at an umpire.]

[00:53:50] Stephen Fenech: Now the next, uh, the next two are actually, uh, May, which is the Madonna’s character. But, uh, yeah, and you’ll understand why.

[00:54:02] Movie Audio: [Mae jokes about her uniform bursting open mid-game, and Doris fires back with a cheeky put-down.]

[00:54:15] Trevor Long: See, I thought that was hilarious because I hadn’t really paid attention to who she was as a character, but I assumed she’d done some sort of stripping or whatever. But I thought it was more of a play on Madonna of the time. I thought it was like potentially an ad-lib line by Rosie, do you know what I mean?

[00:54:29] Trevor Long: Like, don’t you think that felt ad-libbed?

[00:54:31] Stephen Fenech: Potentially. And well, this next line plays into that. The fact that she’s, uh, she’s up for, uh, she’s up for some action.

[00:54:37] Movie Audio: [Mae shows off a too-tight dress she’s borrowed for a night out.]

[00:54:47] Stephen Fenech: Only Madonna could get away with that.

[00:54:48] Trevor Long: Correct.

[00:54:49] Stephen Fenech: Right, um, some plot holes here, a couple. I’m— see if you pick this up. Okay, there is a strategy error in game 7.

[00:55:00] Trevor Long: A strategy error. Yes. Can I just say what error I thought? Madonna caught the ball with a hat and that’s a—

[00:55:06] Stephen Fenech: That’s my second one here. Yeah, when she catches the ball in a cap, it’s not an out. Player cannot use any part of the uniform to trap or catch the ball.

[00:55:13] Trevor Long: Yeah. Sorry, go on.

[00:55:14] Stephen Fenech: Good one. So you got that one. But in this one, now when the Peaches have runners on second and third with 2 outs, Donnie Hinson, who’s their best player, comes out to the plate. Now any professional league, the opposing team would walk the best player to load the bases.

[00:55:31] Trevor Long: Correct.

[00:55:32] Stephen Fenech: And pitch then to the next batter. Instead, Racine opts to pitch to Hintze, to Dotty, and she delivers a go-ahead. So 2-run single up the middle. So she didn’t— they come in to bait, they came in.

[00:55:43] Trevor Long: Yeah. And no, fair.

[00:55:46] Trevor Long: I thought you would have picked that. You don’t— I mean, you don’t always intentionally walk. You don’t, right? You don’t always.

[00:55:52] Stephen Fenech: But I can remember during the World Series last year, Otani, didn’t they walk him deliberately?

[00:55:56] Trevor Long: Yeah, but see, it— 2 years ago, uh, the Dodgers were playing the Yankees and they walked, I don’t know, they walked, they walked Ohtani, Mookie Betts came up and hit it because they got another good hitter. So they can all go wrong for you as well. Yeah, but no, you could question the strategy for sure.

[00:56:12] Stephen Fenech: Okay. I’ve got a couple of movie v reality points here as well. The movie says that there was talk of Major League Baseball shutting down during the war. That did not happen.

[00:56:23] Trevor Long: Okay.

[00:56:24] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. So both leagues filled their rosters with minor league players and retired players in some cases. To come back and play again.

[00:56:31] Trevor Long: Okay.

[00:56:32] Stephen Fenech: So some of the minor leagues were affected by the war. Many were forced to shut down because they had a lack of players, but the majority of the minor leagues never resumed playing once the war was over. So there are a lot of minor leagues that were— that didn’t survive.

[00:56:45] Trevor Long: Oh wow.

[00:56:47] Stephen Fenech: Now the film also shows the league initially as being unpopular and, you know, no one in the crowd, but it was the opposite. In reality, the league was very popular and profitable from the get-go.

[00:57:01] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, so it was played in towns through the Midwest that had no way of watching a live baseball game. So they, they, they were people who said, oh, we’ve never seen baseball before, we’re gonna go watch it. And that’s what filled the stands.

[00:57:14] Trevor Long: Genius.

[00:57:15] Stephen Fenech: Now, while the movie is pretty accurate historically, the Racine Bills, they did win the 1943 preseason, but it was against the Kenosha Comets in 3 games, not the Rockford Peaches in 7.

[00:57:30] Trevor Long: Okay, fair enough.

[00:57:33] Stephen Fenech: Okay, the speaker workout. I thought the games sounded pretty good. It felt like you were there.

[00:57:38] Trevor Long: Yeah, look, I thought the effects were added, you know, to give you the sense of the, like, the stadiums, if you like. You felt like it was happening around you.

[00:57:47] Stephen Fenech: I like that. It felt like it was live.

[00:57:49] Trevor Long: Yeah, cool.

[00:57:50] Stephen Fenech: I like all the crowd noises. The music at the bar was quite nice too. They played some good music in there. Thank God I got a big screen. I love those early shots of Oregon. There’s some nice shots, remember, in the dairy farm and they’re walking. There was a nice tracking shot, sort of two of them walking together with the beautiful hills behind them.

[00:58:05] Trevor Long: And, you know, I really like the shots of the train when they were on the way.

[00:58:08] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, that’s nice.

[00:58:09] Trevor Long: My only issue with the train, I don’t know if you’re going to bring this up, but they were running, they were coming to the train station. There was a steam train sitting there and they’re like, okay, steam train. Yeah, there’s a steam train sitting there like they were coming to a train train station, the very first moment, and then they cut to on the train and then they show the train moving and it’s a proper— okay, full train. I’m like, what happened there?

[00:58:28] Stephen Fenech: I didn’t notice that.

[00:58:29] Trevor Long: It’s very strange.

[00:58:31] Stephen Fenech: Um, I also like the shots of the, the games, the wide shots of the stadiums, and Wrigley Field I think was used. It was— was that really Wrigley Field?

[00:58:38] Trevor Long: I have no idea.

[00:58:38] Stephen Fenech: With the tryouts? Yeah. Okay, the business. Now this actually, the Women’s League, founded in 1943 by Chicago Cubs owner Philip K. Really? And it was to keep baseball visible while many male players served in World War II. It started as a hybrid of softball and baseball and shifted to be closer to traditional men’s baseball. And the players were required to attend charm school. That was real. That’s great. And played in short skirts, makeup, and styled hair.

[00:59:11] Trevor Long: That’s crazy.

[00:59:12] Stephen Fenech: Attendance peaked in 1948 with over 900,000 to a million spectators across Midwestern towns. The league folded in 1954 due to rising competition from television baseball and the lack of promotion. Yeah, so it was portrayed pretty accurately in the film. The teams at the time, there was the South Bend Blue Sox, the Racine Bells, Kenosha Comets, Grand Rapids Chicks, Fort Wayne Daisies, the Milwaukee Chicks, Minneapolis Millerettes, The Muscogee Lassies, the Peoria Red Wings, the Chicago Colleens, the Springfield Sallies, the Battle Creek Bellesques, the Kalamazoo Lassies.

[00:59:56] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, there’s a couple of teams named Lassies, a couple of teams named Chicks. Yeah. Now if this movie was made today, it would obviously would still have to be set in 1943. I don’t think you could change very much. Maybe the special effects might be a little bit better, a bit sharper, but I don’t think there was much much needed.

[01:00:12] Trevor Long: No.

[01:00:12] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. Uh, every day is a school day. What’s our theme or lesson here?

[01:00:17] Trevor Long: Well, yeah, I mean, there’s a lot there, isn’t there?

[01:00:19] Stephen Fenech: I think it’s sisterhood.

[01:00:21] Trevor Long: Sisterhood is a big one.

[01:00:22] Stephen Fenech: The bonding of the girls.

[01:00:23] Trevor Long: And yeah, um, I think there’s a, there’s a kind of lesson there for Jimmy about, you know, finding your place and accepting your place.

[01:00:30] Stephen Fenech: Second chances. I think this was a chance to him to redeem himself.

[01:00:34] Trevor Long: Yeah. Um, you know, there’s Dottie, you know, uh, kind of finishing the job.

[01:00:39] Trevor Long: You know, didn’t, didn’t really leave them stranded.

[01:00:41] Stephen Fenech: So, and then was that a time too where women were sort of challenging their image and expectation? I remember you saying out of the kitchen into the—

[01:00:50] Trevor Long: Yeah, I mean, the thing is that that’s the point of you couldn’t do this today because you couldn’t make women’s baseballers dress like that. You know, all those things would have changed.

[01:00:58] Stephen Fenech: Is there women’s baseball today?

[01:01:00] Trevor Long: Yeah, I had this. I did just have a look. There isn’t. It’s not a notable thing, but there is a league been started like 4 teams in America. And women played baseball in Australia. Like we have people that play in our seniors here in Thornleigh.

[01:01:12] Stephen Fenech: The other thing too, I think it’s identity and independence. So these women who were out earning the money, they were out there independent, which is for the ’40s, that was not a common thing. And also it’s sort of the legacy too. It was like a theme of, you know, what’s your legacy going to be? And that the ’88, the end there was—

[01:01:32] Trevor Long: That applies to Jimmy as well as the girls.

[01:01:34] Stephen Fenech: Well, you see his— and that’s coming up in my pause button— is, uh, him. That’s on him. Well, let’s do that right now. Best use of the, of the pause button is the Jimmy Dugan hits 58 home runs in 1936. It read, uh, when Jimmy hit his 58th home run, he set a new record for the Chicago Cubs. The club had not seen a similar hitting streak for two decades. Uh, Dylan Dugan’s thrilling performance that season helped invigorate the team and set a new attendance record at Harvey Field, which would have been Wrigley Field, I guess. Yeah, so that was— he was a fictitious character, obviously. But, and it’s said too that he died in 1906, uh, so born in 1906, died 1987, so a year before Jimmy.

[01:02:13] Trevor Long: So basically they’re saying he died just before, just before the, uh, things you might not know, uh, a few here.

[01:02:20] Stephen Fenech: During filming, the stars would take turns entertaining the unpaid extras in the stands. Tom Tom Hanks would do puppet shows over the dugout, Rosie O’Connor would do stand-up comedy, and various actors pretended to sing like Madonna. The director Penny Marshall cast her daughter Tracy Reiner as Betty Spaghetti. That was her daughter, right? And her brother Gary Marshall was Walter Harvey. Gary was cast at the last minute because her original choice turned it down. Her original choice Christopher Walken said no. So, uh, he decided, I’m gonna call my bro.

[01:02:58] Trevor Long: Fair enough.

[01:02:59] Stephen Fenech: Madonna apparently, according to people on the set, worked really hard as everyone else with the technical aspects of the game. She wanted her, her to sort of look like a baseball player, uh, but her character Meg, because she was good, not great, they moved her from third base to the outfield. Yeah, so she couldn’t, she couldn’t master the grounding, the ground balls.

[01:03:22] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[01:03:23] Stephen Fenech: Uh, Geena Davis, as we mentioned, Deborah Winger pulled out, so she was a late inclusion. Her character was supposed to be one of the greatest female baseball players in America, and within weeks she had mastered the game and was better than all her co-stars. Yeah, you know, she’s very— Geena Davis was also, and I think I want to mention this during The Long Kiss Goodnight, she was actually an Olympic-class catcher as well.

[01:03:45] Trevor Long: Oh, you should mention that.

[01:03:46] Stephen Fenech: Yes, I think she was just short of representing the US at the Olympics.

[01:03:49] Trevor Long: That’s crazy.

[01:03:49] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, so imagine that story. She got good at that. Yeah, she got good at baseball too.

[01:03:54] Trevor Long: Jeez.

[01:03:55] Stephen Fenech: Uh, Madonna’s stand-in was a woman named Melissa Totten. Now, Melissa Totten is a famous Madonna impersonator.

[01:04:03] Trevor Long: Oh wow.

[01:04:04] Stephen Fenech: Who has, has been on the Las Vegas stage in Legends in Concert for many years.

[01:04:09] Trevor Long: Wow.

[01:04:10] Stephen Fenech: Tom Hanks, during his breaks from this movie, recorded his dialogue for Woody for Toy Story.

[01:04:19] Trevor Long: There’s a snake in my boots right there.

[01:04:23] Stephen Fenech: Uh, did you notice when Dottie and her husband, uh, were about to leave, if you look closely— this could be a pause as well— on their car was an A. That was a gasoline ration stamp. So that was displayed on the front windshield. During World War II, an A ration allowed the owner to hold 4 gallons of gasoline per week. So she couldn’t have driven back to Oregon on 4 gallons of gas.

[01:04:52] Trevor Long: Probably why she came back to the game.

[01:04:53] Stephen Fenech: There you have it. Uh, what’s the meme? Uh, I like—

[01:04:58] Trevor Long: I mean, the, the splits catch is probably got—

[01:05:00] Stephen Fenech: of course, put any caption, but he’s doing splits, you’re catching the ball. I put that in there. Tom Hanks. Tom Hanks had that one, but him saying, he goes, you got some good, good ball players. He goes, I got girls. Remember when he says that? Yeah. And the other one, the obvious one, he said, there’s no crying in baseball. That’s an obvious one.

[01:05:17] Trevor Long: Uh, by any other name, it’s, uh, you know what, I’ve thought of a few here. I, I’ve thought about this name a lot, and I love this name because it’s not until you see the movie that you understand the name.

[01:05:28] Stephen Fenech: A League of Their Own.

[01:05:29] Trevor Long: It is a league. Like, yeah, so no, I’m, I’m all in on this.

[01:05:31] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, I I thought you could probably go for like, you know, a baseball term like home plate, batter up, outfield, something like that.

[01:05:38] Trevor Long: But for a long one, like there’s no crying in baseball?

[01:05:40] Stephen Fenech: No, maybe not. But, uh, no, I think they’ve nailed it. Yeah. Uh, the one thing you want, uh, Dottie’s mask, what do you call it?

[01:05:50] Trevor Long: Their gloves would be good.

[01:05:52] Stephen Fenech: Jimmy’s hat, I’ll take the hat. Uh, any of the player uniforms, I’ll take any of those.

[01:05:56] Trevor Long: Yeah, yeah.

[01:05:58] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, anything else stand out? Uh, I’ll take a ball, ball or two used.

[01:06:02] Trevor Long: I think, oh, the car, the car that, uh, Dottie and Bob drove out in, like, it was like a Model A Ford or something. All right, look very nice.

[01:06:11] Stephen Fenech: 3 questions for Trevor, hit me. What happens to Dottie, uh, what happened to Dottie when she went home? She, I think, started trying for babies. Let’s get cracking, let’s go!

[01:06:21] Trevor Long: I’m pretty sure it happened when Bob came back.

[01:06:23] Stephen Fenech: Maybe.

[01:06:25] Trevor Long: Yeah, I mean, she settled straight back into the life that she believed she was there to lead.

[01:06:30] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, and she never returned to baseball, did she? She would never return. It was one and done.

[01:06:34] Trevor Long: She would go and watch kid play though.

[01:06:36] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, of course. Sequel, prequel, or leave it alone?

[01:06:38] Trevor Long: Leave it alone.

[01:06:39] Stephen Fenech: Well, I’ve got news for you. Meagan Cavanagh and Tracy Reiner reprised their roles as Marla Hooch and Betty Spaghetti in a short lived TV series in 1993.

[01:06:53] Trevor Long: I nearly played it. Yes, because I’m in episode 1 now. That’s not right.

[01:06:56] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, there was a series a year after the movie came out, and another series on Prime in 2022 lasted also one season.

[01:07:08] Stephen Fenech: So there are two separate series, only lasted a season each.

[01:07:12] Trevor Long: There you go.

[01:07:13] Stephen Fenech: Uh, question 3: too long, too short, or just right? It was over 2 hours. I’m thinking this Trevor struggle here could have been true. You think I was happy with it, but it could have been trimmed. It wasn’t overly long, it was like 2 hours.

[01:07:24] Trevor Long: No, you know, it was fine, but not too bad. Just little things could have been trimmed, that’s all.

[01:07:27] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. All right, well, that is A League of Their Own. Give us your wrap-up and rating.

[01:07:32] Trevor Long: I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it because I didn’t know the story. That, so that, that to me is, is good.

[01:07:37] Stephen Fenech: I like it. Let me ask you, did you enjoy it more for the story or the fact that it was baseball, or both?

[01:07:42] Trevor Long: You know what? It didn’t matter that it was baseball. It could have been— it could have been any women’s sport.

[01:07:49] Stephen Fenech: Right.

[01:07:50] Trevor Long: To be clear, it needed to be women’s sport because the story of the time and of the, you know, the breakout and all that stuff.

[01:07:56] Stephen Fenech: Sorry, my other question for you before you give us your rating.

[01:07:58] Trevor Long: 5 questions.

[01:07:58] Stephen Fenech: How did they portray the baseball? I thought it was great. You’re like a pro viewer.

[01:08:05] Trevor Long: I don’t think you— I think a true, like a day-to-day pro viewer might fine little things, but I don’t think there was anything you go, come on, mate, that’s shit. Yeah, I like that. Whatever.

[01:08:14] Stephen Fenech: Okay, that’s good.

[01:08:15] Trevor Long: No, that’s the great thing about it is as a baseball fan, you’re not distracted by the baseball. Yes, of course. You’re into the story. Yeah, true, true. So for me, the very fact that it did buy me into the story and it made me contemplate and understand the perspective of those women of the time, I don’t think it translates to the debate about women’s sport today or— or the rise or nature of women’s sport today. I think it’s a very different thing because of the position of women in society is so vastly different today than it was then. But so for that, very enjoyable lesson learned and a great story, a really good story. It’s a 7.5 for me.

[01:08:56] Stephen Fenech: Spot on what I gave it.

[01:08:57] Trevor Long: Same for you.

[01:08:57] Stephen Fenech: 7.5 as well. Love it. Now let’s talk about next week.

[01:09:03] Trevor Long: Okay, next week, why are you watching?

[01:09:07] Stephen Fenech: Because I don’t know, you’re either gonna love or hate this movie. Oh, next week we’re watching Donnie Darko.

[01:09:13] Trevor Long: Did you make that up?

[01:09:14] Stephen Fenech: No, it’s released in— no, did I make that up?

[01:09:17] Trevor Long: Yeah, I made it up. I’ve never heard those words said before.

[01:09:20] Stephen Fenech: Hello, the best movies you’ve never seen, um, releasing.

[01:09:24] Trevor Long: No one listening has seen this movie.

[01:09:25] Stephen Fenech: They have, trust me, they have. I have. Many times, uh, released in 2001, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, a young Jake Gyllenhaal, Mary McDonnell, and Patrick Swayze.

[01:09:38] Trevor Long: Really?

[01:09:39] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. Now I’ll, I’ll ask the millionaire question first and then I’ll set you up, right? At the beginning of the movie, a strange object comes through the roof of a fan of the family home. What is it? Is it A, car? B, a jet engine? C, a cow? Or D, a bird? You’re thinking, what is he talking about? I wish I could take a photo of your look and share it right now. What, mate?

[01:10:13] Trevor Long: What is it?

[01:10:14] Stephen Fenech: What is it?

[01:10:14] Trevor Long: A, B, C? Correct.

[01:10:16] Stephen Fenech: Yes, that’s the start of the movie. A jet engine coming through the roof of this house in this, in this home.

[01:10:22] Trevor Long: I was going to watch it on a plane. Is that a bad idea?

[01:10:24] Stephen Fenech: Uh, no.

[01:10:25] Trevor Long: Okay, no.

[01:10:26] Stephen Fenech: Um, but yeah, you got that right. Good on you. Now, now let me just prepare you, okay? That incident spurs Donnie Darko, which is Jake Gyllenhaal’s character.

[01:10:37] Trevor Long: Is that a name?

[01:10:38] Stephen Fenech: That’s his name, right? And he, I think, well, his name is Donnie. I don’t think his name’s Donnie Darko. Anyway, from that moment on he starts having visions of, of something, and it, it sort of tells him to do certain things throughout the movie. That’s all I’ll say. I want you to just have an open mind when you’re watching the movie, but also take note of when things happen in the movie as well, because there’s a lot to unpack in the structure of the film as as well, okay? But just let it wash over you, okay? And just enjoy it for what it is, okay? This isn’t going to be— I think this is— on your own, you wouldn’t have chosen to watch this movie, but I think you— there’s parts of it you’ll think, oh, okay, you’ll get— okay, so fingers crossed. Donnie Darko, that’s next week.

[01:11:35] Trevor Long: And you’ve got to go back to the list and find a better option.

[01:11:37] Stephen Fenech: Well, I think we need these sort of movies which is like cult— this is a cult favorite, right?

[01:11:42] Trevor Long: Cool, cool.

[01:11:42] Stephen Fenech: That I think sort of there’s a lot of people who will think this is like, myself included, it’s an amazing movie when you’ve seen it. And then if you don’t pick it up yourself, there’s going to be things that I explain to you that you’ll go, oh yeah, okay, all right, all right. So that’s next week, but I’m glad you watched A League of Their Own. See you next week.

[01:12:03] Trevor Long: See you, mate.