A League of Their Own: Live Watching It 30 Years Later

Summertime is absolutely the right time to listen to Tom Hanks urinate while people yell “dirt in the skirt!”. It’s been that way for at least 30 years now, ever since the release of the blockbuster 1992 film, A League of Their Own, starring Geena Davis and Lori Petty. If you haven’t seen this frothy cupcake of a baseball movie before, you’ve been depriving yourself of classic 90s Americana that is so sugary sweet, you’ll need dental surgery and American flag implants.

Inspired by true events, director Penny Marshall decided to sanitize and scrub the early 1940s into such a pasty white, flag-waving, dad-hugging Ameritopia that it veers away from historical accuracy with irresponsible abandon. It’s what they did in the 90s. (See also: Independence Day, The Sandlot, Angels in the Outfield, The Little Rascals, and Dennis the Menace.) So, yeah, it’s inherently flawed in its storytelling to a problematic extent.

But, on the other hand, it’s lady baseball deliciousness. Artificially sentimental and sweet, this movie will just make you smile. Rosie O’Donnell deepthroats a stranger’s hot dog, a kid gets hit in the face with a baseball mitt, and 36 year-old Geena Davis tries to pull off 23. Yes, it has everything.