A League of Their Own

Set during the Second World War, when so many young men were away fighting, A League of Their Own follows the creation of a professional women's baseball league in the American Midwest in 1943. Candy magnate Walter Harvey backs the venture, and sisters Dottie Hinson and Kit Keller are recruited to play. Dottie is the steadier and more admired of the two, while Kit chafes at living in her sister's shadow, and their rivalry runs alongside the team's struggle to be taken seriously. Jimmy Dugan, a former major leaguer whose career is behind him, is installed as coach, and his initial indifference gradually gives way to commitment as he sees how much his players want to succeed.

Penny Marshall directed the film, the fourth of the six features she made, arriving between Awakenings and Renaissance Man. Geena Davis plays Dottie and Lori Petty plays Kit, with Tom Hanks as Dugan, Madonna as Mae Mordabito and Rosie O'Donnell as Doris Murphy. Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel and Kim Wilson wrote the screenplay, and the production, from Columbia Pictures and Parkway Productions, cost about 40 million dollars.

Released in July 1992, the film took roughly 132 million dollars worldwide, more than three times its budget. On IMDb it holds 7.4 out of 10 from around 130,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.2 from about 1,600. A critics' rating of 7.3 from 83 reviews places it close to the audience scores.