Welcome back to our column, MOVIE: THE SERIES, which focuses on stories that went from the big screen to the little screen. What makes them work, what makes them fail, and if their legacies can stand the test of time.

by Tina Kakadelis, Staff Writer

Penny Marshall’s film, A League of Their Own, is one of those magical films that manages to stand the test of time. It’s based on a little-known story of American history. For eleven years, there was the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Starting in 1943, women took the center stage on the baseball diamond when men were fighting in World War II. Marshall’s A League of Their Own is a generously fictionalized account of the early days of the AAGPBL and the relationships that developed between the players of the Rockford Peaches.

When a remake or a reboot is announced, there’s always a similar feeling that emerges. A mix of excitement and trepidation. Projects that are widely beloved are often seen as the best fodder for these reinventions, so it’s not really a surprise that A League of Their Own was given new life in the form of a television series. Co-creators Will Graham and Abbi Jacobson had their work cut out for them.

For as sentimental as people are toward the original film, A League of Their Own has its shortcomings. The most obvious imperfection of the original film is the lack of people of color. The film does give space to a group of women whose stories were unknown, but even within that, there are women who were not even considered or included in a meaningful way. There’s the famous moment in Marshall’s film where an unnamed Black woman (DeLisa Chinn-Tyler) catches a stray ball during one of the games and Dottie (Geena Davis) gestures for the woman to toss it her way. Instead, this woman throws it beyond Dottie to Ellen Sue (Freddie Simpson) who is taken aback by the speed at which this woman throws the ball. This fifteen second interaction was Marshall’s way of referencing the women who never got a chance to step on the field.

A League of Their Own (2022) expands the role of the unnamed woman into the character of Max (Chanté Adams). Her dream is to be a pitcher, but she is turned away from tryouts. In a lesser show, that would’ve been the end for Max. She would be given slightly more than her predecessor in the film, but not a fully-fledged character. And yet, Jacobson and Graham doubled down on Max and made her a central character. It’s indicative of the way A League of Their Own (2022) took the original film’s feelings of warmth and inclusivity, and ran with them to a brand-new level.

Max’s journey of coming to terms with her sexuality and her profound love of baseball mirrors that of Carson (Jacobson). The two come from wildly different life experiences and have different privileges in the time period they’ve found themselves in, but there is an inevitability in their friendship. Carson is chaotic, frantic energy while Max is mellow and calculated. They are opposites attracting to help each other fully realize their desires.

So much of what elevates A League of Their Own (2022) is in each of the characters’ explorations of wanting. What does it mean to be a woman in the 1940s who yearns for something more than the life they’ve known? Not simply the chance to play baseball at a professional level, but to have money of their own, relationships they choose, and a freedom to exist in the way they want. There are women who relish the opportunity to get glammed up with professional make-up and other women who wear pants daily despite having to pay fines for doing so. A League of Their Own (2022) refuses to paint with a broad brush. Instead, the series celebrates the specificity of a multitude of women’s experiences.

It would be easy to write A League of Their Own (2022) off as a cheap nostalgia grab to capitalize on a beloved film, but the new series has created such a vibrant, rich world that it stands entirely on its own. Sure, there are glimmers of its predecessor in the uniforms of the Peaches, the new actors with vague resemblances to Rosie O’Donnell and Madonna, and the famous “there’s no crying in baseball” quote. However, each of these similarities is altered to make them new.

A League of Their Own (2022) is a celebration of where we’ve been and where we are. By existing as a series, these characters are given room to breathe and exist in a fullness that was simply impossible for a movie in the 90s. More diverse stories deserve to be told and using a beloved film as a gateway to open the floodgates is the best use of a reboot.