NO CRYING IN BASEBALL

A peek behind the scenes of the hit movie A League of Their Own and the life of its director, Penny Marshall.

Entertainment journalist Carlson, author of I’ll Have What She’s Having and Queen Meryl, tells the story of a beloved film that chronicled the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, an all-women’s league of white baseball players that lasted from 1943 to 1954. While the movie became an instant classic—not to mention the most financially lucrative baseball movie of all time, “more than Field of Dreams, Bull Durham, The Natural, 42, and Moneyball”—fans would be hard-pressed to recognize it in its original form. For example, the film, which stars Geena Davis, Lori Petty, Madonna, and Tom Hanks, originally had a much different cast, including Debra Winger in Davis’ role and Jim Belushi in Hanks’ role. It also had a more complex plot, which included an illicit kiss between Hanks and Davis. The scene, which was included in the script, was deleted from the 2 million feet of film director Marshall insisted on shooting. The film, “a mere footnote in the Tom Hanks film library, was Penny’s pinnacle, even as it eclipsed her stardom.” Although the text meanders between filming decisions and on-set gossip—at one point, Marshall threatened to write Madonna out of the movie because of her bad behavior—the focus continually returns to Marshall, beginning with her childhood in the Bronx and ending with her 2018 death from “complications related to diabetes.” Consequently, the book feels more like a biography rather than a pure history of the film, and the sections about the nuts-and-bolts of the movie more like a list of trivia than a true narrative. Still, the author’s playful tone and narratorial asides make this a charming read.

An uneven but often entertaining look at a memorable movie and the unique woman who directed it.