A League of Their Own commentary, part 6: ‘What a hitter’

Dugan still looks like crap by game’s end, and he washes his face in the dugout drinking fountain. Two innocent lads come over toward the dugout begging for an autograph, but Lowenstein has to fend them off. Poor kids just wanted to see their baseball hero.

Lowenstein looks less than pleased about the status of one of the league’s managers.

“Nice piece of coaching, Jimmy. I especially like that move in the fifth inning when you scratched your balls for an hour.”

Dugan is completely serious defending his behavior: “Anything worth doing is worth doing right.”

It was actually a good move, because until that happened, Lowenstein couldn’t tell if Dugan was “drunk or dead.” Dugan then makes it clear he’s there for the bare minimum and a paycheck. He clearly has no interest in being sober during the day, let alone managing a team of female baseball players. Lowenstein tries to prod Dugan to offer some expertise to these women, but Dugan finally shows some fire and cuts him off mid-sentence.

“I haven’t got ball players, I’ve got girls! Girls are what you sleep with after the game, not what you coach during the game!”

Cool, so Dugan is also a womanizer along with the drinking binges. Classy fella.

Lowenstein walks off with a sarcastic offer to pay Dugan more if he’ll be a little more disgusting. Dugan, though, is again completely serious, saying he could use the money.

Diamond Gals, team introductions
We get another transition to a black-and-white feature here, a Moviescope News piece on the Diamond Gals, ie, the Rockford Peaches, complete with narration. This montage video is another great and efficient way to introduce the audience to the players on the team. I really like that although there are some players featured more than others throughout the film – Dottie, Kit, Marla, Doris, Mae – it doesn’t mean that the rest of the team is invisible, which happens a lot in sports movies. We know Betty “Spaghetti” Horn, Alice and her superstitions and the beauty queen Ellen Sue. It’s a nice touch.

Oh, and the best part of this intro video? The way the camera captures a faraway shot as Marla waves from the infield. “What a hitter.” Seriously, it’s subtle, but it’s the best.

Back to another ball game, outfielder Evelyn (who also has her ball cap cemented on her head) introduces herself to a still-hungover Dugan following the game. She very awkwardly asks for permission to bring her young son on road trips. See, her husband isn’t over fighting the war, he’s instead portrayed as a deadbeat sitting at home reading the want ads. Dugan doesn’t utter a word in response to her request. He offers facial expressions and spits out some tobacco which apparently is enough to give Evelyn the answer she’s looking for.

Crazy bus ride
That gives us a quick-cut from her saying “he’s the sweetest little boy” to the little terror running up and down the bus aisle annoying everyone on board. The bus driver eventually pulls over after the lad covers the driver’s eyes. Dottie wants to know why this child, named Stillwell, is “so wild,” but we quickly get our answer when his mother bribes the chubby child with yet another chocolate bar. Evelyn tries to plead her case to Dottie that Stillwell is “a sweetie,” and Dottie replies she hopes that she has five kids just like him. Uh, no you don’t.

As some of the other players use the unscheduled stop to sneak some cigarettes outside near the back of the bus, they invite Dottie to go to a roadhouse with them that night. I’m not sure how “roadhouse” is different than a regular bar, but anyway. Dottie passes because she’s married, then asks about the plan for sneaking out past the team chaperone’s watchful eye: Mae, clearly a bold troublemaker in the group, will poison her dinner.

Meanwhile, back on the bus, manager Dugan is once again sleeping off his booze intake. He doesn’t even realize the bus is stopped until he wakes up from a very vivid dream. Before Dugan prepares to get in the driver’s seat, he drunkenly tells the smoking girls to get back on the bus. Or something like that. You really can’t understand what he says, which Doris confirms for everyone with her line “What did he say? Was that English?”

It is interesting here that Dugan takes over driving the bus. Maybe he was just taking a cat nap, but based on his behavior so far, it would be a good guess that he’s hungover. So, was it really safe for him to be driving?

At any rate, it doesn’t seem to matter much to the plot because the next scene shows a very sickly Ms. Cuthbert (the chaperone) sitting back up after getting sick for the umpteenth time that evening. Not exactly the most realistic barfing sounds, in my opinion, but oh well. The doctor in the room says he’s never seen a woman throw up that much in his 43 years or practicing medicine. Ironically, Dugan seems quite sober in this scene for about the first time in the movie.

A League of Their Own commentary, part 1: 'Mule!' 'Nag!'
A League of Their Own commentary, part 2: 'So we can make a buck...'
A League of Their Own commentary, part 3: 'Go where things happen'
A League of Their Own commentary, part 4: 'OK, some of them are goin' home'
A League of Their Own commentary, part 5: 'Still a fall-down drunk?'