A League of Their Own commentary, part 8: ‘There’s no crying in baseball!’

On the bus at night, we check in with a few players. Mae is teaching the illiterate Shirley how to read, and she’s not doing it with a Dr. Seuss book. Evelyn writes a song with her ukulele about her teammates. Doris, Betty and Kit look through photos and find one of Doris’ boyfriend who’s stupid, out of work and treats her bad. So, why does she waste her time with such a waste of time?

“Why do you think? Because, you know, none of the other boys, you know… always made me feel like I was wrong, you know?”

It’s a moment where we can see how tough it was, and in some cases still is, for women to play sports (or even work in sports) and be considered on equal playing ground with men. Doris was made to feel weird, strange or not even a woman at all simply because she could play baseball. Her presence and the existence of the league seems to have inspired her though.

“There’s a lot of us. I think we’re all alright.”

The revelation is enough for her to tear up the photograph of her boyfriend and toss it out the window of the moving bus. So long, Charlie. And hey, how about another girl-power moment right here? Very nice to see.

The scene we’ve all been waiting for
Back for a game against South Bend at Rockford’s home field, Dugan appears to be engaged as a manager for the first time. South Bend has just taken a 6-5 lead in the game. And yes, this is the most famous scene in the movie.

After the half-inning is over, Dugan calls over outfielder Evelyn and asks her (clearly a set-up) which team she plays for. Confused as to where this is going, she responds that she’s a Peach. Dugan goes into a rant about her throwing home with a two-run lead. Her missing the cutoff man let the tying run get on second. Just to add a little more humiliating salt, he yelled that they lost the lead because of her. He tells her to start using her head, the lump that’s three feet above her ass.

He’s done with the convo and walks away, but a humiliated Evelyn starts crying right there in front of the dugout. Dugan is shocked at her behavior. “Are you crying? … There’s no crying! There’s no crying in baseball!”

"Did I cry? No!"

Ignoring Doris’s pleas to leave Evelyn alone, Dugan goes in for some more yelling and a personal story about when he was humiliated on the ball field and did not cry. His facial expression is pure gold when he mockingly says “No! No!” in Evelyn’s face in a response to the question of whether he cried in that moment.

While this is one of the most known scenes in the movie, it’s funny because it also shows some of the evolution of his character. He went from a drunk who didn’t even stay awake during early-season games to caring so much about the team and game outcomes that he has no problem dressing down a player publicly when she makes a mistake. I think it also shows, in a weird way, that he’s starting to respect the women as ballplayers. He’s treating them just like he would men. He’d yell at a guy who missed the cutoff man, right?

When the umpire comes over to see what all the commotion is about, Dugan seems to relent at first. Then in a low voice, he calls the umpire a penis with a hat on. That comment is enough to get Dugan thrown out of the game. He gets his money's worth as his own players applaud the action, seemingly grateful that someone finally put Dugan in his place.

League isn’t doing well
The next ball game at Racine’s home field shows us all how much the league is hurting when it comes to drawing fans, at least in the movie script. The PA announcer here is played by David Lander who has ties to director Penny Marshall. Lander played Squiggy in the “Laverne and Shirley” comedy, starring Marshall as Laverne.

Anyway, the man behind the microphone informs his radio audience that the crowd is a little light on this day “with the tractor show in town.” He encourages folks in the area (which they must be, because the radio signal isn’t very strong, he notes) to “come on down to the ballpark. Bring the kiddies why dontchya.” I love this line of his and my Twitter followers probably recognize this clip from my timeline during baseball season; I’ve used it to announce the Target Field attendance.

The players are taking note of the thin crowds as well. Ellen Sue bluntly blurts out to her teammates before the game: “people better start showing up. We don’t have fans; we don’t have a league.”

Reading her mind, Lowenstein arrives at the Peaches’ dugout to tell Dottie that he’s trying to get the Life Magazine journalists at the park on this day to do a feature on her as “the queen of diamonds.” Dottie, ever modest about just how good she actually is as a ballplayer, wants to know why she’s being singled out. Kit, a little too eager in craving attention at this moment, asks if Lowenstein told the reporter about her. A dense Lowenstein says he told him the league didn’t even want Kit at first, but Dottie “wouldn’t come without her kid sister. … A real human-interest story.” Way to embarrass her in front of her entire team there, buddy. As if Kit doesn’t have enough self-esteem problems already.

He then confirms that the league isn’t doing well and that the owners are thinking of shutting it down. Having not looked up the history of the league here, this feels like it could be legitimate. Or it also screams “movie plot!” I mean, having poor attendance only to have the ballplayers shine on the field in order to help boost attendance for packed stands at the end of the season does have a nice montage feel to it, as we’ll get to later. But it also wouldn’t be surprising if it happened in a pretty similar fashion either. As we’ve seen, women’s sports take time to grow.

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?'
A League of Their Own commentary, part 6: 'What a hitter'
A League of Their Own commentary, part 7: 'It had to be you'