(1992)

Submitted by Julio M

POOPER: (Thanks Curt)
The Rockford Peaches lose the championship.

Longer version:
As the Rockford Peaches get ready to face the Racine Belles in the upcoming World Series, Jimmy (Tom Hanks), having failed to convince Dottie (Geena Davis) to not leave the team in favour of returning to Oregon with her husband Bob (Bill Pullman), admonishes her for “making a decision she would come to regret”, her excuse being “it had gotten too hard”.

The Peaches battle the Belles in a very heated Series that goes all the way to the full seven games, both teams

tied for the Championship. During the last game, Dottie makes a surprise comeback, much to the delight of Jim and the rest of the team, who were having it hard with the additional absence of “Betty Spaghetti” (Tracy Reiner), gone when she found out her husband was killed in the war. Dottie pushes an extra run, bringing the game to a suspenseful tie at the top of the ninth inning. Then, in comes to the bat, for the Belles, Dottie’s sister Kit (Lori Petty) -who had been traded earlier, this leading to a rift between them both-. Dottie notices this and tells pitcher Ellen Sue (Freddie Simpson) to “throw fast high ones, since Kit wouldn’t resist trying to go for them”. After striking twice and almost looking like it’d all end there for the Belles, Kit manages to successfully hit the third one and makes a run for it. Ignoring her coach, she pushes for the full home-run as the Peaches rush to try and put Kit out. As Dottie receives the ball at Home, Kit enters the home plate and rams Dottie off it, causing the ball to fall off her hand. The Belles win the game and the Series altogether and Kit is carried off the field as the team’s hero, while Dottie and Jimmy look with a slight smile -there’s always been the speculation of whether Dottie decided to purportedly let go off the ball and allow her sister to have one major chance to be a standout in something, based on previous similar instances where she would never drop the ball-.

The series’ success finally convinces Mr. Harvey (Garry Marshall) to allow Lowenstein (David Strathairn) to manage the whole Female League. The Peaches dejectedly hit the showers and get ready to leave the site. Meanwhile, Dottie and Kit appear to finally mend their ongoing rivalry, where Kit manifests she’d stay in the Racine area. Dottie reiterates that she was done with baseball and would return to the Oregon farm with Bob. The sisters reconcile with a hug and, like Jimmy did before, Kit quips about “how Dottie WOULD come to miss playing baseball”. Before both buses go separate ways, Dottie and tease each other one last time about “high, fast balls”.

The story goes back to the present time where it had started, in Cooperstown, at the Baseball Hall Of Fame site, with an older Dottie (played by Lynn Cartwright, but voiced by Geena Davis herself) contemplating an exhibition game played by her former fellow Peaches and another team. Doris (Vera Johnson) calls her attention by throwing a ball she catches -like the first time they met at tryouts-; Dottie reconnects with most of her former teammates, who had gone on to do various successful things in life, while Dottie reminisces of Bob having passed away months prior.

Everyone gathers inside the newly created display dedicated to the Womens’ Baseball League, which played from 1943 to 1954, with nostalgic photos and memorabilia of key moments of those years. It is revealed that Jimmy died in 1987 and Dottie reconnects with a grownup Stillwell (Mark Holton), who informs his mother and fellow player Evelyn (Bitty Schram) had died in 1985. An older Lowenstein (Marvin Einhorn) gives a short speech before cutting the symbolic tape that would formally inaugurate the display. Everyone sings in unison the Team’s song created back then by Evelyn, and Kit shows up to the event with her family. She and Dottie spot each other and joyfully reconnect after many years of not seeing each other. In the end, the surviving Rockford Peaches gather for a photo that overlaps with a previous one of the original inaugural team lineup.

The movie ends with a succession of black-and-white stills of the players from the past, a current game over the closing credits, and Madonna’s ballad “This Used To Be My Playground” playing in the background.