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A League of Their Own
In 1988, Dottie Hinson attends the opening of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League exhibit at the Baseball Hall of Fame. She sees many former teammates and friends playing a game, prompting a flashback to 1943.
With World War II threatening to shut down Major League Baseball (MLB), Chicago Cubs owner Walter Harvey persuades his fellow owners to bankroll a women's league. Ira Lowenstein is put in charge. Scout Ernie Capadino attends an industrial-league softball game in Oregon and likes what he sees in Dottie, the catcher for a local dairy. She is not interested and is happy with her life, waiting for her husband Bob to return from the war. Her younger sister, Kit Keller, however, is desperate to escape and make something of herself. Capadino is unimpressed by Kit's batting and refuses to watch her pitch but agrees to take her along if she changes Dottie's mind. Dottie agrees for her sister's sake.
Dottie and Kit travel to Harvey Field (a fictionalized Wrigley Field) in Chicago for tryouts; en route, they force Capadino to accept homely second baseman Marla Hooch. They meet taxi dancer Mae "All-the-Way-Mae" Mordabito, her best friend, bouncer Doris Murphy, soft-spoken right fielder Evelyn Gardner, illiterate left fielder Shirley Baker, pitcher/ shortstop and former Miss Georgia beauty queen Ellen Sue Gotlander, left field/ relief pitcher Betty "Spaghetti" Horn, first baseman Helen Haley and Alice "Skeeter" Gaspers. They and five others constitute the Rockford Peaches, while 48 others make up the Racine Belles, the Kenosha Comets and the South Bend Blue Sox.
The Peaches are managed by former star Cubs slugger Jimmy Dugan, a cynical alcoholic. He initially treats the whole concept as a joke, forcing Dottie to take over as on-field leader. Dugan is also abrasive toward his players. The team travels with Evelyn's spoiled, bratty son Stillwell and team chaperone Miss Cuthburt. With a Life magazine photographer in the stands, Lowenstein begs the players to do something spectacular, as the league has attracted little attention. Dottie obliges, catching a popped-up ball behind home plate while doing a split. The resulting photograph makes the magazine cover. A publicity campaign draws more people to the ballgames, but the owners remain unconvinced.
The teammates bond. Marla marries a man named Nelson whom she met on a raucous roadhouse outing and leaves the team for the rest of the season, Mae teaches Shirley to read, and Evelyn writes a team song. Lowenstein promotes Dottie as the face of the league, making Kit resentful. Their sibling rivalry intensifies, resulting in Kit's trade to the Racine Belles.
The Peaches end the season with the league's best record, qualifying for the World Series. Betty receives a telegram, informing her that her husband was killed in action in the Pacific Theater. Grief-stricken, she leaves the team. That evening, Dottie receives a surprise when Bob shows up, having been wounded and discharged from the Army. Jimmy discovers that Dottie is going home with Bob. Unable to persuade her to play in the World Series, he tells her she will regret her decision.
The Peaches face the Belles in the World Series, which goes the full seven games. Dottie rejoins the Peaches for the seventh game, while Kit is the starting pitcher for the Belles. With the Belles leading by a run in the top of the ninth, Dottie drives in the go-ahead run. Kit is distraught, but gets a second chance when she comes to bat with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. She gets a hit and, ignoring the third base coach's sign to stop, collides with Dottie at the plate and causes her to drop the ball, thus scoring the winning run.
The sellout crowd convinces Harvey to give Lowenstein the owners' support. After the game, the sisters reconcile before Dottie leaves with Bob.
Back in the present at Cooperstown, Dottie is reunited with the other players – including Kit – Capadino and Lowenstein, and reveals that Bob died the previous winter. She also discovers that Jimmy died a year earlier, in 1987, and she meets a grown up Stillwell, who tells her that Evelyn died a couple years earlier. The surviving Peaches sing Evelyn's team song and pose for a photo. During the closing credits, they play baseball once again at Doubleday Field.