‘A League of Their Own’ is the best Queer show of 2022

In case you have been living under a rock and haven’t heard about the queer reimagining of Penny Marshall’s 1992 film “A League of their own” I am here to tell you why you need to start watching. The new TV series is an eight episode mini-series on Amazon Prime that reimagines the stories of the women who played in the All-American Girls Baseball League (AAGBL) throughout World War 2. The series focuses particularly on the women of the Rockford Peaches, which were a real team in the league throughout the 40’s and 50’s. Our beloved Abbi Jacobson from the iconic ‘Broad City’ stars and co-wrote the series alongside Will Graham to explore the LGBT stories that were conveniently omitted from the original movie. (I mean it was the 90’s but in a movie full of elite female baseball players, it is a little unrealistic not to have any overtly lesbian characters…)

Abbi Jacobson & Will Graham both identify as queer and the genuine portrayal of the lesbian relationships in the series is evidence of this. The main relationship the series follows is between actual real-life best friends Carson Shaw played by (Abbi Jacobson) & Greta Gill (Darcy C’arden). Carson is a married woman who comes to the baseball tryouts whilst her husband is away at the war. From the first episode, the audience can see some flirtation between Greta and Carson. The show has a great ability to ‘show us’ rather ‘than tell us’ and for a while it is unclear whether we are really going to be gifted with the main characters being LGBT instead of just the ‘sister’ or the ‘sidekick’ which we are often relegated to onscreen.

Carson and Greta’s relationship is a great portrayal of the lengths queer women had to go to in the 1940’s and 1950’s to hide their sexuality. Homosexuality was reviled & criminalized by society, with men and women losing their jobs, their children & sometimes even their lives if they were outed as Gay. Greta’s character is particularly conscious of this as she tells the story of one of her first girlfriends ‘Dana.’ She tells Carson the reason why she is so cautious and follows her own set of “rules” to keep herself safe is due to Dana’s parent’s having her committed to (one can assume) some sort of mental institution for homosexuality. As the audience, we, of course, know that she is referring to the fact that homosexuality was deemed a mental illness in the USA until 1973 and the range of ‘treatments’ that would now be considered torture that people were exposed to, in an attempt to ‘cure’ them.

The bar raid scene in the series is another example of the show unapologetically and accurately showcasing the homophobia of the time. Violent bar raids were frequently conducted on venues suspected of being gay or lesbian bars with the unsuspecting patrons being arrested and often outed in the local papers. In the show, Greta and Carson escape physically unharmed but fellow teammate Jo (Melanie Field) gets arrested and bashed by the police. This chain of events acts as a catalyst in the show for Jo being forced to go play for the rival team the comets and causes some relationship tension between Greta and Carson.

Carson and Greta are not the only LGBT relationship in the show. In what is a complete subversion of the norm and quite unexpected, is that the majority of the main characters are LGBT in some way. We get to follow numerous queer relationships throughout the show. This series is pretty much like the L word with much better characters and with a historical sports twist.

The other major storyline involves Max (Chante Adams) an African American woman who due to the racism in the 1940’s was unable to try out for the AAGBL despite being a talented pitcher. The show has a great way of juxtaposing the stories of Max and Carson and showing the inequities that not only women & gay women dealt with at the time but the pervasive racism of the era.

Max’s character is another example of an exploration of queerness that we are pleasantly surprised with. She works in her mother’s hair salon and seems to be a stereotypical young woman who just happens to have a passion for baseball. Until we learn about her secret affair with the pastor’s wife and her struggle to force herself to get involved romantically with Gary who has been pursuing her for years. Max eventually makes herself sleep with Gary in an attempt to be straight. This storyline hit the nail on the head in terms of the queer experience. (Or at least certainly mine) The desire to conform and be ‘normal’ can lead you to make decisions and partake in activities that deep down you know you don’t really want to.

Max and Carson are on different paths but have similar journey’s in the show which culminates in their characters coming together through their shared love of baseball. The show interweaves their character arc’s well as they meet at the baseball field on occasion to throw the ball around. ‘Play catch’ as they say in the show. In another era, Max would have been easily good enough to be a member of the Rockford Peaches but the racism at the time prevented it. Despite as a viewer wanting Max to finally get her chance to play as a Peach, ultimately we don’t get to see that. This was a great choice as the series lets us think that she may finally get her chance, however in reality the racism did not allow for it, no matter how triumphant and uplifting it would have been to watch, it would never have happened. Jacobson and Graham did not make the mistake of changing the realities of the darker aspects of history in order to make the audience feel better. The tragedy was that due to her race, despite being the best pitcher available she was still never going to be allowed to join the AAGBL. However, we do get to see unwavering tenacity and how she still manages to succeed in her baseball dreams, just in a different way.

According to Jacobson, the character of Max was actually inspired by three real-life African American women who played in the Baseball leagues with Men. Their names were Toni Stone, Mamie Johnson & Connie Morgan It is quite inspiring to think of women facing such oppression who still managed to carve out a path in professional sport, in that era.

A League of Their Own truly is a fantastic series to watch, whether you are queer, straight, old or young. The show is funny, heartbreaking at times and gives a modern viewer a genuine glimpse back in time to the lives that our lesbian elders may have led. Whether it be in the open or in secret. It is easy to forget that in living memory, being homosexual was punishable by jail time.

The series consulted actual queer players from the league including Maybelle Blair who publically came out at the age of 95. The fact that these real-life baseball players were involved in the series really gives credence to the fact that whilst of course, the series is fictional, the basis for the characters and storylines are steeped in the historical truth. For better or for worse, the show doesn’t hide away from the misogyny of the time and even of the league. Nor does it skim over the violent homophobia and of course the racism and exclusion of women who were anything other than white or white-passing. In spite of exploring what can be considered quite upsetting issues from our past, the series still manages to be extremely uplifting and heartwarming to watch.

It is rare that we get such good quality LGBT-focused content on television and we want more. So if you haven’t seen it, please go out today, download amazon for a month and start watching. I can guarantee you will not regret it, and I can also guarantee a new obsession with Abbi Jacobson and Darcy Carden…. Or maybe that is just me….