Q Toon: Getting to First Base

We are told that Amazon Prime's adaptation of "A League of Their Own" into a television series will not shy away from the presence of lesbians in the teams of the wartime All-American Girls Professional League (AAGPL).

There was no acknowledgment of that in the 1992 movie. In fact, director Penny Marshall specifically instructed actor Rosie O'Donnell not to portray her character, Doris Murphy, as lesbian. (O'Donnell shows up in Amazon Prime's version as the proprietor of a drinking establishment catering to customers who, in the parlance of the day, "played for the other team.")

The new version also addresses issues of race that you might have missed in the original. DeLisa Chinn-Tyler played an unnamed spectator who returns an overthrown ball to Geena Davis's character with impeccable speed and accuracy, a scene Marshall had written into her movie to point out that there were no Black players in the AAGPL. But you won't find Chinn-Tyler in imdb.com's list of the cast, either.

In a twofer role in the 2022 series, Chanté Adams plays "Max" Chapman, a Black lesbian pitcher who is barred from trying out for the league on account of the color of her skin. Her story line in Season One never merges with those of the characters who do make the Rockford Peaches' roster, but if the series ends up lasting longer than the AAGPL ever did, perhaps we'll see some historical revisionism.

Heck, CBS's "M*A*S*H" outlasted the Korean War long enough for Major "Hot Lips" Houlihan to become a women's libber and Captain "Hawkeye" Pierce to develop what we would now call "wokeness."

All of the Amazon "League of Their Own" characters are fictional, so I suppose their careers can go in any direction the writers fancy. If Max Chapman doesn't end up in the AAGPL, perhaps she will join Mamie Johnson, Connie Morgan, and Toni Stone, three real-life women who played in the Negro Leagues during WWII. As long as she doesn't marry her girlfriend at St. Mary Oratory, pilot the Enola Gay, and get elected Governor of Illinois, I'm willing to grant the writers some poetic license.

CBS, by the way, attempted a series based on "A League of Their Own" back in the 1990's, recasting all but two of the roles. It lasted for only three episodes, so it never had a chance to introduce any lesbian or Black story lines — as if that were particularly likely. 

Getting back to today's cartoon: as longtime readers have probably figured out by now, I try to include diversity, racial and otherwise, in my cartoons whenever possible. Given attitudes of the 1940's, including a non-White person in this week's scenario didn't seem realistic, even for a cartoon. And even considering that the blonde in the pink dress is clearly not a ballplayer.

In hindsight, however, perhaps a will-they-won't-they romantic relationship with one of the Rockford Peaches is how the writers will eventually integrate Max into the series.

Assuming it lasts more than three episodes this time.