Sparkling and entertaining, An extraordinary team, the new Prime Video series, which was loaded with new features in August, takes us back to 1943, in a rapidly changing America, when the first professional women’s baseball league was formed. At the head of this mostly female cast, Abbi Jacobsen, is co-creator and screenwriter. She gives the reply to D’Arcy Carden, Chanté Adams, D’Arcy Carden, Kelly McCormack, Nick Offerman and Patrick J. Adams (Suits). Like the film released in 1992, the feature film worn by Tom Hanks and Geena Davis, An extraordinary team is freely adapted from real events.
During the war, women replaced men on the baseball fields
In the 1940s, the United States, which had just entered the war, sent many young men to the front. Women, formerly relegated to household chores, contribute to the war effort by working in factories to manufacture munitions. In the absence of many of their players, the club managers of the professional baseball league, worried about their sport, had the brilliant idea of setting up a professional women’s baseball league. The All-American Girls Baseball League (AAGBBL), was founded in the spring of 1943 under the leadership of a board of directors. The administrators went in search of talented players across the country, as well as in Canada. Of 280 who took part in the final tryouts, 60 were selected, becoming the first women to play baseball in a professional league. Among them, Mary “Bonnie” Baker, Ann Harnett, Edie Perlick and Shirley Jameson. The teams were made up of fifteen players, a coach and manager and… a chaperone!
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Baseball players had to go to a ‘charm school’
Other times, other mores: the Women’s League was subject to strict regulations where femininity was a priority for the managers of the league. Its owner Philip K. Wrigley has a contract with the beauty salon Helena Rubenstein. The women had to follow the courses of a “school of charm” with recommendations on hygiene and good manners. Each player was also offered a beauty kit. On the costume side, Ms. Wrigley, the artistic designer designed special uniforms. Ann Harnett, softball star and first to sign with the league, served as the model for these costumes. The flared, short-skirted tunics were inspired by figure skating, field hockey and tennis outfits of the era. Satin shorts, knee high socks and a cap completed the ensemble.
The league dies in general indifference…
The league managed to capitalize on the country’s patriotic vibe and enjoyed some good years and the famous charm school was abandoned. The players contributed to the war effort by participating in exhibition matches at army camps for veterans, and by visiting hospitals to visit wounded soldiers. In 1945, the league was still very successful with more than 400,000 spectators. In the early 1950s, the advent of televised major league games and the difficulty of recruiting female players led to the league running out of steam. In 1954, only five teams were still in contention, including the Rockford team, which we see in the series. The league officially ended in 1954. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League gave more than 600 female athletes the opportunity to play professional baseball at a level never before achieved. At the end of the 1980s, she experienced a resurgence of interest when several documentaries and books were devoted to her, before the release of the film in 1992.
