A year before he won his first Oscar, Tom Hanks provided the laughs as an alcoholic ex-professional hired to coach a women's baseball team during the Second World War in this comedy drama. The assembled players include Geena Davis and Tank Girl's Lori Petty as sisters, Madonna as (of course) the team floozy and comedian Rosie O'Donnell as her best friend. Penny Marshall, who also directed Hanks in Big, has put together a somewhat uneven film, but any roughness is smoothed over by the talented cast and a great deal of charm and affection for the era.

As America's stock of athletic young men is depleted during World War II, a professional all-female baseball league springs up in the Midwest, funded by publicity-hungry candy maker Walter Harvey. Competitive sisters Dottie Hinson and Kit Keller spar with each other, scout Ernie Capadino and grumpy has-been coach Jimmy Dugan on their way to fame.