A League of Their Own (Columbia, 1992, PG)

In 1943, many of America’s top professional baseball players were being drafted for war and a number of women were leaving their homes to create the first ever All-American Girls Baseball League. Two sisters, Dottie Hinson (Geena Davis) and Kit Keller (Lori Petty), are recruited to play for a team coached by Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks). At first, the league struggles to succeed, but in the end makes possible new lives for Dottie, Kit, and Dugan, among others. Dottie, one of the most talented players in the league, plays for only one year before choosing the role of wife and mother. Kit is transformed from being Dottie’s little sister to being a player and person in her own right. Dugan begins as a washed-up and frequently intoxicated coach and discovers his own identity through his mutual emotional investment with the team. Are one’s talents always indicative of the direction to which one is called in life? Do talents have anything at all to do with vocation? What is the role of inner passion in the search for one’s calling? To what extent should the views of others outweigh one’s inner sense when it comes to deciding one’s path in life? How can the search for one’s vocation be a healing process?