The anticipated series A League of Their Own from queer creators Will Graham and Abbi Jacobson (who also stars) drops Friday on Amazon Prime. Ahead of the release, there was a star-studded premiere held at UCLA's Easton Stadium last Thursday
Borrowing its premise and name from the beloved Penny Marshall film that starred Geena Davis, Lori Petty, Rosie O'Donnell, and Madonna as baseball players in the all-women's league that sprouted up while men were away in World War II, the very queer series goes where viewers wish the movie could have gone. The show, created by Broad City's Jacobson and Graham, features several queer characters, including a Black transgender character who shows up partway into the series. In another departure from the movie, the series tells parallel stories about the white women baseball players who've won coveted slots in the women's league on teams like the Rockford Peaches while Chante Adams's ringer of a pitcher, Max Chapman, is shut out and forced navigates landing a spot playing with the Black male league. The series also delves into the lives of Latinx players who were in the league but whose stories were not amplified.
The premiere, held on a mild summer night at a softball stadium in Los Angeles just off of Sunset Boulevard, featured old-timey vendors handing out popcorn, candy, and themed cocktails to the cast, members of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (like Maybelle Blair who came out at 95 at the Tribeca Film Festival in June), and other stars and attendees who came out to support the game-changing series.
Please enjoy photos below of Jacobson, Graham, cast members Adams (Bad Hair), D'Arcy Carden (The Good Place), Roberta Colindrez (Vida), Gbemisola Ikumelo (Sex Education, Broadchurch), Melanie Field (Heathers, You), Kelly McCormack (Letterkenny), Priscilla Delgado (Julieta), Kate Berlant (Search Party), Molly Ephraim (Halt and Catch Fire, Perry Mason), Lea Robinson (Twenties), Dale Dickey (Winter'sBone, True Blood), singer Betty Who, The L Word: Generation Q's Leisha Hailey, some of the pioneering women who played ball in the 1940s.
Creators Abbi Jacobson (who also plays catcher Carson Shaw) and Will Graham.
Hacks star and cocreator Paul W. Downs with A League of Their Own stars Kate Berlant (Shirley) and Roberta Colindrez (Lupe).
Chante Adams, who stars as pitcher Max Chapman.
Jacobson and D'Arcy Carden (Greta).
AAGPBL star Maybelle Blair, who came out at 95 this Pride Month.
AAGPBL player Jeneane "Lefty" Lesko, who was a pitcher and right fielder for the Grand Rapids Chicks in the 1950s, with Blair, who was a pitcher for the Peoria Redwings in the late 1940s.
Jacobson with her fiancee, Jodi Balfour (Bomb Girls, For All Mankind).
Kelly McCormack, who plays Jess.
The L Word: Generation Q's Leisha Hailey.
Lea Robinson, who plays Bertie.
Singer Betty Who.
Melanie Field, who plays slugger Jo.
Carden and Downs, who both appeared with Jacobson on Broad City.
Priscilla Delgado (Esti) goes in for a hug with Blair.
Executive producer and writer Desta Tedros Reff, Colindrez, and Delgado.
Graham and Reff.
Molly Ephraim (Maybelle) and Berlant.
Dale Dickey, who plays the Rockford Peaches chaperone, Beverly.
Jacobson and Adams.
Megan Cavanagh, who played Marla Hooch in the 1992 film.
Batter up.
Cavanagh, Colindrez, and Berlant.
Jacobson and Billie Harris, a groundbreaking ballplayer who has been dubbed the "Jackie Robinson of softball."
Marinda Anderson (Leah), Adams, and Treisa Gary (Georgia).
Jacobson and Lesko.
McCormack and Ephraim.
Jacobson, Treisa Gary, Gbemisola Ikumelo (who plays Max's best friend, Clance), Lesko, and Carden.
Blair and Carden share a moment.
Field and Berlant.
Cavanagh and Harris.
Generations of those telling the stories of the women who played ball.
Legends.
The cast and creative team pose on the carpet.
Now and forever...
