‘A League Of Their Own’: Original movie featured Marla getting pregnant and more

Photo Credit: A League of their Own/Columbia Pictures Image Acquired from Sony Pictures Press

Deleted scenes from the ‘A League Of Their Own’ DVD reveal a film where Betty’s husband doesn’t die, and a pregnant Marla gets injured by Dottie.

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I recently purchased the A League Of Their Own Blu-Ray in honor of the film’s 25^th anniversary. The special features included deleted scenes that would have greatly changed the direction of the original movie. While these deleted scenes aren’t new (they have appeared in older versions of the Blu-Ray), I had never heard about them before. They show a film where Betty Horn’s (Tracy Reiner) husband survives and where Dottie (Geena Davis), distracted by her kiss (?!) with Jimmy, (Tom Hanks) injures a pregnant Marla (Megan Cavanagh).

Most of the cut scenes were short, funny clips that were cut for length purposes. But two of them were fairly significant.

One deleted scene from A League Of Their Own features Dottie talking to Jimmy on the field after the game where Kit (Lori Petty) and Doris (Rosie O’Donnell) fought. After an extended conversation about baseball, the player and manager eventually kiss.

In the original version of the film, this, not Kit and Doris’ fight, was the catalyst for Dottie trying to quit the Peaches the first time. Ira (David Strathairn) even originally asked her if she was going home because of Jimmy. Presumably, since Dottie didn’t want news of the kiss to go public, she implied that she was quitting because of Kit, which led to Kit’s trade to Racine.

Another deleted scene had even more potential implications for the rest of A League of Their Own. Marla returned from her honeymoon and somehow ended up playing for Racine. She came back early because she and Nelson (Alan Wilder) needed the money, but she tried to keep herself out of the lineup as much as possible because she was pregnant.

Marla told the news to Evelyn (Bitty Schram) and Dottie so they and the other players would know to be gentle with her if she did have to play. Marla was then forced into the game when a hard-hit ball from Dottie hit Racine’s second baseman in the face.

While Dottie stood on first base, Evelyn tried to signal from the dugout that Marla was at second. But at the same time, Jimmy came over to Dottie and they had an awkward conversation about their kiss. A distracted Dottie didn’t see Evelyn, so when the next batter hit a ground ball, Dottie did a hard slide into second base in an attempt to break up the double play.

Only at the last-minute did Dottie realize she was sliding into a pregnant Marla. And by then it was too late. Marla took a hard fall and had to be carted off the field.

Ultimately, Marla and the baby were just fine, but the moment was traumatic for Dottie. In fact, this is originally why Dottie was crying in her room when Bob (Bill Pullman) returned home.

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So why were these scenes cut? Penny Marshall revealed in the directors’ commentary that the studio was adamant that Dottie and Jimmy have a romantic relationship. That was why the kiss scene was filmed.

But Marshall felt strongly that such behavior would never happen in the 1940s. So she cut the kiss scene. She then perhaps cut the Marla pregnancy scene because it wouldn’t have made sense if Dottie and Jimmy didn’t kiss. (Instead, some of the baseball shots from this scene were used later in the film).

Marshall also made it clear on the DVD that she hated the movie going right from Betty finding out her husband had died to Bob returning home safely. Originally, Betty’s husband was just supposed to get injured during the war.

But once the scene with Marla’s pregnancy was cut, Marshall didn’t think Dottie would be crying in her room over Betty’s husband just getting injured. So Marshall killed poor George to give Dottie a reason to be in tears when her husband arrived.

I’m glad the Jimmy/Dottie kissing scene was ultimately cut. It would have made the movie feel like too much of a romance instead of a story of groundbreaking female athletes. But the Marla scene, in particular, would have made the film more interesting.