There’s no crying in baseball, and there’s never too much eating in it either if you’re Tom Hanks.
The 1992 historical sports comedy A League of Their Own is a completely timeless and mostly fictionalized account of the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL), and its contribution to the sport of baseball in the quotes department remains nearly unmatched: “There’s no crying in baseball,” “The hard is what makes it great” and “Did anyone ever tell you, you look like a penis with that little hat on?” are all bangers, and they’re all spoken by the fabricated boozehound Jimmy Dugan, played by Hanks.
A departure from his usual affable, fuckable everyman character, Hanks’ portrayal of the ball-scratching, long-pissing and hilariously ornery manager of the Rockford Peaches is one his best-ever comic roles specifically because it was so off-brand. During a chat with the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Hanks explained that the key to his transformation from boyish, lovable, Big-style lead to flask-swigging asshole in A League of Their Own was a physical re-shaping prescribed by the film’s director Penny Marshall.
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Marshall told Hanks to get as fat as he possibly could before filming started on A League of their Ownbecause you can’t be a proper drunk without a good beer belly.
When filming for A League of their Own began in 1991, audiences had just seen Hanks play an attractive everyman and romantic lead in Joe Versus the Volcano across from his perennial rom-com partner Meg Ryan. As such, Marshall understood that turning one of America’s most adored leading men into a scumbag with a heart of gold and a bladder full of booze was a tall order — and that Hanks’ dinner order should be similarly sized.
“On A League Of Their OwnPenny said, ‘Put on as much weight as you can. I can’t have you cute, because you’re too young, and I don’t want the girls to think, ‘Oh, Jimmy’s cute,’” Hanks explained on Happy Sad Confusednoting that he was pretty confounded by his director’s instructions at first.
“So I said, ‘Well, you know, if I’m the guy who’s 36 and I’m managing a girls’ baseball team, there’s got to be a problem with me,’” Hanks recalled of the conversation with Marshall. “She said, ‘Well, you’re a drunk.’ But then I said, ‘Well, why am I a drunk?’” Later, Hanks found the answer to his own question, “Oh, I know what happened. I blew my knee out trying to get out of a woman’s hotel room. And that cost me my career.”
A lecherous athlete packing on a few pounds after an avoidable injury ended their playing days was a perfectly believable backstory for Hanks and his gut, and the result was one of Hanks’ best and belchiest performances. However, when watching A League of Their Own today, it’s hard to believe that Hanks could possibly have been considered inordinately portly for a baseball player — compared to half of the MLB, Jimmy Dugan looks like he’s on Ozempic.
