'A League of Their Own' reboot will share untold stories

It was just supposed to be a nice dinner between mutual friends. But in the middle of the meal, writer and producer Will Graham asked the question that would end up dominating the next five years of Abbi Jacobson's working life: "Want to reimagine 'A League of Their Own' with me?"

"I was in the middle of my previous project, which was a show called 'Broad City.' And I was very much in the middle -- I was in season four of that, and we hadn't really decided to end it yet or anything," Jacobson told me in a recent phone call ahead of the "A League of Their Own" premiere on Friday. "But still, I was like, 'Yes. Yes, I will definitely do this with you.' It felt like a bit of a no-brainer. There was so much to figure out, but this film meant so much to me as a kid and still does."

The two of them weren't interested in just re-telling Penny Marshall's 1992 film in a series for Prime Video, but truly expanding upon it and telling the types of stories that Marshall's film couldn't when it was released. This was a story that had so many more layers to peel back: It wasn't just a tale about women getting to play baseball while the men were away at war, but it was a chance to tell a story about queer characters and the racial strife and segregation that was omnipresent in 1940s America.

"I think there's a lot [in the show that's] like the film tonally -- I think it has the spirit and joy, and we really tried to retain that," Jacobson said. "I think it's really comedic still, but it took us really diving into the research and the history and our reimagining [to tell] the stories of a larger group of women who dreamed of playing baseball. It's about a full generation of women, not just some of the women who got on the All-American Professional Girls Baseball League."

There are plenty of nods to the original, from an upcoming cameo featuring Rosie O'Donnell to Jacobson's character -- Carson Shaw -- playing catcher, even though "I'm not like Geena Davis at all in any way," Jacobson says with a laugh.

The change in the tone of the show and the direction they took it came as the writers delved deeper into the history, the time period, and the people involved.

"Believe it or not -- we didn't have a research department on 'Broad City,'" Jacobson joked.

Though the Comedy Central show may not have needed much heavy lifting, that was actually the first place that introduced Jacobson to Toni Stone, the woman who became a star for the Indianapolis Clowns and the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues.

"One of my editors on 'Broad City' convinced [me to include her] in this montage of really powerful women. And so I did not know about Toni Stone and Mamie Johnson and Connie Morgan -- you'll see that Chanté Adams' character is very much inspired by them. Then the more we did research, Billie Harris was a huge inspiration."

Megan Cavanaugh, who played Marla Hooch in the film, revealed at a recent event in Rockford, Ill., that she was just learning about these things, as well.

"I didn’t know about any of these women, so we’re getting more information, more historical information about people that need to be recognized with the women in the league 30 years ago," Cavanaugh. "It just keeps going and it’s amazing.”

"The AAGPBL was this incredible door that opened for a lot of women, and a high, high percentage of those were white women and/or white-passing women," Jacobson said. "That was incredible in a lot of ways for them, but it was a door that closed for anyone else. And we were really interested in telling that story and telling, 'Well, what did Toni and Mamie and Connie do? What did all the other women do? What were those paths to finding their team?'"

Some of the help in telling these players' stories came from someone who was actually there: Maybelle Blair -- who played for the Peoria Redwings -- was a consultant on the program. But just as she helped the writers tell a more authentic story, the experience helped her, as well. At the global premiere in Tribeca earlier this summer, Blair came out publicly at the age of 95.

"I don't know [if I shocked them], but their hairs just stood straight up," Blair said. "Other than that, no, I think they had an idea [of how things were] because I think some of the writers are gay. And they understood what it was all about, and that there was gayness in the league and there is gayness in the world. And I'm glad that [Amazon] picked up on it and is telling the true story about what happened and what is happening."

Jacobson's character goes through a similar journey to find herself -- something that is central to the show's plot and purpose -- and something that made working with Blair all the more special.

"That was also part of the research element of the show and seeing that there were a lot of queer women in this league. It was like this bubble of time where they were able to find each other and realize I'm not alone in who I am," Jacobson said. "And I think my character is one that really finds herself in the league and, in a lot of ways, I think baseball and queerness give her the confidence that maybe she didn't have in her life."

Of course, that meant the cast needed to be able to look the part of a baseball player on the field, too. So, there were two training camps led by Justine Siegal, the first woman to coach a men's professional team and founder of Baseball for All, an organization devoted to supporting girl's and women's baseball.

"She is an athlete, and was always working hard," Siegal said about Jacobson. "She had to learn how to catch, how to be a catcher. So that was fun to see her develop as a catcher over really two years that we were together."

Jacobson, who grew up a Phillies fan and has fond memories of watching John Kruk play first base, played baseball and softball when she was young, so she had some of the tools down. Melanie Field played in a softball league for Broadway cast members, and Kelly McCormack even plays in a women's baseball league. But things were a little more difficult for the rest of the cast.

"I think helping people achieve their goals is similar, whether they're a fifth grader or a pro baseball player or an actor," Siegal said. "With actors, because some of them don't have sports background, you have to find out what they do have. So, it might be dancing, or maybe they swim, whatever it is, whatever activity they had done in the past, you have to build off that terminology."

Unfortunately for Jacobson, some of her baseball training will never make it onto the screen. She and Siegal worked a lot on popping up from behind the plate to make the throw down to second base, but that's when movie magic takes over and the professional athlete stand-ins appear.

"The limitations of shooting and budgets often limit what we can do because of how many takes it would take me to do it right. If there's a camera in front of me, the risks of me hurting that camera [are too high]," Jacobson said. "And also we shot in Pittsburgh, which we loved so much, but no one knew it rains more in Pittsburgh than it does in, say, Seattle. It was wild how much it rains. And we were shooting a baseball show. It was like a joke. Every time we were out on the field, it would start to pour. We're like, 'What is happening?'"

While the series is covering a number of important topics, there's one much-less-essential debate ready to inflame baseball Twitter:

"I say 'Have a catch,'" Jacobson said. "And everyone in the writer's room, as soon as we started, was like, 'Excuse me. Everyone says play catch.' It's big, it's a thing we talked about in the show. I was like, it's have a catch. And Max [Chanté Adams' character] is like, 'It's play catch.' And, so we would go have catches like, every night when it was nice out."

In the end, whether you're objectively right and say "have a catch," or not, Jacobson hopes to inspire a new generation of fans, just the way Penny Marshall's film did 30 years ago.

"I hope kids will watch the show and see that there are other people like you. There are other people out there that love the thing you love," Jacobson said. "I felt that way when I found my community in comedy and improv in New York, and I think that's very analogous to baseball or to whatever your passion is. I think, for me, life has been about finding my people and my community, whether that means my passion that ends up being my career, or my passion ends up being my hobby. I hope people will see the show and feel like maybe I'm not alone in my identity and who I am. And if I don't feel like I'm surrounded by people that see me or can accept me now, there are people out there that can. ... It's like, finding your team means all those things."

Additional reporting by Joey Pollizze.