Davis Inspiration for "League of Their Own, Passed Away at 88.

[No Elephants]

Women's Baseball Star, Movie Inspirer Davis Dies


LOS ANGELES February 4, 2013 (AP)

Lavonne "Pepper" Paire-Davis, a star of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League in the 1940s and an inspiration for the movie "A League of Their Own," has died. She was 88.

Her son William Davis tells The Associated Press that Paire-Davis died of natural causes in Los Angeles on Saturday.

Paire-Davis was a model for the character played by Geena Davis and served as a consultant on the 1992 film.

In 1944, she joined the women's baseball league, created in fear that World War II would interrupt Major League Baseball, and played for 10 seasons. She was a catcher and shortstop, and helped her teams win five championships. She chronicled her baseball adventures in the 2009 book "Dirt in the Skirt."

She's survived by two sons and a daughter.

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/womens-baseball-star-movie-inspirer-davis-dies-18394547

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[Enthusiast]

1. I have never really sat down and watched the movie.

I don't know why.

[No Elephants]

2. Ultimate chick flick, maybe?

[Enthusiast]

3. Probably.

I can tolerate a chick flick within limits.

[No Elephants]

4. It's a lot of screen estrogen, except for what is almost a cameo by Lovitz and

a supporting role by Hanks.

Madonna, Rosie O'Donnell, Geena Davis et al., directed by Penny Marshall. Even a stint by the team in finishing school.

But, sometimes one or two scenes, even lines, are worth watching a movie for.

I remember wanting to leave the theater during Beetlejuice but not wanting to hurt my companion, who had chosen the film.


Then we finally got to the dining scene with Dick Cavett. I literally almost slid off my chair, laughing helplessly (and all too loudly, I fear). It was worth the four hours I felt as though I had spent watching that movie to that point. (The whole movie is only 92 minutes uncut).

For me, League of Their Own had a couple of scenes and some acting that made it worth watching through. Not for humor, necessarily, though a couple of moments were "funny enough." But because the good guys ultimately win (meaning the women).

It also indirectlhy showcases that whole era, like Ted Williams enlisting for two wars, knowing full well that, by so doing, he was going to blow himself out of the record he so richly deserved.