A League of their Own highlights the queer history of women in sports
A Q&A with journalist Frankie de la Cretaz
I recently binge-watched the new Amazon Prime show “A League of their Own” and loved it. It was really cool seeing a show based on a story that we knew thanks to a hit Hollywood movie from the nineties that wasn’t afraid to explore the queerness of the players of the time.
I was interested in how accurate the show’s portrayal of queer women’s baseball players in the forties, so I spoke with my friend Frankie de la Cretaz, who has devoted their life and career to documenting the history of queer women’s athletes.
De la Cretaz has written many articles on queer athletes, and teamed up with Lindsay D’Arcangelo to write “Hail Mary,” a book that tells the story of the National Women’s Football League in the 1970’s. Without further ado, here’s our conversation:
Katelyn Burns:
Your work was cited the showrunner as inspiration for the new A League of their Own show on Amazon Prime. What do you think about that?
Frankie de la Cretaz:
I think this part of the history of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League has needed to be told for a very long time. I love the Penny Marshall film as do a lot of us, but I think one of the most…
