The Female Baseball Player Who Inspired ‘All the Way Mae’ in ‘A League of Their Own’ Said ‘Two-Thirds of League’ Was Gay
A League of Their Own, an Amazon Studios series, will be released in August. The show, which plans to tell the story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League will be vastly different than the 1992 movie of the same name. Most notably, the series is rumored to feature romantic relationships between players. A former player, Maybelle Blair, now 95, recently revealed that she thinks a large portion of the league, founded in 1943 and shut down in 1954, was gay.
Maybelle Blair says the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was two-thirds gay
Maybelle Blair has led a fascinating life. The 95-year-old has recently jumped into the spotlight. She has been discussing her time in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League ahead of the release of A League of Their Own, an Amazon Studios Original.
Blair joined the league in 1948 when she was 21. Until then, she said she strongly believed she was the only gay person around When she met with other female athletes, she learned she was very wrong. At the Frameline San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, Blair said she thinks about two-thirds of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was gay. She said the players had fun, found gay bars, and started secret relationships during their time off.
Maybelle Blair said the upcoming series is more representative than the original movie of the same name
The movie didn’t feature a gay storyline, Blair said she doesn’t have any hard feelings about that. Ahead of the show’s premiere, Blair spoke about the series at Frameline San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival. According to the Advocate, Blair praised the upcoming Amazon Studios series for capturing what she believes Penny Marshall would have loved to do but couldn’t at the time. She said, “They have captured, these people up here on the stage, what Penny Marshall would love to have done, but it was way too early for anybody to accept anything, including myself.” Marshall died in 2018.
Blair herself didn’t officially come out until this year at the Tribeca Film Festival. The famed professional ball player said even then, she feared what her family would say. Her fears disappeared when her nephews insisted they had already known and that they just wanted to see her happy.
When does ‘A League of Their Own’ premiere?
Some people have received a sneak peek of the upcoming series at film festivals across the United States. Still, the show’s official release date is August 12. The series will be released on Amazon Prime and FobuTV.
Amazon ordered eight episodes of A League of Their Own, although it’s unclear if all eight will be released at once or if the first three will drop before falling into a weekly schedule. It is unknown if the show will receive a second season. Amazon’s attempt at a reboot isn’t the first of its kind. In 1993, CBS attempted a series based on the famous movie. Only six episodes were filmed. The series was considered a disaster, despite including several key actors from the movie.
