A rumpled manager in a hat stands over a crying player on the dugout bench of a women's baseball team in pink 1940s uniforms.

Original artwork, not a still

Jimmy

Are you crying? Are you crying? There’s no crying in baseball!

— A League of Their Own ‧ 1992

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

A gruff manager yelling at a crying player is meant to be cruel and ends up funny, because the rule he invents is absurd and he enforces it with total conviction. Tom Hanks played Dugan as a man who has just realised he cares, and the line stands for that. It is quoted any time someone wants to say that a place is serious and tears have no business there, from offices to actual baseball diamonds.

Context reviewed

In context

Spoilers for A League of Their OwnShow the scene

In Penny Marshall's 1992 film about the 1940s All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, Rockford Peaches manager Jimmy Dugan, a washed-up former Cubs slugger who treats the job as a joke, calls right fielder Evelyn Gardner over after a game for a pointed question: which team does she play for? He is furious that she threw to the wrong base with a two-run lead. As he bellows at her, Evelyn starts to sob, and Jimmy turns on her with this line. Teammate Doris sticks up for Evelyn, and Jimmy is left to rant about the worst thing a manager ever called him. The line ranks number 54 on the American Film Institute's list of top movie quotes.

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