I'm going to take you along on my Halloween costume journey, because to me everything is a journey.
After stupidly waiting 27 years to see the movie A League of Their Own, I finally watched it. Boy did I love it, and quickly I knew what my Halloween costume would be. I'm going to be Geena Davis, aka Dottie Hingson, the catcher from the Rockford Peaches.
I've been hunting for a do-it-yourself costume and this weekend I found a dress. With a little tweaking I can make it work, now all I have to do is find accessories.
That's the back story now here's the real story. I was out on my lunch break running in a few places that I had been meaning to go when I stopped in The Sports Connection, a small sports shop here in Jackson. I was greeted by a nice man and then later by a creature that looked as big as an area rug. But this was no rug, it was Murphy the man's Irish Wolf Hound, who upon standing up came up to (I'm not kidding) my shoulder. Luckily this was one of the most docile creatures I have ever met.
As the man picked out a kayak catalog for me I noticed a tiny piece in his eclectic collection of things on the counter. I first noticed the AAGPBL logo (All-American Girls Professional Baseball League) which was the inspiration for the movie, A League of Their Own. As I looked closer I saw that the woman on the baseball card was wearing the exact uniform that I was trying to recreate. The woman was a Rockford Peach!
I made the man aware of how odd this was because I plan on dressing as a Rockford Peach for Halloween. He proceeded to tell me that this was his mother. I was shell shocked. I was meeting the son of an actual Rockford Peach. She was Lorraine Fisher and you can look up her Wikipedia page here.
He told me that she went as far as Cuba with the team to play ball and that the late night sneaking out in the movie, was completely true! He also told me about her personal experience with one of the movie's biggest stars. Lorraine and some of the other original Peaches got to be part of filming at Wrigley Field. When they were told not to talk to one temperamental star as she stood around the dugout, Lorraine didn't listen. As she saw Madonna kicking around dirt, because she had no idea what else to do, she taught her how to through a baseball. Both being from Detroit, I'm sure they had plenty to talk about.
It was a pleasure "meeting" Lorraine today. And it just goes to show, you'll never know what you'll find when making random stops on errands.
And unfortunately I'm not going to buy a kayak from him.