Amazon Cancels “A League of Their Own” Season 2, Turns Out There Is Crying in Baseball
In absolutely devastating news, Amazon has announced that we won’t be getting the second season of A League of Their Own after all. This is despite the fact that they already were only going to give us a half season, just four more episodes. Despite the show having a huge fan following, and wildly positive critical reviews (it has a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes!), Amazon refused to commit to a full season… and now they’re not even committing to the scraps we were promised.
Turns out there is crying in baseball. And it’s all Amazon’s fault.
Of course, they want to blame it on the ongoing WGA and SAG strikes. They want to make it look like writers and actors asking for fair pay for their hard work are to blame, even though it’s corporate greed that is keeping the strike going for so long. Also, the strike wasn’t happening yet when they originally begrudgingly renewed A League of Their Own for just four more episodes, so anyone who is paying attention will know it’s not the strike’s fault. They claim part of the reason for the cancellation is that the second season would end up airing a few years after the first season premiered, but it’s hard to take that at face value while standing amidst the rubble of all the other queer shows that have been canceled in the past few years. The truth is, Amazon could afford to take the financial risk and make four (4) episodes of a charming show about baseball with a passionate fanbase that involves very little CGI and can’t be as expensive to make as a lot of less popular shows that keep getting renewed. Because they’re literally Amazon.
It doesn’t take a lot of market research to know this one indisputable truth: if you show up for queer fans, queer fans will show up for you.
The L Word went off the air in 2009, and queer people showed up in droves to watch The L Word: Generation Q when it started TEN FULL YEARS later. Warrior Nun somehow supposedly got so much fan backlash to being canceled it’s being given a movie or three and the main ship on that show had one (1) peck over two seasons. Hell, the A League of Their Own movie came out in 1992 and wasn’t even explicitly queer and we claimed it as our own, and were hyped about the show before it dropped, because of it.
There aren’t a lot of shows made for us and by us, so when there is one, we’re going to support it. And if that show is GOOD? Legitimately well done, with well-rounded queer characters at the forefront of the story, with MULTIPLE different queer and trans characters and storylines of different races, not just one single skinny white cis couple only featured in one Very Special Episode? You better believe we show up for that content. I don’t even care about sports one single bit and A League Of Their Own was my favorite new show of 2022.
This is a devastating loss to our community, losing so much representation in one fell swoop. I’m going to miss Abbi Jacobson and D’Arcy Carden’s chemistry. I’m going to miss swooning over and rooting for Chante Adams. I’m going to miss laughing at everything Roberta Colindrez and Kelly McCormack do (until they make me cry.) I’m going to miss Gbemisola Ikumelo as the BEST best friend a girl could ask for. I’m going to miss the too-rare representation that Melanie Field’s Jo and Lea Robinson’s Uncle Bert provided. I’m going to miss watching the Peaches come together as a team, Carson and Max forge their unlikely but inevitable friendship, watching the girls all come into their own and learn how to be their truest selves. But I think most of all I’m going to miss the fun we had as a community watching this show. Writing thinkpieces, making memes, taking quizzes, getting style inspiration. We came together like a team, and no matter who your favorite character was or what your favorite episode was, there was always someone to play catch with. It was such a source of brightness during a dark time.
Will Graham and Abbi Jacobson created something truly special with A League of Their Own, and I will never forgive Amazon for calling the game before it was over, especially when it seemed like we were finally going to win.