New ‘A League of Their Own’ writing team coming to Rockford

We're less than a week away from the 75th Anniversary Celebration of the Rockford Peaches and the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and the event is attracting notice from Hollywood.

At the end of March, it was learned that a team involving writers Will Graham (Mozart in the Jungle) and Abbi Jacobson (Broad City) is working on a new 30-minute long adaptation of the 1992 Penny Marshall movie starring Tom Hanks and Geena Davis for Sony Pictures Television.  The movie was a critical and commercial success, focusing on the Rockford Peaches and the first year of the league in 1943.

Writers and executives from that team will be in Rockford from May 30 through June 3, taking in all of the events during Peach week, according to Dr. Kat Williams, president of the International Women's Baseball Center.

It's just the latest additions to what promises to be a ton of fun celebrating Rockford's best-loved brand. Also coming next week:

• Megan Cavanagh, who played Marla Hooch in A League of Their Own.
• Former AAGPBL players Mary Moore, Shirley Burkovich and Maybelle Blair and former Rockford Peach Helen “Sis” Waddell Wyatt.
• Members of the World Baseball Softball Confederation, who will be kicking off the Women’s Baseball World Cup trophy tour and displaying the trophy. The women’s world cup is being played in Florida, the first time it’s ever been held in the United States.
• Ila Borders, the first woman to receive a baseball scholarship to a NCAA or NAIA school (1992-1996) and the first woman to start a game as a pitcher in a integrated men’s professional baseball league (1997-2000).
• Kim Ng, the senior vice president for baseball operations with Major League Baseball. Ng is the highest-ranking female executive in MLB.
• Perry Barber, a pioneering female baseball umpire, who made it to AAA and umpired major league teams in spring training.

Most events are free, but the May 30 event at the Coronado "Diamonds, Denim and Stars," has a cost ($25 for adults, $10 for children 6-13 and 5 and under are free), but the ticket price buys you dinner and will have the largest constellation of stars. You can buy tickets at https://www.ticketmaster.com/Rockford-Peaches-75th-Anniversary-Diamonds-Denim-tickets/artist/2493614.