Betty Spaghetti is played by director Penny Marshall's daughter, Tracy Reiner. Walter Harvey is played by the director's brother, Gary Marshall.

The notoriously hard-to-work-with Debra Winger was originally cast as Dottie, but she and Penny Marshall had so many creative differences that she was replaced by Geena Davis.

Before the final game, Doris's father tells the ticket scalper that he's going to take Doris out for a steak dinner as a surprise. After the team loses, Doris ironically stats that "I'm so depressed I could eat a cow."

The Geena Davis character is heavliy based on the early life of Kathleen Mann a Canadian teacher. Miss Mann was recruited while still a teenager in the 1930s to be a part of a new women's baseball league because of her talent as a pitcher. She actually toured for several years with the league, but then concentrated on her true love of teaching. She spent over 75 years teaching at the famed St. Michael's Choir School in Toronto! Some of her famous alumni include the Four Lads, the Crew Cuts, Michael Ontkean from "Twin Peaks" and the Barenaked Ladies.

To get the role of Dottie, Geena Davis actually had to audition in Penny Marshall's backyard.