Sports stars are often seen as heroes when you’re a kid. But as you get older, you start to realise the support crew are often the real stars. Enter Clance Morgan in Prime Video’s A League of Their Own.
I played baseball as a kid and when A League Of Their Own the movie came out in 1992, I thought they were the coolest women ever. They played baseball with absolute force. I wanted to be them (without the whole World War going on).
When the new series dropped on Prime Video, I was so keen I binged all but one episode in a night, and promptly got up the next morning to finish it off.
Gbemisola Ikumelo plays Clance Morgan, the fierce and supportive best friend who, quite frankly, steals the show. There’s been a lot of talk lately about the beauty of ‘side character energy’. Clance takes it to a whole new level with some absolute lightbulb moments.
Warning: Spoilers ahead
Clance will tell you when you’re wrong
Sure, a good best friend has your back, but a great best friend will step in and be straight with you when you need it. While at a nightclub where the Peaches are living it up, Max loses it at Gary because he’s allowed to play baseball and she isn’t. Clance drags her out and slaps her with a painful reality: “How many times do I have to tell you, you can’t lose your shit like that in front of white folk?”
Clance sets boundaries
When Max turns up at Clance’s door to rant about baseball, on the night before her husband is sent off to war, Clance doesn’t stand for it.
“I saw you at the door and thought maybe you came here to check in on me, see how I was doing for once. That’s fine, I just can’t talk baseball right now. OK?”
It’s a masterclass in how to stand your ground with grace.
Clance educates herself on queer issues
The new A League Of Their Own really highlights the struggles of the queer community in the 1940s, and while Clance has a few old prejudices early on, when Max eventually tells her she’s “one of them” it’s met with the loving understanding you hope for from a great best friend.
Clance is a supportive wife and an independent woman
The effort Clance goes to in order to get fresh crabs for her husband Guy to cook is a true sign of love. Clance is both protective and supportive of Guy, but when he’s at war she takes on the responsibility of being the breadwinner with aplomb.
And boy does she have opinions! Clance’s rant about The Wizard of Oz is pure gold:
“Dorothy is evil. I mean, this bitch ain’t trying to get home. Home wasn’t enough for Dorothy. So what does she do? She invades another universe, then drops a house on the locals, and then manipulates these poor bastards into following her on some fool’s errand for zero pay.”
Clance loves comic books
This is honestly the first time I’ve seen a female character’s passion for comic books not be presented in a patronising way. Clance loves comic books, and she’s damn good at writing them herself. It’s not kitsch or a quirk, it’s presented as a real talent, as it should be.
If Clance has given you the pep talk you needed to smash through A League of Their Own, our mates at Gizmodo have this list of sports shows to watch next.
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