Agreed. Every time I watch the movie I come away with a different conclusion.
Youngest, Dottie threw it.
Roebud is a sled?
The Chick has a penis?
Bruce is dead?
thanks alot… 
Wow. Great analysis. Younger sibling. Won it fair and square!
I just can’t imagine that type of complexity is at work in a Penny Marshall flick. She’s good, but she’s not deep.
There are only TWO deep, philosophical moments in this flick:
(1) There’s NO crying in baseball
AND
(2) Avoid the Clap.
Well it isn’t really deep to have Dottie throw the game ;). The eldest sibling is always looking out for the younger, even if the younger doesn’t realize it (remember how Dottie said she wasn’t going if Kit didn’t?).
Oh, and before someone complains ;):
I was using a generalization deliberately… please don’t post where an elder sibling hated the younger sibling. Thanks ;).
No. I was saying it would be deep if Marshall shot the film to make younger siblings think that she won failry and older siblings to think the fix was in.
THAT would be smart film making. 
fairly, even…
My wife and I (re)watched this movie about a month ago. After the climax of the movie, I turned to her and said, “This ending drives me crazy.” She responded, “Yes, yes, I know - you don’t think there’s any way she drops the ball.” To which I replied, “No. I can believe that she drops the ball. What drives me so crazy is that Kit did something unbelievably stupid by not just running through the stop-sign, but doing so when the ball was already in the infield and she got rewarded for it.” Of course, I say this as a sports fan, not as a movie critic.
Regarding Dottie intentionally throwing the game, No Way. Yes, Dottie valued family. She gave up a game that she loved to be with her husband and did it with no regrets. But they also depicted Dottie as a person of integrity and I refuse to believe that she’d compromise that integrity, even to make her sister happy. She could quit, but if she decided to play, she’d play. That’s why they showed her getting the go-ahead hit. That’s why she told her team-mate how best to strike Kit out. I can believe that she might have subconsciously wanted to lose for her sister, but she wouldn’t make the conscious decision to throw the game.
Oldest and youngest sibling (depending on whether I’m at mom’s or dad’s!)
She threw it, even if she didn’t MEAN to, her fingers just don’t release the ball right away, she kinda lets it roll out of her hands, instead of it flying out as if it were knocked out by Kit running over her.
Assuming Kit was near the bottom of the line-up, I think we’d want to know if the hitter after her was weak, or if she was batting ninth and the next hitter was the top of the batting order. If Kit runs through the stop and is tagged out, we go into extra innings. If she scores, the game’s over. If she stays at third, the next hitter is key to what happens.
It doesn’t matter who’s up next, not in the least. Even the worst hitters will get a hit one time out of ten, but 99 times out of 100 that you make a boneheaded baserunning blunder like that, you are out.
Don’t get me wrong - it’s still a good movie. But that part really bothers the sports fan in me.
Let me just add into the equation Evelyn’s inability to throw to the relay man – a flaw Kit knew well, having been a Peach for the whole season. She may have thought there was a better-than-even chance the ball wouldn’t be anywhere near Dottie as she crossed the plate.
I think the whole end of the game sequence isn’t directed well. The relay throw from the outfield seems to change directions.
And it’s obvious that the ball was already in the infield (if not in the hands of the third baseman), by the time Kit hits third.
But I don’t think Dottie dropped the ball intentionally. Why would she let herself get knocked over like that if she wanted to let her sister win? She could have just dropped the throw when it came in. And when the game is over, she isn’t particularly happy.
And at the reunion in Cooperstown, it is hinted that Kit and Dottie hadn’t spoken to each other much since then.
I always cry at the end of this movie.
Sorry, Jimmy.
Bricker, as BobT said, the ball is already in the infield by the time she reaches third. It’s horrible, horrible baserunning.
However, I acknowledge that it may have been a deliberate choice by the filmmakers. Dottie was depicted as the level-headed one, Kit as the hothead. They may have wanted to show Kit as out of control as she raced, single minded, toward her goal and that her passion was great enough to achieve it.
But it still makes me cringe.
I’m an older sister, and it never occurred to me that Dottie deliberately threw the game until I heard about this controversy years after I first saw the movie. Maybe that says something about my relationship with my little sister.
Anyway, while I can see how it can be viewed that way now, I still don’t think it was a deliberate act on her part–more a matter of Kit, having gotten out of her sister’s shadow and being forced to stand on her own merits by joining the other team, has turned out to be a good enough player to compete on a level with Dottie and, in this instant, win.
Ditto.
–Cliffy
Youngest of 3, Dottie threw the game.
Youngest sibling, Dottie just didn’t want it as much as Kit. She got beaten fair and square.
What bothers you? I understand that a runner shouldn’t run in that situation, but that certainly doesn’t mean a runner wouldn’t run in that situation, especially someone ruled by emotions such as Kit.