The cross-wits

The title of today’s Merl Reagle crossword puzzle is “Bawl Game,” and the theme relates to Tom Hanks’s line in “A League of Their Own,” featured as 111 Across (“THERESNOCRYING”) and 119 Across (“INBASEBALL”).

As it turned out, since there’s no crying in baseball, all the theme answers were missing a “WA” somewhere, including 35 Across (“Ex-Boston-N.Y.-Tampa player with over 3,000 hits”), 85 Across (“Grassless area on a diamond’s perimeter that lets a fielder know the wall is near”), the long one, 66 Across (“Post-home run comment”), and the one that took me the longest to get, 88 Across (“Try to fool a batter, perhaps”). Answers in the comments section.

Original comments…

Jim: 35. DEBOGGS
85. RNINGTRACK
66. HEREALLYLLOPEDTHATONE
88. THROCURVE (unlike all the other theme answers in the puzzle, the missing “WA” letters weren’t both removed from one word)

Luke: No wa? But you gotta have wa!

thatbob: Japanese fighting spirit!