These Women Were in a League of Their Own
(Check it out — you can listen to this article if you don’t feel like reading!)
Everything old is new again.
Whenever I hear that Hollywood is ‘reimagining’ a 1980s film, I get nervous. For every Cobra Kai, there is a new Footloose.
So I’m a mixture of nervous and excited for the new Amazon series inspired by the 1992 baseball comedy/drama A League of Their Own.
For starters, I love the movie.
I loved it 30 years ago (!) when I was a kid paying $2 on bargain night to watch it at the Strand Theater in my hometown.
Before A League of Their Own, most people probably had no idea that women had ever played professional baseball in the US.
I sure didn’t.
And while the verdict on the new show is TBC, I thought it was a good time to dig in to the real story of the incredible women who played baseball professionally in the United States 80 years ago.
Because they really were in a league of their own.
So let’s start at the very beginning…
How did a girls’ league even get started?
This story begins in 1942, when Major League Baseball had a problem.
World War II had taken many young men overseas – including baseball players like Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams. Several minor league teams had disbanded, and attendance at professional MLB games had decreased.
Many major league ballparks across the country were in danger of collapse.
It was unclear if Major League Baseball would continue as the war raged on.
Philip K Wrigley (as in Wrigley’s chewing gum), owner of the Chicago Cubs, was looking for solutions – and asked a committee to come up with ideas.
They recommended establishing a girls’ softball league to keep interest in baseball alive.
With the support from a group of Midwestern businessmen, Wrigley decided to form the All-American Girls Softball League (which later changed to Baseball), with four teams in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana.
Professional scouts searched across the US and Canada to find talented women playing softball or baseball, and invited 280 women to final tryouts in Chicago.
Sixty were chosen, and became the first women to ever play professional baseball.
The women were strong athletes, who were expected to play like men – and act like ladies.
After their daily practice, the women attended evening charm school where they learned how to present themselves.
They were given instruction on proper hygiene, etiquette, and how to dress.
Their physical appearance was critiqued, and they were given a beauty kit and instructed how to wear make-up and style their hair.
The players also had to comply with the high moral standards and rules of conduct imposed by the League, and were not allowed to smoke, drink alcohol or wear trousers in public.
Even the uniforms they played in were feminine short dresses (not exactly ideal for all the sliding into bases that the women did!).
Although the women were encouraged to look as attractive as possible, it was their ability to play ball that earned them admiration from League officials, press, and fans.
“Maybe we got people there for the uniform or the publicity, but we kept them there because we played damn good baseball,” said player Pepper Paire Davis.
The public accepted the idea of women playing baseball because so many women had taken jobs in the factories during the war.
And with limits on food, tires, and gasoline, people were forced to spend their leisure time close to home.
The teams were well received by fans in the four sponsoring cities, with nearly 200,000 fans attending games during the 1943 season.
For the women playing 120 games during the four-month season, the job was demanding, but also rewarding.
“Fun times, but we played tough, even when we were hurt," said player Helen Callaghan, whose sister Marge also played in the League.
“After a doubleheader, we’d shower, get dressed, travel all night on the bus, get to our hotel at 8 or 9 in the morning, shower, play two games of baseball in 110 degrees of heat, then do it all over again the next day.”
“We had to do it all, and you played hurt, because your ball club needed you,” Pepper said.
Player salaries ranged from $45 to $85 a week (plus), and in many cases, the women were earning more than their parents.
“They gave you a blank contract,” Pepper said. “And you signed it.”
“If you were a good ball player, you knew there’d be a figure in there.”
Early in the 1944 season, it became clear that the war would not force Major League Baseball to disband.
Wrigley lost interest in the girls’ league, and sold it to Chicago advertising executive Arthur Meyerhoff.
Meyerhoff expanded the girls’ league, and its popularity grew under his leadership.
By 1948, the Girls’ League had 10 teams.
Families turned up to the games in large numbers, and more than 910,00 fans paid to attend games during the season.
But as the years went on, society changed.
With the men back from war, many women left the workforce and returned to the home.
Fewer women were playing baseball.
Game attendance declined as other forms of entertainment became available.
The League was decentralized, and it became harder to find talented women baseball players.
“They were losing ball players and had no one to replace them,” said former player Dottie Collins, who returned to play in the League after having a child.
“People had too much to do. Television came to be.”
“And so it faded away.”
The League closed in 1954.
But over its 11-year-run, The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League gave more than 600 women athletes the opportunity to play professional baseball.
The AAGPBL entertained thousands of people, kept America’s interest in baseball alive during the war, and showed so many people what women were capable of.
And in 1988, more than 150 former AAGPBL players were there when the National Baseball Hall of Fame opened their first Women in Baseball exhibit.
Four years later, many Americans learned about the League for the first time with the release of the film, A League of Their Own.
And for the women who were part of the League, it gave them incredible opportunities, friendships, and memories.
“I was doing something I loved with people that were great,” Pepper said.
“We wanted us to be a success – not just individuals or a team, but all of us – as a League.”
“It was one of the greatest experiences of my life.”
FUN FACT: AAGPBL star player Helen Callaghan won the batting title and stole more than 100 bases (twice) during her five-season career.
Her son Casey Candaele became an MLB player in 1986 with the Montreal Expos, making them the first mother-son professional baseball players.
A reporter asked Casey if he got his athletic ability from his mom.
“No,” he replied. “If I got it from my mom, I'd be in the Hall of Fame.”
BONUS: For further entertainment, check out the ‘Charm School’ guidance the AAGBPL players received.
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Well, recent research found that communication is the most in-demand soft skill employers are looking for today.
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