The Belles of Baseball: The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
Cuba Most of the women were in their late teens or FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME As baseball's popularity soared the game became an honored and cherished component of American culture Baseball came to be known as the national pastime and America's game Writers and historians gushed over the sport's enormous appeal The national pastime became the great repository of national ideals the symbol of all that was good in America wrote baseball historian John Thorn Former Major League Baseball commissioner Bart Giamatti claimed Baseball is the last great arena where everybody can learn the lessons of life 3 To many people baseball teaches important lessons learned from experiencing both victory and defeat For others baseball is a reminder of simpler times in America Some appreciate the game for its values of individualism and power Poet Walt Whitman wrote It has the snap go and fling of the new American atmosphere belongs as much to our institutions fits into them as significantly as our Constitution's laws early 20s Several players were only 15 years old when they were signed by the league to play The women came mainly from working class families and many had grown up on farms These young athletes were drawn to the league for one reason they loved to play baseball According to former AAGPBL player Lois J Youngen They loved to win they loved to make a great catch they loved to feel the crack of the wooden bat on the ball and to know it would be a base hit Playing baseball was more important than the money as long as you had enough to survive
Young women from many states and Canada tried out for the AAGPBL to pursue their dreams of playing baseball The women who joined the AAGPBL were outstanding accomplished athletes Pitcher Jean Faut played eight years in the league posting a lifetime win loss record of 140 64 with a 1 23 earned run average ERA Doris Sams served double duty as an outfielder and a pitcher She notched a lifetime batting average of 290 and was twice named the AAGPBL's Player of the Year Strikeout queen Collins won 20 or more games in four consecutive seasons and won 117 games in her six year career The best all around player in the league Kamenshek was a hard hitting first basewoman who won two batting titles and finished her career with a 293 batting average among the highest in league history
Through the years the AAGPBL underwent numerous changes in rules ball size and field layout Originally established as a softball league with standard underhand pitching the league continually evolved toward regulation men's baseball Distances to the pitcher's mound and A LEAGUE OF between the bases were MANY NAMES lengthened An increasingly The first name given to the women's professional league smaller ball was used Base launched by Wrigley was the stealing and leading off All American Girls Softball League Because the rules the bases were permitted more closely resembled those Through it all highly used in baseball Wrigley's board of Trustees changed skilled women athletes the name to the All American Girls Baseball League partway successfully adapted to a through the 1943 season Then rough and tumble version in response to controversy about the league's use of of male baseball underhand pitching and For much of its shorter base path distances they revised the name yet existence the AAGPBL again to the All American Girls Professional Ball League was a resounding success In its 12 season existence the In one year alone nearly league would take on several more name variations but the one million fans poured version officially recognized by the National Baseball Hall of into ballparks to watch the Fame is the All American Girls women perform In time Professional Baseball League according to author Barbara Gregorich even the men
who managed them came to believe there was nothing these women couldn't do 95 Playing professional baseball wasn't an easy life and the women of the AAGPBL endured many hardships and inconveniences But nothing could prevent them from playing baseball Baseball's Female Barrier Breakers The women of the AAGPBL were up to the challenge of playing exciting action packed hardball and more By skillfully playing what was generally considered a male sport with power speed and grace they challenged society's notions of women's roles in the World War II era The players also provided a critical morale boost to a nation enduring a bloody and costly war Their endeavor was truly patriotic The AAGPBL provided women the opportunity to play in front of packed stadiums of loyal and adoring fans By living their dreams these unheralded women helped pave the way for millions of other female athletes in the years that followed
