All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Former ladies players stand in front of the National Baseball Museum Hall of Fame front entrance (photo by the Baseball Museum Hall of Fame in Cooperstown NY)

The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (1943-1954)

That’s Amaury News and Commentary

By Amaury Pi-González

This month is Women’s History Month and to honor the women that played in this professional baseball league, we will go back in time to the 1940’s during World War II. Mr. Phillip Knight Wrigley, the chewing gum manufacturer and owner of the Chicago Cubs, always a promoter of baseball, founded the AAGPBBL, a baseball league where women will play.

Mr. Wrigley figured that since the military draft was calling young men to serve (including some baseball players) and while many minor leagues disbanded, it would be a great idea to have a league exclusively made of women players. This would keep the interest in the game of baseball while the men served in war around the world.

Mr. Wrigley asked the assistant General Manager of the Chicago Cubs to organize a committee to develop ideas on how to proceed. Originally the idea was to play at established Major League parks, but that did not materialized. After much discussion a Women Softball League (non profit) was founded in 1943.

However, the short distances from one base to another, pitching underhanded did not bode well and many thought it will not be the best representation of “baseball”. Softball and baseball differ in many ways, including different rules.

In 1950 independent team owners purchased the league. Cities chosen were Racine and Kenosha, Wisconsin, Rockford, Illinois and South Bend, Indiana. Each team consisted of 15 players, a manager/coach, a business manager and a woman chaperone.

To attract more interest by the public they selected some former Major League players and Minor League players, sports figures as managers and coaches. After the War and with the popularity of television and the Major Leagues they could not survive financially. They played until 1954, their last season. The Rockford Peaches were the most successful team and won a total of 4 titles.

Through the organization of the Players Association in 1986, and through their efforts to gain recognition by the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988, the league has now come to be recognized as what it was in actuality; the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL).

The story was featured in the film “A League of Their Own”(1992) starring Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Madonna, Rosie O’Donnell, Lorie Petty and others. At the end of the movie a few of the original players that were still living (not the actors) appeared as visitors at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, where there is an exhibit dedicated to them.

The film made around $132 million. The most memorable line in the movie from Manager Jimmy Dugan -played by Tom Hanks when he tells one of the players “there’s no crying in baseball!”

Tom Hanks, an Oakland native and two-time Academy Award winner arguably best American film actor, was once a vendor during the glory years in the 1970’s at the Oakland Coliseum, when the Oakland Athletics won three consecutive World Series.

Last time I visited the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York in 2009 one of the most interesting exhibits was the one dedicated to women in baseball. “Diamond Dreams” documents the story of this league and these great women.

That exhibit was made permanent by the Hall of Fame in 2017. Every baseball fan or history aficionado should plan to visit this great American museum, where the National Pastime is always in full display. Many women during WWII worked like “Rosie the Riveter” building the weapons that won the war as well as other industries. This is the story of these women’s contribution that entertained the country during a very difficult time in history.

Information: The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is currently open 7 days a week until 5PM. Toll-free number 1-877-290-1300. Address: 25 Main Street, Cooperstown, New York, 13326. customerservice@baseballhall.org

Stay well and stay tuned.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the vice president of the MLB Hispanic Heritage Hall of Fame Museum and does News and Commentary at http://www.sportsradioservice.com