| An Era to be Remembered |
By Sally Haase
August 28, 2010
“I used to play baseball with some pretty good players.”
“You mean softball.”
“No, Baseball.”
“Girls don’t play baseball.”
Above is an exchange from the book When Women Played Hardball by Susan E.
Johnson, the book, published in 1994 chronicled the lives of the women of the All-
American Girls Professional Baseball League. Several players told stories of similar
exchanges between friends and co-workers who knew nothing of the league. Most
players would give up on the conversation than explain the AAGPBL to them. From
the sixties to the early nineties it was likely many people had no knowledge of the
AAGPBL and it is a shame. It is a part of our American, sports and baseball history
and the amazing thing is it was done in a time when women were expected to stay at
home and raise the children while their husbands worked. But then America entered
World War II and millions of men were sent overseas including several professional
baseball players. Women were then asked to go to work and that included playing
professional baseball. There are very few women’s professional sports teams to this
day. I’m sure there were many men and women in the years the AAGPBL was in
existence who said women would be playing alongside men in Major League
Baseball within ten years. Sixty years later it has not happened, and probably will not
happen in my lifetime.
In 1992 the movie A League of Their Own was released and was a critical and box
office hit. Director Penny Marshall brought these wonderful athletes back into the
limelight, teaching a whole new generation, myself included of women playing
professional baseball. The interest in the movie also generated new interest in the
women who created the history acted out by Geena Davis and Madonna. I’m sure the
movie peaked Johnson interest in writing her book.
In the book, Johnson says she grew up watching the Rockford Peaches play and that
those women were her heroes when she was young. It got me thinking, about my
female sports idols growing up. I didn’t have to think very long, with the exception of a
female Olympian who captured America’s hearts every two years, young women my
age had no professional female athletes to look up to. There was no Dottie
Kamenshek or Alice “Al” Pollitt for girls to see and think “if she can do it, so can I”. I
grew up watching Kirby Puckett and wanting to play baseball just like him, never once
thinking I couldn‘t do it because I‘m a woman. I guess I was born about 50 years too
late. In 2010 there is now the WNBA, Jennie Finch, Cat Osterman, Lindsey Vonn,
and Shawn Johnson giving young girls plenty of female athletes to emulate.
Not many women who played in the AAGPBL are still living today, most are now well
into their 70’s and 80’s the same goes for many who watched and followed the
league. Hopefully, players and fans have passed on stories to their children,
grandchildren and friends. The movie will be preserved forever, but the true stories
along with the newspaper reports of games will soon be the only memories remaining
from an amazing era of women’s sports history.
August 28, 2010
“I used to play baseball with some pretty good players.”
“You mean softball.”
“No, Baseball.”
“Girls don’t play baseball.”
Above is an exchange from the book When Women Played Hardball by Susan E.
Johnson, the book, published in 1994 chronicled the lives of the women of the All-
American Girls Professional Baseball League. Several players told stories of similar
exchanges between friends and co-workers who knew nothing of the league. Most
players would give up on the conversation than explain the AAGPBL to them. From
the sixties to the early nineties it was likely many people had no knowledge of the
AAGPBL and it is a shame. It is a part of our American, sports and baseball history
and the amazing thing is it was done in a time when women were expected to stay at
home and raise the children while their husbands worked. But then America entered
World War II and millions of men were sent overseas including several professional
baseball players. Women were then asked to go to work and that included playing
professional baseball. There are very few women’s professional sports teams to this
day. I’m sure there were many men and women in the years the AAGPBL was in
existence who said women would be playing alongside men in Major League
Baseball within ten years. Sixty years later it has not happened, and probably will not
happen in my lifetime.
In 1992 the movie A League of Their Own was released and was a critical and box
office hit. Director Penny Marshall brought these wonderful athletes back into the
limelight, teaching a whole new generation, myself included of women playing
professional baseball. The interest in the movie also generated new interest in the
women who created the history acted out by Geena Davis and Madonna. I’m sure the
movie peaked Johnson interest in writing her book.
In the book, Johnson says she grew up watching the Rockford Peaches play and that
those women were her heroes when she was young. It got me thinking, about my
female sports idols growing up. I didn’t have to think very long, with the exception of a
female Olympian who captured America’s hearts every two years, young women my
age had no professional female athletes to look up to. There was no Dottie
Kamenshek or Alice “Al” Pollitt for girls to see and think “if she can do it, so can I”. I
grew up watching Kirby Puckett and wanting to play baseball just like him, never once
thinking I couldn‘t do it because I‘m a woman. I guess I was born about 50 years too
late. In 2010 there is now the WNBA, Jennie Finch, Cat Osterman, Lindsey Vonn,
and Shawn Johnson giving young girls plenty of female athletes to emulate.
Not many women who played in the AAGPBL are still living today, most are now well
into their 70’s and 80’s the same goes for many who watched and followed the
league. Hopefully, players and fans have passed on stories to their children,
grandchildren and friends. The movie will be preserved forever, but the true stories
along with the newspaper reports of games will soon be the only memories remaining
from an amazing era of women’s sports history.
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