Women of Baseball: Did You Know?

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When Major League Baseball was in danger of going on hold because of World War II and the dearth of men, drastic measures were taken. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was brought into being due to the efforts of Phillip K. Wrigley. From 1943 to 1954 girl power reigned on the baseb

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From 1943 to 1954 girl power reigned on the baseball field. Women from Canada and the United States filled the ranks. In the beginning, there were four teams in 1943, in Kenosha, Racine, Rockford and South Bend. By the end of their run, fourteen teams swelled the ranks of the AAGPBL.

But women were playing baseball before the league began. It was a challenge though, in the 1870s, since the basic uniform was made up of a blouse with a high neck and long sleeves, a floor-length skirt and assorted underskirts, and high button shoes. In the 1890s something snapped, and Amelia Bloomer created a newer, kinder uniform. Bloomer Girls baseball players wore loose trousers with the women's names on them.

The female teams, each fortified with at least one man, traveled across the country, playing local men's teams. The women beat the men's teams frequently. Hundreds of Bloomer teams made it possible for women to play their way with pay throughout the United States until 1934.

Gradually the minor league teams were filled with more men and with fewer women. The women were viewed by the public as being second-best next to the men. When the Bloomer Girls were done, so was women's professional baseball.

All that changed with Wrigley's female softball league, which over a dozen years was honed into the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The game played was hampered by the players' long skirts, but it was real baseball.

But history repeated itself when the men came back after the War, and men's major league baseball was being televised. Once again, women's teams disappeared back in the shadows.

Things seemed to improve for the women for a moment when in 1952 Eleanor Engle was signed to a minor league team called the AA Harrisburg Senators. Two days later, however, the head of the minor leagues George Trautman voided her contract,. The word "travesties" was used. Soon after women were banned from the minor leagues.

In 1994, a team of women called the Colorado Silver Bullets began barnstorming, challenging men's amateur, college and semi-pro teams for four seasons. In 1998 a female pitcher for the independent minor league team Duluth Dukes, Ila Borders, was the first female player to win a men's professional baseball game. Even so, she couldn't get into the major leagues and left baseball in 2000.

Jody Smith is a freelance writer for EmpowHER.com.

Sources:

The History of Women in Baseball

http://voices.yahoo.com/the-history-women-baseball-99961.html

The Girls of Summer

http://www.exploratorium.edu/baseball/girlsofsummer.html

http://www.exploratorium.edu/baseball/girls_2.html

http://www.exploratorium.edu/baseball/girls_3.html

http://www.exploratorium.edu/baseball/girls_4.html

Related Links:

Women In the Olympics: Evolution Over a Century

http://www.empowher.com/active-adult/content/women-olympics-evolution-over-century