The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
1994).
After the dispersion of the league the girls took several different paths. Some continued to play in amateur softball leagues, and even opted to take up other sports. Some married and raised families, while others went back to school. Money they had acquired from playing baseball often financed the changes in their lives. Many found it hard to return to fulfilling the ideal of the dependent, household wife and chose careers instead. Many of the players channeled their energy into “women’s jobs” such as teaching, secretarial work, factory work etc. But the league also produced at least two medical doctors, three police officers, four military officers, five professional athletes in other sports, one mechanical engineer, and several business entrepreneurs (Johnson, 1994).
A major accomplishment of the women of the league was their success in getting a permanent “Women in Baseball” exhibit in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. The exhibit includes a lifetime roster of players, and a variety of scrapbooks, letters, photographs, and other memorabilia. The women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League were truly ahead of their time (Marshall, 1992). Their experiences in the league created women who were comfortable with the world and their place in it. Suddenly they spoke with a newfound confidence. They carried themselves as if they were used to being treated with respect. The league had given the women the chance to test their physical and emotional limits, and in the process expand them. That set them apart from the women of their day.
Many of the women baseball players resisted the supporting role of wife and helpmate. Those who married took an active part in providing for their families. Those who didn’t struck out on their own. Playing in the league gave these women the chance to get out of poverty, and out of the working class. The experience of being professional athletes gave many players the confidence to strive for better lives. The self-assurance that the women developed playing ball liberated them both socially and economically, while also liberating some of their fans by their example.
These women led the way for women everywhere and our place in sports history. The future of women’s rights and equality regardless of gender may not have been possible without the help of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. For that they deserve, not just women, but all peoples’ respect and appreciation. They truly are some of the founding mothers of equal rights for women.
Bibliography
Pratt, Mary. Personal Interview. 2 January 2003. She was a Rockford Peach and a Kenosha Comet from 1943-47.
Berlage, Gai Ingham, Women in Baseball. Westport: Praeger Publishers, 1994. Tells the batting averages and regulation sizes of the equipment used in the league.
Fidler, Merrie, The Development and Decline of the All-American Girls Baseball, 1943-1954. Master of Science Thesis, University of Massachusetts, Department of Physical Education, 1976. Tells the history of the league [next page]