When Women Played Hardball

by Johnson

The years between 1943 and 1954 marked the magical era of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League - which proved beyond doubt that women can play hardball. With skill and style, more than 500 women took to the baseball diamonds of the Midwest dazzling fans and becoming a visible and supported part of our national pastime. In the words of "Tiby" Eisen, leadoff batter for the Fort Wayne "We played ball just like the big boys, we broke up double plays with spikes held high and we stole bases in our skirts. We did whatever it took to win." Among those cheering was ten-year-old Susan Johnson, a loyal fan of the Rockford Peaches. Four decades later she has gone back to meet her girlhood heroines and remember a sensational baseball the 1950 championship between the Rockford (Illinois) Peaches and the Fort Wayne (Indiana) Daisies - two of the League's most winning and dynamic teams. Filled with colorful stories and anecdotes by the women who played in that spectacular series, When Women Played Hardball offers an entertaining look at the culture the league created - and the society it reflected. This is a story about memories, about dreams fulfilled and dreams denied. It is a celebration of a brief yet remarkable period when women truly had "A League of Their Own."

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Baseball, Sports, Feminism

320 pages, Paperback

First published February 25, 1994

Reviews

[Brina · Rating 4 out of 5]

With women’s history month (2019) coming to a close, I decided to come full circle and study a topic that has been near and dear to me for my entire life. Growing up, I played on my local park district’s softball leagues for four years. Even though I wasn’t gifted with athletic talents, I loved being part of a team and pretending to be my favorite baseball players. At the time, women’s softball had yet to be an Olympic sport and its stars had not yet registered on my radar. That changed when I turned thirteen and missed the cut for another softball season with the release of A League Of Their Own featuring members of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. With screen stars such as Madonna and Tom Hanks, the movie brought to light the fact that women played baseball professionally for twelve years, a fact that even a baseball fanatic like myself knew nothing about. Susan Johnson was a fan of the league growing up, admittedly idolizing her favorite players. When the popularity of A League Of Their Own publicized the existence of the AAGPBL, Johnson decided to interview former players and diffuse the myth and reality of women ballplayers.

Chicago Cubs owner Phillip K Wrigley had an inkling that America would shut down the major leagues for the duration of World War II. That never came to fruition, and the Cubs even played in the infamous 1945 World Series featuring Murphy the goat. Yet, the idea that baseball would be shut down was real, and Wrigley, spurred by women working in jobs normally filled by men, decided to form a women’s baseball league. His initial thoughts were that the girls would play for a few years until the men came back from the war, and then the league would fold. Yet, winning over fans in small midwestern cities where they played, the AAGPBL lasted for twelve seasons in the sun. Rather than playing in large urban centers where Major League Baseball already fielded teams, the women played in smaller, close knit communities such as Rockford, Racine, Kenosha, South Bend, Fort Wayne, and Grand Rapids. The fans in these towns were starved for baseball and eagerly supported women’s teams. Phillip Wrigley did not envision the longevity of his league or the role it would have in encouraging girls to play sports. All he desired was baseball to be played, and the girls of the AAGPBL did just that.

Susan Johnson interviewed members of the 1950 Rockford Peaches and Fort Wayne Daisies who played a seven game league championship series that year. The Peaches were like the New York Yankees: they always finished near the top of the league standings and everyone wanted to beat them. Women came to the league from all over the United States, Canada, and even from Cuba. They had in common that they had grown up playing baseball with their brothers or other neighborhood boys and were usually as good if not better than their competition. The league offered a $55 weekly starting salary, which in the 1940s was more than most factory, teaching, and nursing. Young women who never envisioned getting paid to play ball jumped at the opportunity to join the league. League officials; however, did not desire a league of tomboys but rather ladies who would appeal to the male fans. The uniform was a one piece skirt that came above the knees, and players had to wear their hair at shoulder length or longer. Even the least polished of tomboys were required to attend Helena Rubinstein’s Charm School in order to participate on the field. The scene in the movie is hilarious, yet league officials had an image to maintain so charm school it was. Whether the classes on posture and etiquette lead to better performances on the field was highly debated, but in the end encourage the league’s wholesome image of all American girls.

The league motto immortalized in a song was “we’re all for one, we’re one for all, we’re all Americans.” Despite promoting all of the players as equals, their were legitimate stars on the field. Dottie Kamenshek of Rockford was regarded as the league’s top player and was once invited to tryout in a men’s league in Florida. Maxine Klein of Fort Wayne won twenty games on more than one occasion, and the Weaver sisters lead the league with batting averages approaching .350. This league did not feature power hitting; the top homer hitter once hit nine long balls in a season. What it did feature was fundamental play like bunting, the hit and run play, and sound pitching. Stellar coaches like Bill Allingham and Max Carey drilled the players in practice and during the games, leading to quality baseball being played throughout the league. With quality coaching and players and fans in smaller communities starved to see live sporting events, the league lasted until 1954, a time when most women became housewives and raised families and left the sports playing to the men. As a result, Americans were largely oblivious to the existence of the AAGPBL for another forty years with the release of A League Of Their Own.

Today women’s softball is an Olympic sport, and women can receive scholarships to play collegiately. While not the same as baseball, girls today have opportunities that the women of the AAGPBL could only dream about. If one turns on ESPN Sunday night baseball, they will see that one of the announcers is Jessica Mendoza, a former Olympic softball player. Mendoza is highly regarded and was recently hired by the New York Mets as a consultant. It appears as though the playing field is all but equal. There is no women’s baseball league today but Ila Borders recently pitched for the St Paul Saints of the independent league and even made the league all star team. The women of the AAGPBL have been in baseball’s hall of fame since 1988 when the history of women in baseball was honored with an exhibit of its own. While attending last summer with my family, it was inspiring to see a Rockford Peaches jersey on display alongside those of the Cubs and Yankees. Susan Johnson has brought to life the women who actually got dirt in the skirt, and reading about the women of the AAGPBL was a wonderful way to wrap up my women’s history month reading.

3.75 stars

[Gabrielle (Reading Rampage) · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading “Girls of the Summer” (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), I was still curious to know more about the AAGPBL players, the women who had lived through this amazing and unique time in the history of American professional sports. By using the seven games series of 1950, between the Rockford Peaches and the Fort Wayne Daisies, Johnson tells the story of the women of the All-American-Girl-Professional-Baseball-League in their own words. Johnson was a fervent Peaches fan in her teens, and for this book, she contacted more than twenty members of the league and interviewed them to get their very own perspective on this fascinating story.

There is still quite a lot of technical baseball talk, as well as plenty of statistics in there (feel free to skim the chapters that detail games pitch by pitch), but so far, this is the most personal account of the glory days of the AAGPBL that I have read, and the original players’ often colorful stories compensate for the drier bits.

I loved how passionate Johnson was about her subject, even if it often fell into fangirling. I mean, I get it: I remember all too well the confusion of trying to understand sexual identity, and how watching “A League of Their Own” was actually almost a relief, because there was an example of active, hard working women who were still feminine and also respected and celebrated for their achievements. I can only imagine what having been to a Peaches’ game must have been like, but I’m sure I would have been as excited and inspired as Johnson was.

Unsurprisingly, many of these women talked about having been tomboys in their youths, and having been interested in playing ball not because it was a boy’s game, but simply because they loved it. It was interesting to read former players’ thoughts on the rules regarding how they had to present themselves and be feminine: I’d always found that to be an exasperating and sexist rule, but many of them felt like on top of the pure showmanship value it added to their game, it also, weirdly, helped them be more respected for being women playing what was seen as a strictly male sport. As if presenting as a lady forced the audience to treat them as such, and not abuse or disregard them as simple tomboys. I wouldn’t have thought of it that way, but the bottom line for these women was that they would have played regardless of what the uniform was: they had a chance to be professional athletes!

Reading about the folding of the League always frustrates me, because while some enthusiast always want to hear more about the subject, it is still a fluke in women’s professional athletics, and that’s just weird to me. Reading about it really makes me wish such organizations still existed, still gave people the kind of amazing experiences and opportunities these women had.

A very interesting book, with many personal accounts of time spent playing for the historic AAGPBL, this will put “A League of Their Own” in a brand new light!

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: The story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, a professional league of women playing hardball from 1943 to 1954 told through a game-by-game summary of the 1950 championship, stories about the league, and player narratives.

Women playing hardball at a professional level? Unheard of today, but a reality during the post-war years of the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. You may remember hearing about this when the movie A League of Their Own came out back in 1992. The movie was a fictionalized account based on the league.

The league was the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which operated for twelve seasons from 1943 to 1954. The league began as a fast pitch softball league for the first few years, then transitioned to a hardball game, pitched overhand and with field dimensions closer to the men’s game. The league was the brainchild of Philip K. Wrigley, of the Chicago Cubs to fill the gap that World War 2 created as men entered the service. At its peak, the league consisted of eight teams in medium sized Midwestern cities. Originally, players were recruited in pools, then assigned to teams to create parity, making for a more competitive league. After 1950, management shifted from league management to team management, a move that contributed to the decline of the league. Altogether, roughly 600 women played on these teams.

One of the teams was the Rockford Peaches, who won a number of championships in the league’s early years under Manager Bill Allington. The author, Susan E. Johnson was ten years old in 1950 and idolized the players, avidly following that year’s championship series. In 1994 she turned those memories, accounts of that series, interviews of the players in later life, and discussion of various aspects of the experience of the women who played in this league.

The book is structured around the seven games of the series against the Fort Wayne Daisies. The Peaches had home field advantage. Each chapter has a game account, a player narrative, and discussion of some aspect of league life.

I would say that the game descriptions actually were the least interesting part of the book, although the series went to seven games. The stories of the players and discussions of league life elaborated a theme of a league where the players “looked like girls and played like men.” In the early years, new players went through charm school, wore skirts in public, could not cut their hair short, and sported uniforms that were one-piece tunic dresses with a skirt above the knees and shorts underneath, which could result in painful “strawberries” on the thighs from sliding into bases. Many of the women grew up as tomboys, playing with brothers and other boys, and in some places, in organized fast-pitch softball leagues. Woman after woman talked about plays they’d pulled off offensively or defensively, plays that reflect a high level of play. Not all were so fortunate, but those who played for Allington and several others, played for managers who really were dedicated to teaching the finer points of the game.

We also learn about life off the field. Chaperones both maintained discipline and were friends to the women. Some of the women were still in their teens when they started playing, and maintaining trust with parents was an important issue. Wrigley made to league worth it to the women. Earnings were between $45 and $85 a week for players, far more than they could earn in most jobs.

When the league ended in 1954 many of the women continued to find ways to compete. A touring team by Allington lasted a few years. Surprisingly, less than half married, unusual at a time when over 90 percent of women married. Some lived singly, some were in lesbian partnerships. Friends kept up with each other, and a newsletter and reunions and exhibition games began in the 1980’s. In 1988 the National Baseball Hall of Fame established an exhibit remembering women in baseball, including a ceremony many of the players attended, and described as one of their proudest moments–a recognition of the high level of competitive play their league had achieved. Then, the 1992 movie made them celebrities, something not altogether welcome for some.

I wish I could have seen these women play. They proved what women were capable of. Some baseball pros said that some could have played with the men and a few had invitations to do so. Sadly, there is no such league today, although this league helped make the case for women in sports. Baseball is a game that can be enjoyed no matter who is playing it. The physics of a curve ball is the same. A good drag bunt is the same no matter who is holding the bat. What it takes to execute a good double play or hit and run play does not vary by gender. In many sports, the level of team play is higher among women than in male leagues where individual superstars may dominate. That is what made this book a delight to read. It not only told the stories of some of the amazing women who made up this league, it celebrated the game–the joy of playing it well, and the joy of or reading of well-played games, no matter the gender of the players. And these women came to play!

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a huge fan of women's fastpitch softball in the sixties, but had never heard of this baseball league until the movie, A League of Their Own."

Very interesting telling of a piece of American sports history.

[O Zigarovich · Rating 5 out of 5]

What would you do if your husband was off at war? Women in the book, When Women Played Hardball, by Susan E. Johnson, decided that they wanted to start a baseball team. This book is nonfiction because it is based off of a true story. On account of their husbands were at war, these women wanted to start a national girls baseball league. The first team made was called the Rockford Peaches, this team was from Illinois. The catcher, Dottie Green, was the star of the team and she led the Rockford Peaches to victory in the championship. They won the championship in 1945, 1948, 1949, and 1950. Other teams in the league were the Racine Belles, the Milwaukee Chicks, the Grand Rapid Chicks, the South Bend Blue Socks, the Kalamazoo Lassies and, Fort Wayne Daisies. This league lasted from 1943-1954. This book was inspiring and I really liked it, and it led my interest in researching the team called, the Rockford Peaches.
This book was inspiring because it was one of the reasons why I kept playing softball. I liked the way they played and I was really interested in it. The only thing I didn’t like is how they wore skirts instead of baseball pants. Now I know that most softball teams wear baseball pants which made me feel better. “The skirted uniform was an important part of the image management had chosen in order to market the League: this women’s baseball league would be like family entertainment where fans can see girls who looked like girls who play baseball like men.” (139) I also liked this book because the girls are really good. They inspire me and make me believe that I could be that good. “The women of the All- American Girls Baseball League were good athletes when they entered the League, some of them outstanding natural sports women.” (177) The women on the team were just naturally born to play baseball.
When Women Played Hardball, by Susan E. Johnson, led my interest in researching the Rockford Peaches. I want to learn more about the team’s history. The Rockford Peaches won 4 League championships. They were very good and they won a lot of games. They were very competitive and they had lots of competition. “Playing was second nature to all of them, and many of the girls already had experience winning.” (66) I also want to learn more about the girls on the team. I know they had girls that had some experience playing and that were very competitive.
Women Who Played Hardball, by Susan E. Johnson, was inspiring and I really liked it, and it led my interest in researching the team called, the Rockford Peaches. They were the best team in the league. I recommend this book to people who are fascinated by sports like baseball or softball. An individual at any age can read this book. It might be a little lengthy for other kids to read. This book is about the history of a girls baseball league and it has a lot of facts about the Rockford Peaches and other teams.

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

He explained baseball . . . like it was philosophy, the key to the American character.
― Janet Fitch, White Oleander
[emphasis my own]

"Men watch and support other men — rather than women — doing almost anything. Women have less money and are less accustomed to supporting other women. Instead, women’s attention is focused on supporting men in their activities" [Johnson, from the book].

As this history of playing hardball goes, those two quotes seem to ably set up the dichotomy that Johnson addresses in the book. Sure, a bit dated now, twenty-five years later. The “girls” (a few of them were young enough to warrant the appellation, but many were grown into womankind) of the All-American Girls Baseball League could play the game. The games, though, were seen by most, if not all, of their fans as merely a substitute until the men returned from the war.

Johnson does a good job of bringing history to life with the quoted newspaper accounts (too bad none of them were penned by sportswriters of the same gender as the players) of the seven games of the 1950 championship series and interspersing accounts of the lives of the players alongside contemporary (in the early 1990s) revealing commentary from the players themselves long after the fact.

[Elena · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am very happy this book exists--Susan Johnson went out and interviewed women who made up the Rockford Peaches and the Fort Wayne Daisies, and I'm so happy she did it before they all passed. There are lots of descriptions of games and things like that, which thrilled me less. One of my lasting memories from the book is that so many of the women were gay, closeted (often to that day), and/or just felt like they were drawn to baseball because they were so left out at home. The idea is that only people who felt like they had nothing to lose, for whatever reason, would take this huge chance on being ridiculed in this upstart and unusual league. It was also, then, curious (and sad) that the women spent so much of their lives in anonymity, until the release of a League of their Own. This book also impressed on me the centrality of sexuality to the identities of these women--when the new series on Amazon Prime came out, I had the historical context to see the centering of queer stories as accurate, helpful, and bringing out something really true at the heart of the AAGBPL.

[Madame Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

About the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League that existed from 1943 to 1954. Those ballplayers accomplished feats that are sadly overlooked. Pitchers had insanely low E.R.A.'s and stolen bases. They played hard, and lead interesting lives. I'm happy to have read this book since A League of Their Own is a movie I've liked since I was a teen.

[Dawn Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a person who loves baseball and wanted to be a left fielder for the Red Sox, this was a great book for me. I skimmed over the chapters about specific games and enjoyed the ones that gave more background and player insights.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book. Lots of cool stories and interviews.

My bil once said watching the wpga isn't interesting because "the woman just aren't as good as the men". Such a bs comment. Woman are amazing. I would've loved to see these teams play baseball.

[Curt R · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fan's love story to a sport most don't remember.

[Lois Browne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good look at what it was like to play in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, especially in its later years. The context Johnson uses is the 1950 series championship between the Rockford Peaches and the Fort Wayne Daisies through interviews with the 26 players of the two teams, not just the stars, but the whole lineup. Some of those she interviewed had been playing from the beginning and their perspective gives a sense of how things changed. The interviews were done in the early 1990s with many who have since passed on. One of the players has been quoted as saying that the movie "A League of Their Own" was 30% reality and 70% Hollywood. This book goes a long way towards replacing that 70%. Well worth a read.

[Patrick Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very insightful book, filled with interviews of the surviving players of the All-American Girls Baseball League in the 1940s. When so many men were off fighting WWII they actually thought of shutting down professional baseball. Of course they decided against it and the owners of major league franchising also started a professional league for girls.

The players that were in this league were outstanding athletes, many going on to complete in other sports after the leagues demise. The memories of these women, of their time in the league, how they got there and what they thought has, thankfully, been preserved by this book.

Bottom line: This is a good one.

[Lisa Hern · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seeing the All American Women's Professional Baseball League through the eyes of former players and a fan who was a starry-eyed child when they played was a magical ride. Women: Even if you're not a sports fan, this was a very important piece of our history. That it didn't get as much attention and respect it deserved is a travesty. I'm looking forward to the day when women support women in sport. Then, maybe we will play hardball again.

[Kat Marciniak · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like A League of Their Own even a little bit this is a great read. It chronicles the seasons of a couple of the greats.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent to the max. Written by a fan of the league with lots of player interviews, this was exactly what I wanted to read about women's baseball.