It was 1943 and the United States was fully involved in World War II. Young men were being drafted into the armed services. Baseball executives feared major league baseball would come to an end. To keep baseball going they formed the first women’s professional baseball teams. The All-American Girls Baseball League entertained Americans during wartime, made history as the first and only women’s professional baseball league, and instilled courage and confidence in the women that played.
With a large number of pro baseball players off to war, team owners worried how they would keep baseball alive. Philip K. Wrigley, owner of the Chicago Cubs and chewing gum mogul, had an idea. Out of concern for the sport of baseball and revenue at the ballparks,
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he would start a women’s professional baseball league (Macy). By creating women’s teams, he hoped stadiums would remain full.
He did not believe women could play baseball well but he needed them to entertain baseball fans while the men were gone (Gregorich). Wrigley thought he could attract fans by using famous Hall of Fame players to manage the girls teams. Wrigley sent out scouts to find good women baseball players to play on his first ever women’s professional baseball team. The scouts were instructed to find white women that were skilled, strong and attractive. “The importance of being feminine and projecting the image of the All- American Girl Next Door, along with outstanding athletic ability, continued to be on the top of Wrigley’s list of priorities” ( Lesko ). Talented women were recruited from all over the United States and America. The girls were then invited to spring training to try out for …show more content…
the All-American girls baseball team (Morgan, Nitz). 64 women were hired to play on the first ever women’s professional baseball team in 1943 (Macy). Wrigley paid for the first four women’s baseball teams to be set up and advertised (Gregorich). The league started with four teams - the Rockford Peaches, the Kenosha Comets, the South Bend Blue Sox and the Racine Belles, all playing in Midwest cities. Eventually the league would expand to ten teams, including the Grand Rapids Chicks (Macy). In order to play baseball, the girls had to attend charm school. Femininity was important and those who broke the rules were fined $50. At charm school they were instructed how to charm a date, put on makeup and drink tea like a lady (Pauls). Each player received a beauty kit and instructions how to use it. “The players were expected to follow one simple rule: look like women. Play like men”(Schudel). They attended charm school to counterbalance their attendance in baseball (Gregorich). While playing baseball girls had to have long hair, wear makeup, and were not allowed to wear slacks or shorts. Smoking and drinking violated the rules. Their uniforms were belted, short one-piece dresses with satin shorts, knee high socks and a baseball cap. The girls often got severe leg burns and bruises while sliding(Morgan, Nitz). Women left everything behind (family, friends, and jobs) for a chance to play professional baseball (Macy). Their schedule was rough, they played a game every night of the week with doubleheaders on the weekends. In the mornings the girls would train and at night they would play ball under the stadium lights. They would only receive one or two days off per summer (Pauls). Women played a total of 108 games in one summer. They were paid $40 to $85 plus expenses per week to play baseball. The pay was better than any other job the women could have gotten at home (Macy). Some players as young as 15 were making more money than their parents (Macy). World War II gave women the opportunity of a lifetime - to play professional baseball.
Over 600 women played in the league during it’s existence. At the beginning of the All- American Girls Baseball League season fans only showed up out of curiosity. Some women baseball players were teased for being on a professional baseball team. People did not think women could (or had the right to) play the world’s most known sport. Fans eventually saw how good women were at playing baseball and became hooked ("When women ruled baseball"). There was no question anymore if women could play baseball. Even though the league only played in the midwest people came to watch from more than half of the 48 states, Canada and Cuba (Gregorich). By the end of the year a million fans showed up to see the games ("When women ruled baseball."). The league operated from 1943 to 1954 and represents one of the most unique aspects of our nations baseball history
(Lesko). By 1955, interest in the AAGPBL was fading. The league was experiencing financial difficulties. The war had ended. The men were back. There was economic growth. Americans suddenly had countless ways to spend their free time and money. Bowling lanes, drive in movies and television were popular. Fans could now watch major league games from their homes. Baseball was once again seen as a man’s game. For the women, there was more focus on home and family. (Macy) “ By the late 1950’s, female baseball players were as rare as riveters named Rosie” (Macy, 98) The All American Girls Professional Baseball League was almost lost to history (Macy). After the AAGPBL ended, the women went on to lead successful and inspiring lives. Many of the women went on to be doctors, lawyers, teachers, and professional athletes in other sports - professions beyond their means and expectations before their baseball careers. These women were ahead of their time. Their baseball careers instilled courage and confidence beyond measure (Pauls). For the first time ever in American history, women were put into the Baseball Hall of Fame. On November 5, 1988 the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York was overflowing with former women baseball players that had come from all over the United States. The women that had gathered that day had played in the first and only women’s professional baseball league during the years of 1943 and 1954. Not only did 147 former women’s baseball players show up but also hundreds of family members, friends and fans came to see the “Women in Baseball” showcase. The “Women in Baseball” showcase displayed a list of former women baseball players (where they where from and how many years they played), the uniform they had worn, and pictures of women who had participated in the sport (Macy). In 1992, Penny Marshall created the film, A League of their Own, a fictional film based on the AAGPBL. It was a huge box office success and was chosen to be preserved in the National Film registry as part of American history. Numerous websites have featured the leading players of the All- American Girls Professional Baseball League. The women themselves have kept in contact through reunions, facebook pages and newsletters. Their legacy continues to inspire women in sports (Schudel). Women played an important role in the history of baseball. While the men were away fighting on the battlefields, the women took their place on the ball fields. They provided a means of escape from war worries and concerns. Baseball fans came to love the All-American Girls Baseball League. For the women it was a dream come true to play baseball in front of millions of cheering fans. Their courage and legacy is still honored today.
However, if the current rules remain in place and baseball continues without a salary cap, the only hope a small market team may have is to fend for themselves on the big market with financially superior teams. This becomes an exceedingly harder task when one team can afford the salary of two top players while those contracts are equal to the entire payroll of another team’s entire roster. Therefore, the question remains should baseball implement a salary cap, and if they do, how would it come into play. When asking the question regarding the salary cap, four supporting ideas arise for either the implementation of a salary cap or keeping it nonexistent.
Baseball was popular the most sport in 1919; players were seen as heroes and celebrities. At this time the players were payed very low wages and the owners of the team made huge profit. Because of this many players were into scams that involved them losing games on purpose. During that time of baseball, players didn’t make as much as they do today.Players would be offered large amount of money that would multiply to several times their salary.
America’s pastime has been complicated in the last couple centuries, and integration has been a big key in the game of baseball. Like most of America in the 1940’s, baseball was segregated, with whites playing in the Major League system and African-Americans playing in the Negro Leagues. There were many factors that made whites and blacks come together, including World War II. Integration caused many downs in the time period, but as baseball grew and grew it was one of the greatest accomplishments in the history. It was hard to find the right black man to start this, they needed a man with baseball abilities and a man who didn’t need to fight back.
The All-American Professional Girls Baseball League was the first, and only, female baseball league in history. This league was developed during World War II when “ in the interests of patriotism, women were encouraged to do all the things normally reserved for men” (Johnson XIX). At the time the book, When Women Played Hardball, was written in 1994, no other professional sports team had lasted as long as this baseball league. The league lasted a solid nine years. These women did not just play baseball, they broke records. “ Kurys, the "Flint Flash", stole 201 bases [in a season]. Her career tally of 1114 stolen bases is a professional baseball record...She [Joanne Weaver] is tied for the fourth best batting average in the history of professional baseball, and she's the last player in the history of the game to bat over .400” (XXII/XXIII Johnson). Today, these women still hold records in major league baseball. At the peak of the league in 1948, the league “ consisted of 10 teams that entertained nearly 1,000,000 fans in middle sized Midwestern cities” (XXI Johnson). Every team attracted loyal and enthusiastic fans. At first, crowds came to the game to see the unusual sight of women playing baseball, but soon kept coming back because of the level of play and because they enjoyed watching the game. Every woman in that league just
All groups noted above didn’t have a place in this era of baseball; they were on the other side of the race barrier. With the growing of the sport arose a lack of a cheap talent pool. Segregation hindered the ability to introduce cheap talent from other races. The management of teams was looking for a solution in order to widen the talent pool for their respective leagues. People began to notice talent in the “American colonies” like Cuba, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippines; it seemed as if everywhere there was an American presence there were talented ball players. Even before America was involved in these nations, America had begun to envision the game as intercultural exchange that would build relations. The decision to include Latinos into the leagues allowed an expansion of the talent pool while still barring African Americans from participating in organized baseball. A racial structure established during Jim Crow upholds the notion of a color line as an exclusionary measure to prevent the influence of blacks into the game that represents American
"Over the decades, African American teams played 445-recorded games against white teams, winning sixty-one percent of them." (Conrads, pg.8) The Negro Leagues were an alternative baseball group for African American baseball player that were denied the right to play with the white baseball payers in the Major League Baseball Association. In 1920, the first African American League was formed, and that paved the way for numerous African American innovation and movements. Fences, and Jackie Robinson: The Biography, raises consciousness about the baseball players that have been overlooked, and the struggle they had to endure simply because of their color.
Many women have taken up the positions of engineers, factory workers and many more jobs normally occupied by men. Many women that wanted to help with the war effort had worked, bought war bonds, donated clothing and foods and anything else needed to help and support our troops. Some women now had the opportuinty to play baseball and still help promote help for the war. However the idea of women playing baseball and acting like men was completely absurd during that day and age. That year of attendance of The AAGPBL approached one million, with the players completely defined the image of a respectable lady, the girls played ball with a new baseball of fast pitching, stolen bases and injuries, epically skin abrasions from sliding to bases in short skirts. Though the female ball players were skilled and athletic, their required uniform were one piece dresses and had to wear makeup at all times so that it was a reminder to the spectators that these were indeed women playing in the field( ). No player was allowed to drink, smoke, date, cut their hair short or be seen in public with slacks or shorts. Every player were required to join and had to endure “charm schools” where they were obligated to learn ladylike behavior. Though there were many limitations and requirements for the female players this new form of
The world is a very different place than what it was in the 1920’s; however, despite our differences, many things have stayed the same. No matter what, there’s always something to refer back to. Nearly one-hundred years ago, the 1920’s holds a great deal of historical events that changed the world. One of these historical events is when Babe Ruth changed the outlook on negro leagues and african american baseball players. Ruth could do many things that other people couldn’t in baseball. He in general was an amazing baseball player, but he also did something much more, something that would change the world’s views of not just him, but everybody.
The WWII time period was a hard time for American families. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League helped to change the rights of women in the industrial world. Men took care of their responsibilities and served their time in war, but in the meantime, the world-winning women of the AAGPBL stormed the country by surprise. This league was a major success in our history and will leave its legacy among baseball fans for years to come.
The Desegregation of baseball in America was a slow process. Near the end of the 1800's, African American ballplayers were accepted in the Major Leagues, but as their success grew, they were quickly banned from the league. For the fifty-year period that there were no blacks in the Major Leagues, the Negro Leagues were where black ballplayers competed. The Negro Leagues grew and many stars emerged from the leagues that now have a legendary status. When Jackie Robinson joined the Major Leagues in 1954, baseball was once again desegregated (Sailer). The complete integration of the league was not as rapid as many would have expected. Economic reasons seemed to be the main reason why African Americans were brought back into the Major Leagues but there were other factors that contributed.
Frantz, Chris. A. The "Timeline: Women in Sports." Infoplease/Pearson Education, 2007. Web.
Most baseball teams at the time were being paid very underpaid around the time and the White Sox were no exception. Baseball had reverse clause going on at the time, which meant that if a player refused to accept a contract, they couldn’t play on any other baseball team, leaving the players stuck with a “thighwad” (Linder) of a boss. With the lack of finances coming in coupled with a tyrannical boss, it would be no wonder why it’d be so difficult to turn down such a
Women are being allowed to participate now, including professional leagues such as the Women’s National Basketball Association, and the Ladies Professional Golf Association. Women in sports, especially softball and basketball, have become a big-time business. World War II is when the basis of women’s professional sports began. While the men were overseas fighting the war against the Nazis and Germans, the women entertained the people who stayed back by playing baseball.
Shattuck, Debra (2011). “Women’s baseball in the 1860s: Reestablishing a historical memory.” Nine,19(2), 1-26. Retrieved from http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/nine/vo19 /19.2.shattuck.html
Lesko, J. (2005). League History. All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association. Retrieved for this paper Mar 20, 2014 from, http://www.aagpbl.org/index.cfm/pages/league/12/league-history