The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: Background information when reading The Briar Club

The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League

This article relates to The Briar Club

One of the characters in Kate Quinn's The Briar Club played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL), which existed from 1943 to 1954.

In 1942, owners of professional baseball teams and stadiums were in a panic. Young men who played ball were being drafted to fight in World War II, and several minor league teams had collapsed as a result. Concerned that even the major leagues would be impacted, Chicago Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley (of chewing gum fame) formed a committee to brainstorm possible solutions to this potential lack of players. The committee recommended forming a women's softball league to fill the void, and the All-American Girls Softball League was born.

The committee faced some questions and issues right off the bat (pun intended), one of which was how to structure the game. They decided to keep the larger ball and underhand pitching style of softball, but moved the bases out to allow more hits and fielding opportunities, in theory making the game more entertaining. They also incorporated some of baseball's rules, such as allowing base stealing, and reduced the teams' playing rosters from the softball standard of ten members to baseball's nine.

Talent scouts visited women's amateur softball and baseball leagues across the United States and Canada, selecting 75 players to try out at Chicago's Wrigley Field. They were judged by their ability to play ball, but also on their looks; femininity was a priority. Just 60 were ultimately chosen as the first women to play professional softball.

Salaries were relatively high compared to those for other opportunities available to young women at the time, ranging from $45 to $85 per week (somewhere around $900-$1600 in today's dollars) or more. Those hired had to agree to have no other employment during the season. Players were also expected to have what the league defined as high moral standards and could be fired for even minor infractions. They were to avoid swearing, alcohol, and men, and to adhere to a curfew. Each team had a chaperone to ensure the rules were kept. Spring training included trips to Helena Rubenstein's Beauty Salon, and classes in etiquette and hygiene were mandatory. Each player was provided with a beauty kit and instructions on how to use it. Uniforms were one-piece short dresses with flared skirts, modeled after outfits worn by female figure skaters, field hockey athletes, and tennis players of the day. Satin shorts were worn under them for modesty; knee-high socks and a baseball cap completed the ensemble.

In the first season, the 60 women were divided into four teams, with attempts to balance talent across them to keep gameplay interesting. The first games, on May 30, 1943, featured the South Bend (Indiana) Blue Sox playing the Rockford (Illinois) Peaches, and the Kenosha Comets playing the Racine Belles (both in Wisconsin). The season ran through September 1, and the teams played 108 games. A five-game playoff series was then held between the two leading teams — the Comets and the Belles — with the Belles winning the pennant.

Midway through the 1943 season, the organization's trustees decided to rename the group to the All-American Girls Base Ball League to acknowledge that the rules differed from those used in softball; it subsequently went through a series of names (including the All-American Girls Professional Ball League) during its existence. The ball also changed over the years. In the first season of play, a 12-inch (circumference) softball was used. The size of the ball was gradually decreased until the women were playing with a 9-inch official men's baseball in the league's final days.

"American Girls" or "All-American Girls" was always part of the name, and this was significant. According to the AAGPBL website, Wrigley "promoted the image that the players were symbols of 'the girl next door' in spikes. At the beginning of each game, the two teams formed a 'V' for Victory from home plate down the first and third baselines followed by the playing of the Star Spangled Banner. The players played an even greater part in displaying patriotism by playing exhibition games to support the Red Cross and the armed forces, as well as visiting wounded veterans at Army Hospitals." Wrigley's vision of the "All-American Girl" also excluded Black women and most other women of color.

Reception was initially very good, particularly in the places where the women were based. It's estimated that over 170,000 fans were in attendance for the 1943 season. The number of teams eventually expanded to ten, and the sport's popularity continued after the war ended, peaking at over 900,000 paid fans for the 1948 season. The league fell into decline after that, however. This was due in part to changes in structure, resulting in no centralized promotion and an imbalance of talent between teams. The other factor was the advent of televised sports, leading many to simply stay home and watch men's baseball. The league was down to just five teams when it folded in 1954.

The AAGPBL was the subject of the short-lived TV series A League of Their Own, based on the 1992 movie of the same name. Interestingly, 65 original AAGPBL players participated in the final scene of the film, and several are seen playing baseball again as the credits roll.

Photos of the Fort Wayne Daises in 1948, via Florida Memory state archives

Top to bottom:
Marg Callaghan slides into home plate
Marie Wegman argues with an umpire
Mary Rountree prepares to catch a ball captured mid-air

Filed under People, Eras & Events

This article relates to The Briar Club. It first ran in the July 17, 2024 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.