History of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, 1943-1954

What would Women's History Month and the beginning of baseball season be without discussing the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League? The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBBL) was established in 1943 as the "All-American Girls Baseball League," with just four teams (five, counting the All-Stars), and ran until 1954, with the number of teams varying each year from five to ten franchises. (List of all AAGPBBL Teams.)

In the fall of 1942, many minor league baseball teams disbanded when the draft sent the young players, and many major league players, off to World War II. Worried that the lack of quality players would trigger low attendance and cause Major League Baseball to fold, a group of Midwestern businessmen, financed by Chicago Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley, formed the All-American Girls Baseball Leaguein the spring of 1943.

Wrigley wanted to use the Major League baseball parks on the days the men's teams were out of town, but the owners refused. Instead, four non-Major League cities in close proximity to each other and the League's Chicago headquarters were chosen: Racine and Kenosha Wisconsin, Rockford, Illinois, and South Bend, Indiana. Wrigley financed half the operating costs and budget expenses of each team, while the host city directors covered the rest.

Semi-pro women's softball teams already existed across the U.S. and Canada. Wrigley's baseball connections enabled him to establish a huge recruitment network, sending out scouts and setting up try-outs in dozens of major cities. Of the hundreds of women who showed up, only 280 made the final try-outs in Chicago, and only 60 were chosen to become the first professional women baseball players. Those who made the cut, some as young as 15, were signed to professional league contracts forbidding them to have any outside employment during the baseball season. Salaries were high for the times, ranging from $45 to over $85 a week.

Not only did the players have to be excellent ballplayers, but they were expected to adhere to high moral standards and Rules of Conduct. (See Rules of Conduct.) Finally, Wrigley wanted the players to portray a feminine image, and contracted with Helena Rubenstein's Beauty Salon to run evening charm school classes that the players were required to attend. Here they were taught etiquette, personal hygiene and mannerisms, and provided with a beauty kit and instructions. An off-field dress code was also imposed. (See Charm School Guide.) The AAGBBL uniforms consisted of a short-skirted, one-piece flared tunic, accented by satin shorts, knee-high baseball socks and a baseball hat.

League play officially began on May 30, 1943, with four teams: the Kenosha Comets, Racine Belles, Rockford Peaches and the South Bend Blue Sox. Attendance the first year was tracked at 176,612 in the four sponsoring cities. They played six games a week and doubleheaders on Sunday. With many women involved in the war effort working in defense factories, the change in traditional women's roles led the way to accepting professional women ball players. Women's baseball also provided an inexpensive, close-to-home leisure activity. Capitalizing on the rampant patriotism during WWII, Wrigley promoted the "All-American Girl" theme, calling the players "the girl next door in spikes." Before each game, the players lined up from home plate down the first and third baselines, forming a "V" for Victory, followed by the National Anthem. The teams played Exhibition games to raise money for the Red Cross and the armed forces, and visited wounded veterans at Army Hospitals.

In 1944, Wrigley lost interest in girls baseball when it became evident that major league baseball was in no danger of collapsing, and sold the League to Arthur Meyerhoff, his Chicago advertising executive. Meyerhoff used his PR and advertising talents to expand and promote the League and, after the war, the teams continued to draw strong attendance numbers. At its zenith, the AAGBBL organized Junior Leagues, traveled cross-country and to Cuba and South America, and established the Chicago Girls Baseball League, a four-team minor league. Two failed franchises, the Colleens and the Sallies, became rookie training teams who played exhibitions and recruited new talent, playing in Washington, D.C.'s Griffith Park and New York's Yankee Stadium. The League peaked in the 1948 season, with ten teams drawing 910,000 fans.

Attendance waned, however, as backers lost interest, and revenues fell when the team directors voted to operate their teams independently and purchased the AAGBBL from Arthur Meyerhoff. With no centralized control of publicity, promotion and recruitment, and with the rise of televised major league games in the early '50s, the League began to fail. The All-American Girls' Baseball League folded in 1954, with only five teams left.

Through the organization of the AAGBBL's Players' Associationin 1986, their efforts to gain formal recognition came to fruition in 1988 when they were formally inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. The League was renamed and finally recognized for what it actually was: the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL).

Recommended Reading:

The Belles of the Game, July 1989 Smithsonian Magazine article by Jack Fincher
Memories of an All-American Girl, 1997 interview with Daisy Junor, by Carmen Pauls

Source: Official Web Site of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League