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In the 1940s, a womens baseball league thrived.
But theres more to the history of the AAGPBL thanA League of Their Own.
Sadly, interest in the league diminished in the 1950s.
What was the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League?
The AAGPBL was originally born out of necessity.
That year, a whopping 910,000 people attended AAGPBL games.
They were provided with beauty kits and flattering uniforms.
Even for women who didnt find this element appealing, though, the AAGPBL had plenty to offer.
Sometimes, newspaper coverage of the AAGPBL players emphasized the players looks and femininity.
But more often, newspaper coverage treated the AAGPBL players like athletes.
The players themselves also made it clear again and again over time that they were serious athletes.
They were ready to get bruised and dirty in the name of their sport.
If you got your skin toughened up, you were pretty lucky most of year.
In fact, you could probably still pick gravel out of my rear end from sliding.
Nowadays, ballplayers, they break a fingernail and theyre on the DL list for a month.
Above all, the AAGBPL players loved baseball.
Key herself once told reporters at a AAGPBL reunion, Id rather play ball than eat or sleep.
What happened to women in baseball?
Today, Major League Baseball in America is an exclusively male sport.
She was also a stellar defensive player.
Why dont you go home and fix your husband some biscuits?
Two other female players, Connie Morgan and Mamie Johnson, briefly followed Stone into the Negro Leagues.
The Negro Leagues wound down in the late 1950s as a result of the racial integration of baseball.
But the demise of the AAGPBL is a little more complicated.
The league played its last season in 1954, well after the conclusion of WWII.
In theory, it should have been able to continue indefinitely.
In that environment, there wasnt as much interest in path-breaking female athletes.
What is the AAGPBLs legacy?
For surviving player Maybelle Blair, cementing the leagues legacy and expanding its visibility is of paramount importance.
When they do, Blair celebrates.
She was particularly thrilled by Kim Ngs appointment as general manager of the Miami Marlins in 2020.
I felt almost as if it was me that got it, she toldThe L.A. Times.
We dont want any token jobs.
If we earn it, yes, and Kim Ng has earned it.
We can go in the front offices.
We can be umpires.
For arecentSports Illustratedfeature, Norma Smith, now 84, tells the magazine, Baseball was our life.
[The Peaches] were my heroes.
At the time we were just kids having fun, former player Dottie Collinstold the Baseball Hall of Fame.
