All American Girls Professional Baseball League
When World War II began taking men off the baseball diamonds in 1942, a crisis loomed in the world of sports. In order to avert such a crisis, Philip K. Wrigley of the Chicago Cubs, brought together a group of mid-western businessmen and baseball owners to form a committee and suggest alternatives. The committee suggested that they form a league of professional women's softball players to attract audiences and drive revenue. As a result, the All American Girls Softball League was established in the spring of 1943. During the first season, the board of trustees changed the name to the All American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL).
Originally, Wrigley envisioned the women's team playing in professional ballparks when the men's teams were playing away, but the other major league owners did not approve of that idea. As a result, four non-major league cities were established as home cities for the women's league: Racine and Kenosha, Wisconsin; Rockford, Illinois; and South Bend, Indiana (AAGPBL).
In the first few seasons, the game they played was closer to modified softball than baseball รป they pitched underhand with a larger, softer ball, had nine players on the field, a longer distance between the bases, and they were allowed to lead off and steal bases (Fincher). By 1948, however, the game had evolved and become more competitive so that it more closely resembled major league baseball, with the distance between bases further still, a smaller, harder ball, and an overhand pitch (Fincher). Ken Sells, the AAGPBL's first President asserts that the women of the first professional female baseball league not only played for fun and money, but also to prove "that women didn't have to sacrifice their femininity to be standouts in what was then a man's world" (qtd. in Fincher).
Maintaining the image of a lady was central to Wrigley's idea of a profe
...