All-American Girls Professional Baseball League

The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) was a professional women's baseball league founded by Philip K. Wrigley, which existed from 1943 to 1954. The AAGPBL is the forerunner of women's professional league sports in the United States. Over 600 women played in the league, which eventually consisted of 10 teams located in the American Midwest. In 1948, league attendance peaked at over 900,000 spectators. The most successful team, the Rockford Peaches, won a league-best four championships.

The 1992 film A League of Their Own and the 2022 show of the same name are mostly fictionalized accounts of the league and its stars. Sixty-five original AAGPBL members appeared in scenes filmed in October 1991 recreating the induction of the league into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988.[1]

History
Founding

All-American Girls Professional Baseball League members performing calisthenics in Opa-locka, Florida, on April 22, 1948. The different baseball clubs are (L-R): Fort Wayne Daisies (partially visible), Chicago Colleens, Rockford Peaches, South Bend Blue Sox, Springfield Sallies and Peoria Redwings.
With the entry of the United States into World War II, several major league baseball executives started a new professional league with women players in order to maintain baseball in the public eye while the majority of able men were away. The founders included Philip K. Wrigley, Branch Rickey and Paul V. Harper. They feared that Major League Baseball might even temporarily cease due to the war because of the loss of talent,[2] as well as restrictions on team travel due to gasoline rationing.[3]

The women's initial tryouts were held at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Scouted from amateur softball games across the country, over 200 women were invited to try out, and about 60 were selected for the league roster. Like the male major league, the 'girls' league was also informally segregated; thus, no African Americans were recruited or hired. Women were selected for their skilled play, but the player also needed to fit what was seen by marketers as a wholesome, feminine ideal.[4] The first league game was played on May 30, 1943.[5][6]

Scouts for the Chicago-based All-American Girls Professional Baseball League initially sought and recruited talent from the Chicago softball Metropolitan League, along with several others. However, after seeing many of their players leave for the AAGPBL, it was decided to then turn the amateur Metropolitan League to a professional league. The result was the creation of the six-team National Girls Baseball League, which began in 1944, composed entirely of Chicago-area teams. The National Girls baseball League was founded by Emery Parichy, Charles Bidwill (owner of the Chicago Cardinals football team) and politician Ed Kolski. Pirachy operated the Metropolitan League. Football star Red Grange was hired to preside over the league. The NGBL was much less publicized than the AAGPBL, but it paralleled the AAGPBL, as it also lasted until 1954 and drew up to 500,000 fans per season. For a time, the two leagues were involved in a strong rivalry for players, before meeting and agreeing to a poaching truce in 1946. Many players and several managers appeared in both leagues.[7][8][9][10][11]

In the winter of 1952–1953, players from both the AAGPBL and National Girls Baseball League played together in the four–team International Girls Baseball League based in Miami, Florida.[7]

Ownership
The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League went through three periods of ownership. It was owned by chewing gum mogul Wrigley[12] from 1943 to 1945, wealthy publicist Arthur Meyerhoff from 1945 to 1951, and the teams were individually owned from 1951 to 1954. The teams generally played in Midwestern cities. The South Bend Blue Sox and the Rockford Peaches were the only two teams that stayed in their home cities for the full period of the AAGPBL's existence.[4]

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Play
In the first season, the league played a game that was a hybrid of baseball and softball. The ball was 12 inches in circumference, the size of a regulation softball (regulation baseballs are 9 to 91⁄4 inches). The pitcher's mound was only forty feet from home plate, closer even than in regulation softball and much closer than the baseball distance of 60 feet, 6 inches. Pitchers threw underhand windmill, like in softball, and the distance between bases was 65 feet, five feet longer than in softball, but 25 feet shorter than in baseball. Major similarities between the AAGPBL and baseball included nine player teams and the use of a pitcher's mound (softball pitchers throw from flat ground). By 1948, the ball had shrunk to 103⁄8 inches, overhand pitching was allowed, and the mound was moved back to 50 feet. Over the history of the league, the rules continued to gradually approach those of baseball. By the final season in 1954, the ball was regulation baseball size, the mound was moved back to 60 feet, and the basepaths were extended to 85 feet (still five feet shorter than in regulation baseball).[13] Teams were generally managed by men who knew competitive athletics and were former major league players, in part to demonstrate to fans that the league was serious.[4]

Salaries were above average for women and ranged from $45–$85 (or $792–$1497 in 2023 dollars[14]) a week during the first years of play to about $125 (or $1467 in 2023 dollars[14]) per week in later years. The women's league generally went along with the men's late spring to early autumn season.[15]

The uniforms worn by the female ballplayers consisted of a belted, short-sleeved tunic dress with a slight flare of the skirt. Rules stated that skirts were to be worn no more than six inches above the knee, but the regulation was most often ignored in order to facilitate running and fielding. A circular team logo was sewn on the front of each dress, and baseball caps featured elastic bands in the back so that they were one-size-fits-all.[16]

During spring training, the girls were required to attend evening classes at Helena Rubinstein's charm school. The proper etiquette for every situation was taught, and every aspect of personal hygiene, mannerisms and dress code was presented to all of the players. In an effort to make each player as physically attractive as possible, each received a beauty kit and instructions on how to use it. As a part of the league's 'Rules of Conduct', the 'girls' were not permitted to have short hair, could not smoke or drink in public places, were not allowed to wear pants, and were required to wear lipstick at all times. Fines for not following the league's rules of conduct were five dollars for the first offense, ten for the second, and suspension for the third.[17] In 1944, Josephine "JoJo" D'Angelo was fired for cutting her hair short.[18] The women's contracts were much stricter about behavior than in the men's league, and each team was also assigned its own chaperone by the league.[4]

Publicity
The AAGPBL received extensive publicity from its inception throughout the 1940s. The league was featured in national periodicals such as Time, Life, Seventeen, Newsweek and American Magazine, as well as in local city newspapers. Philip Wrigley, the league's founder, believed in the value of advertising, which may have contributed to the league's extensive exposure and marketing focus. Wrigley learned to appreciate advertising from his father, William Wrigley, who had success with his chewing-gum company in large part due to marketing methods. The league remained under Wrigley's advertising influence until 1951, when individual team directors took over the publicity.[19]

The league's principal advertising agent was Arthur E. Meyerhoff, who handled the league's publicity from 1943 through 1950. Meyerhoff's promotional efforts focused on the value of national exposure in popular periodicals. These magazine articles attracted new fans and new players to the AAGPBL. The major publicity themes that characterized the league were "Recreation for War Workers", "Femininity", "Community Welfare", and "Family Entertainment".[19]

The league shifted to decentralized league administration from 1951 to 1954.[20] Thus, the responsibility was on individual team management to publicize and promote the teams. However, local managers were not always effective due to their lack of expertise in advertising. In the 1951 season, league president Fred Leo asked all team presidents to provide publicity on games and training events. Only one team complied with Fred Leo's request, which led to an early 1952 preseason board meeting to discuss inadequate promotion.[21]

Due to the decentralized league administration, many of the promotion efforts from team management were aimed exclusively at local populaces. There were many promotional events with players, children's benefits, civic groups and holiday celebrations. Along with daily newspaper reports, the primary advertising strategy was radio broadcasts.[21]

The AAGPBL peaked in attendance during the 1948 season, when 10 teams attracted 910,000 paid fans.[17] The Rockford Peaches won the most league championships with four (1945, 1948, 1949 and 1950). The Milwaukee/Grand Rapids Chicks were second with three (1944 in Milwaukee and 1947 and 1953 in Grand Rapids). The Racine Belles (1943 and 1946) and the South Bend Blue Sox (1951 and 1952) each won two, and the Kalamazoo Lassies won in the league's final season (1954).[4]

Closure
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This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (May 2023)
As attendance and revenues began to fall in the early 1950s, the league became less alluring to players, and some even returned to playing softball. Teams rapidly began to close down operations each year until, at the end of the 1954 season, only five teams remained, and the AAGPBL officially shut down and closed in 1954.[22]