A HISTORY OF WOMEN’S BASEBALL


While the Washington Women's Baseball Association is part of a new grass-roots era of women's baseball, women have been playing the game for over 125 years. In the 19th century, a few recreational women's clubs were formed at various colleges in the United States, such as Smith and Vassar. One player, Lizzie Arlington, made history as the first woman to play in a men's pro baseball league by pitching in one game from Reading against Allentown in an 1899 game between the two Pennsylvania cities.

By the early part of the 20th century, the most prominent women's team was the Bloomer Girls, featuring versatile star Maud Nelson. Nelson started with the Bloomers in 1897 and went on to play over 40 seasons. The Bloomers (who at times included male "ringers" in wigs like Rogers Hornsby and Smokey Joe Wood) were actually a number of barnstorming clubs that played men's semipro and amateur teams throughout the USA and Canada. Another Bloomer Girl star in the 1920's was Edith Houghton, primarily a catcher but versatile enough to play all positions. She was only 13 years old when she joined the New York Bloomers in 1925.

In 1931, a 17-year-old girl named Jackie Mitchell signed a contract to pitch for the Chattanooga Lookouts and drew a crowd of 4,000 when she pitched in an exhibition game against the New York Yankees. Mitchell entered the game in the first inning and fanned Babe Ruth on four pitches before whiffing Lou Gehrig on just three tosses. If Mitchell's appearance was merely a publicity stunt, the joke was lost on Ruth, who kicked the dirt, cursed the home plate and heaved his bat before storming back to the Yanks dugout. The crowd loved it, however, and gave Mitchell a standing ovation that lasted several minutes. She was pulled after walking another Hall of Famer, Tony Lazzeri, and never pitched in a pro game again.

By the time 1943 rolled around, America was embroiled in World War II and many top ballplayers were in the military fighting in the Pacific and Europe. Amid concerns that major league baseball might eventually have to cancel their schedule, Chicago Cubs owner (and chewing gum magnate) P.K. Wrigley began the All-American Girls Softball League. Yes, softball. Wrigley's league began playing a modified version of fastpitch, but evolved into near-regulation baseball by the time the renamed All-American Girls Professional Baseball League shut down 12 years later. The AAGPBL stands as the only women's pro baseball league ever, and their players were given their own wing in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York in 1988. After the AAGPBL folded following the 1954 season, longtime Rockford Peaches manager Bill Allington formed a touring "Allington's All-Americans" team that toured the country in two cars for four more years before calling it quits in 1958.

While the AAGPBL was still going in 1952, a shortstop named Eleanor Engle signed a contract with the Harrisburg Senators of Pennsylvania. Minor league president George Trautmann voided the contract two days after Engle signed it, calling the transaction a "travesty." Later that same year, organized baseball formally banned women, a ban that remains in place over 50 years later.

After Allington's All-Americans folded in 1958, there was no formal women's baseball in the country for over 35 years, although occasional blows were struck when girls were allowed to play Little League baseball and Julie Croteau succesfully sued to become the first woman to play NCAA men's baseball for St. Mary's College of Maryland in 1989. Although the AAGPBL players had been inducted at Cooperstown a year earlier, women's baseball had seemingly faded into oblivion until a movie and a team changed everything.

The 1992 release of "A League of Their Own" sparked a renewed interest in women's baseball. Starring Tom Hanks, Geena Davis and Madonna, the film was loosely based on the AAGPBL's first season and led to the formation of a number of women's teams in America, mostly east of the Mississippi River. Then, in 1993, Atlanta Braves executive Bob Hope culminated a longtime dream by forming a women's professional team.

Hope had attempted to gain a franchise for a proposed women's team called the Sun Sox in the Class A Florida State League, but was rebuffed in his effort as the minors made it clear their ban stood firm. The Coors Brewing Company in Colorado signed on as a sponsor, and the Colorado Silver Bullets were born. Former pitching great Phil Niekro was brought in as manager, and a number of tryout camps were held across the nation (including one in Tacoma) before a final roster was set for the team's opening game on May 8, 1994 in Charlotte, North Carolina against the independent pro Northern League All-Stars. One of the Silver Bullet players was Julie Croteau.

After absorbing a 19-0 drubbing at the hands of the Northern Leaguers, the Silver Bullets abandoned their original plan to play pro teams and instead played a 44-game schedule against men's amateur and semipro clubs. Although they finished with a 6-38 record in 1994 (pitcher LeeAnn Ketchum had five of those wins, including a shutout), the Silver Bullets were an extremely popular draw and drew large crowds to college and minor league ballparks that season.

The team gradually improved over the years and actually showed a winning 23-22 record for 1997. By then, however, the Silver Bullets were on their last legs and played 15 games at their home base of Albany, Georgia (although they did play a July 3 contest at Denver's Coors Field). After the season, Coors pulled their funding and the team had to fold prior to the 1998 season because a new sponsor could not be found.

While the Silver Bullets are gone, they planted the seeds of a new movement by giving a nationwide object lesson for four seasons that girls CAN play baseball, and play it well. Many teams and leagues were formed in the wake of the Silver Bullets, including the Washington Women's Baseball Association.

The WWBA began in 2003 with one team, the Washington Stars. With nobody to play against locally, the Stars had to travel to tournaments in other states for competition over their first two seasons. Enough players were rounded up to form a three-team league in 2005, and when the dust settled on the circuit's 12-game schedule in late August, the Eastside Ravens of Bellevue beat Seattle's Westside Falcons in the WWBA title game before a record crowd and a live radio audience in Centralia. Last November, the Stars traveled to Florida for their first National Championship tournament and finished fifth.

Many of the players in the WWBA are premier athletes working to convert from fastpitch and other sports to baseball, but that is to be expected at this stage of development. After all, this is a new beginning, and the WWBA is an ongoing celebration of the hopes and dreams that go along with it as they follow in the footsteps of the likes of Lizzie Arlington, Maud Nelson, Jackie Mitchell and Julie Croteau. The WWBA is history in the making.

Bruce Baskin (copyright 2006)