When Women Played Hardball [Paperback]

For Johnson, a sociology professor, 1950 was a banner year, marking the summer when the 10-year-old Midwest native became a fan of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The league lasted only 11 years (1943-1954), but interest in it was recently revived by the film A League of Their Own . Johnson warmly recalls her own days in the stands and convincingly portrays the importance of the league to young female fans, who often became "Coke girls" to their favorite players, meeting them after every game with a can of soda. Her history alternates excerpts from interviews with 26 of the women who played for the Rockford Peaches and the Fort Wayne Daisies in 1950 with newspaper accounts of that year's championship series between the two teams. Many of the players' recollections have a certain sameness, but the author's enthusiasm for her subject keeps them fresh. Former Peaches catcher Marilyn Jones contends that management insisted on the women being feminine because fans "wanted to see a bunch of girls that acted like girls, and looked like girls and played like boys." Several players were shocked to learn that they were expected to play in skirts and attend "charm school" to learn how to be more graceful; one woman claims "I learned how to be graceful by playing ball out in the pasture, side-steppin' all the cowpies!"
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

As a girl, Johnson was a devoted fan of the Rockford Peaches, a team in the All-American Girls Baseball League (1943-54) that was featured in the 1992 movie A League of Their Own . This book, a love letter to the league and its players, vividly re-creates what being in the league was like for the players, who were "unconventional before, during and after their ball-playing days." Seven chapters recount the seven games of the exciting 1950 playoff series between the Rockford Peaches and the Fort Wayne Daisies. Each chapter is accompanied by an in-depth player profile and a section dealing with such topics as the league's feminine image; game strategy; the players' upbringings; and life after the league disbanded. Johnson lets us share the players' memories, lest we forget the high caliber of their play. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.
- Kathy Ruffle, Coll. of New Caledonia Lib., Prince George, British Columbia
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League began during the male-deficient World War II years and continued through the 1954 season. Among the fans in 1950 was 10-year-old Susan Johnson, the author of this remarkable history of the league. Combining research with extensive interviewing, Johnson tells the league's story through the prism of the 1950 championship series between the Rockford (Illinois) Peaches and the Ft. Wayne (Indiana) Daisies. Each game in the seven-game series is afforded a chapter, with one player providing detailed memories of the game and the events leading up to it. Although most of the players came from poor backgrounds and were able to make considerably more money playing ball than working in offices or factories, it's clear that their motivation to play was as much love of the game as it was money. Decades later, these 60- and 70-year-old women seem to remember every pitch and every out of every game they played. This poignant, personal memoir of an unusual and significant sidebar in American sports history has all the vitality of Lawrence Ritter's classic baseball oral history, The Glory of Their Times (1966). Wes Lukowsky

Several years ago the movie A League of Their Own alerted many Americans for the first time to the existence of the All-American Girls Baseball League, which existed from 1943 to 1954. Johnson's thorough history captures the intensity and ‚lan of the league. The author shows how the league progressed from a wartime, morale-building softball league (brainchild of Philip Wrigley, the owner of the Chicago Cubs) to a postwar hardball league, with players just as gritty as their big-league male counterparts. Johnson conducted 26 interviews of women who played for the 1950 Rockford Peaches and Fort Wayne Daisies, the two teams who fought it out for the league championship. As the interviews illustrate, the league stressed ``high moral standing'' and femininity and rigidly enforced its rules by making players attend a ``Charm School'' where they were taught such ladylike things as applying make-up--which they were made to wear on the field. When not playing, the women were kept under the sharp eye of a chaperone. But there were advantages--the women were doing something they loved, and the pay could be very good. The chapters profiling players are reminiscent of Studs Terkel's interview method: direct, informative, revealing. Marilyn ``Jonesy'' Jones, a catcher, recalls her trouble with catching pop flies--and shows the formerly broken fingers to prove it; ``Willie'' Briggs tells how Hall-of- Famer Max Carey made her a successful base stealer and reminds us just how skillful players must be. Johnson also touches on the homosexuality issue (there was some, but, even now, it's a discreet subject) and just how tough some players were: one woman played until she was four months pregnant. This book will be enjoyed not only by the admirers of the All- American Girls Baseball League, but by baseball fans in general. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

The years between 1943 and 1954 marked the magical era of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League - which proved beyond doubt that women can play hardball. With skill and style, more than 500 women took to the baseball diamonds of the Midwest dazzling fans and becoming a visible and supported part of our national pastime. In the words of "Tiby" Eisen, leadoff batter for the Fort Wayne Daisies: "We played ball just like the big boys, we broke up double plays with spikes held high and we stole bases in our skirts. We did whatever it took to win." Among those cheering was ten-year-old Susan Johnson, a loyal fan of the Rockford Peaches. Four decades later she has gone back to meet her girlhood heroines and remember a sensational baseball series: the 1950 championship between the Rockford (Illinois) Peaches and the Fort Wayne (Indiana) Daisies - two of the League's most winning and dynamic teams. Filled with colorful stories and anecdotes by the women who played in that spectacular series, When Women Played Hardball offers an entertaining look at the culture the league created - and the society it reflected. This is a story about memories, about dreams fulfilled and dreams denied. It is a celebration of a brief yet remarkable period when women truly had "A League of Their Own."