A Whole New Ballgame

In May 1943, Betsy Jochum stepped onto the diamond at Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago Cubs. She and nearly 300 other women from across the United States and Canada had been invited to try out for the first professional baseball league for women.

“Women playing on Wrigley Field—could you imagine that?” says Jochum, now 97.  

Not many people could imagine that 75 years ago, when a woman’s place was supposed to be in the home, not playing pro sports. But America’s entry into World War II in 1941 had forced the nation to rethink gender roles in a variety of fields, and that helped open the door for the creation of the new league, which would come to be known as the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

Only 60 players would make the cut for the original four teams. Jochum, who had grown up playing softball in Cincinnati, Ohio, impressed the scouts with her speed, hitting, and fielding, and was selected to play for the Blue Sox of South Bend, Indiana.

In May 1943, Betsy Jochum stepped onto the diamond at Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago Cubs. She and nearly 300 other women from across the United States and Canada had been invited to try out for the first professional baseball league for women.

“Women playing on Wrigley Field—could you imagine that?” says Jochum, now 97.

Not many people could imagine that 75 years ago. Back then, a woman’s place was supposed to be in the home, not playing pro sports. But America’s entry into World War II in 1941 had forced the nation to rethink gender roles in a variety of fields. That helped open the door for the creation of the new league, which would come to be known as the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

Only 60 players would make the cut for the original four teams. Jochum had grown up playing softball in Cincinnati, Ohio. She impressed the scouts with her speed, hitting, and fielding. They selected her to play for the Blue Sox of South Bend, Indiana. 

She and the league’s other players had been chosen for two important tasks: to boost Americans’ morale during wartime and to keep the national pastime alive while millions of men were overseas fighting.

Long before the 1972 passage of Title IX banned gender discrimination in high school and college athletics (see “A Level Playing Field?” below) and fueled the rise of women’s professional sports, these pioneering women proved that they belonged among the ranks of pro athletes.

She and the league’s other players had been chosen for two important tasks. They were considered a way to boost Americans’ morale during wartime. They filled the need to keep the national pastime alive while millions of men were overseas fighting.

The 1972 passage of Title IX banned gender discrimination in high school and college athletics (see “A Level Playing Field?”) and fueled the rise of women’s professional sports. Long before that, these pioneering women proved that they belonged among the ranks of pro athletes.

During her first season with the Blue Sox, Jochum earned $50 per week—more than a lot of jobs paid back then, and about the same as many male minor league ballplayers made.

“It was quite an opportunity to get paid to play a game,” says Jochum. “It was the greatest feeling in the world.” 

When Jochum was growing up, there were no professional sports leagues for women, though some individual female athletes had achieved stardom. In 1931, a 17-year-old girl named Jackie Mitchell did play for the Lookouts, a minor league team from Chattanooga, Tennessee, and she even struck out New York Yankees Hall of Famers Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig back-to-back in an exhibition game. But, Mitchell said, baseball commissioner Kenesaw Landis then banned her from ever playing major league ball.

During her first season with the Blue Sox, Jochum earned $50 per week. That was more than a lot of jobs paid back then, and about the same as many male minor league ballplayers made.

“It was quite an opportunity to get paid to play a game,” says Jochum. “It was the greatest feeling in the world.” 

When Jochum was growing up, there were no professional sports leagues for women. However, some individual female athletes had achieved stardom. In 1931, a 17-year-old girl named Jackie Mitchell did play for the Lookouts, a minor league team from Chattanooga, Tennessee. She even struck out New York Yankees Hall of Famers Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig back-to-back in an exhibition game. But, Mitchell said, baseball commissioner Kenesaw Landis then banned her from ever playing major league ball.

Women were kept out of jobs in many industries. But World War II led to a change in the way women were viewed in the workplace. By 1943, more than 10 million men had joined the armed forces to fight overseas, leaving a shortage of workers on the home front. As a result, the U.S. government started the Rosie the Riveter ad campaign to attract women to the workforce, and more than 6 million women answered the call during the war, often stepping in to fill jobs that only men had done before. Many went to work in factories, where they built the weapons, ships, and planes used against Germany, Japan, and the other Axis Powers.  

The war had taken a toll on Major League Baseball. By 1943, more than half of the league’s players had traded their baseball uniforms for combat fatigues after getting drafted or enlisting to fight, and attendance at games was dropping. Commissioner Landis had even considered suspending baseball altogether during the war. In 1942, he wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt asking for his advice. Roosevelt responded the next day, urging him to keep the players on the field.

“I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going,” the president wrote. “There will be fewer people unemployed and everybody will work longer hours and harder than ever before. And that means they ought to have a chance for recreation and for taking their minds off their work.”

Women were kept out of jobs in many industries. But World War II led to a change in the way women were viewed in the workplace. By 1943, more than 10 million men had joined the armed forces to fight overseas. That left a shortage of workers on the home front. As a result, the U.S. government started the Rosie the Riveter ad campaign to attract women to the workforce. More than 6 million women answered the call during the war. They often stepped in to fill jobs that only men had done before. Many went to work in factories, where they built the weapons, ships, and planes used against Germany, Japan, and the other Axis Powers.

The war had taken a toll on Major League Baseball. By 1943, more than half of the league’s players had traded their baseball uniforms for combat fatigues. They were either drafted or they voluntarily enlisted to fight. Attendance at games was dropping. Commissioner Landis had even considered suspending baseball altogether during the war. In 1942, he wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt asking for his advice. Roosevelt responded the next day, urging him to keep the players on the field.

“I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going,” the president wrote. “There will be fewer people unemployed and everybody will work longer hours and harder than ever before. And that means they ought to have a chance for recreation and for taking their minds off their work.”

But how could baseball executives keep fans interested in the game when so many of the top players were off to war? Philip K. Wrigley, the owner of the Chicago Cubs and the Wrigley chewing gum company, came up with an idea: to create a women’s league that combined both baseball and softball with its own modified rules. His hope was that women would help keep the national pastime going, just as they were carrying on the work in offices, on farms, and in factories. 

Wrigley sent scouts to softball and baseball fields across the country and Canada to recruit women for the new league. All the players had to be white, just as in Major League Baseball, which wouldn’t allow a black player until 1947. 

But how could baseball executives keep fans interested in the game when so many of the top players were off to war? Philip K. Wrigley, the owner of the Chicago Cubs and the Wrigley chewing gum company, came up with an idea. He envisioned creating a women’s league that combined both baseball and softball with its own modified rules. His hope was that women would help keep the national pastime going, just as they were carrying on the work in offices, on farms, and in factories. 

Wrigley sent scouts to softball and baseball fields across the country and Canada to recruit women for the new league. All the players had to be white, just as in Major League Baseball, which wouldn’t allow a black player until 1947. 

The scouts were in search of athletic talent, but they also paid close attention to the players’ appearances and behavior. Wrigley and his partners felt that fans would buy into the idea of a women’s baseball league only if the players exhibited the feminine standards of the era. In a letter to potential players in 1943, they wrote that the game “will be truly a feminine game without taking away any of the thrilling action. . . . Girls will dress, act, and carry themselves as befits the feminine sex.”

The players were expected to act “ladylike,” both on the field and off. They were forbidden from drinking alcohol or smoking in public, they had to be accompanied by a team chaperone at all times, and they always had to wear “feminine attire.” They even had to play while wearing shorts and a skirt, often leaving them bruised and bloody from sliding. And during the league’s first two seasons, all the women were required to attend charm school, where they were taught how to walk, talk, and sit “like a lady” and to put on makeup.

Some players resented the league’s emphasis on their femininity rather than on their athleticism, but they knew they had to play by the rules if they wanted to play ball. 

“They wanted us to look like Marilyn Monroe and play like Joe DiMaggio,” one player, Sophie Kurys, told the Associated Press in 2003.

The scouts were in search of athletic talent, but they also paid close attention to the players’ appearance and behavior. Wrigley and his partners felt that fans would buy into the idea of a women’s baseball league only if the players exhibited the feminine standards of the era. In a letter to potential players in 1943, they wrote that the game “will be truly a feminine game without taking away any of the thrilling action. . . . Girls will dress, act, and carry themselves as befits the feminine sex.”

The players were expected to act “ladylike,” both on the field and off. They were forbidden from drinking alcohol or smoking in public. They had to be accompanied by a team chaperone at all times, and they always had to wear “feminine attire.” They even had to play while wearing shorts and a skirt. That often left them bruised and bloody from sliding. And during the league’s first two seasons, all the women were required to attend charm school. There, they were taught how to walk, talk, and sit “like a lady” and to put on makeup.

Some players resented the league’s emphasis on their femininity rather than on their athleticism, but they knew they had to play by the rules if they wanted to play ball. 

“They wanted us to look like Marilyn Monroe and play like Joe DiMaggio,” one player, Sophie Kurys, told the Associated Press in 2003.

The league had its first games on May 30, 1943, with all the teams located in the Midwest, near Chicago. At a stadium in Rockford, Illinois, only 700 people watched Jochum and the Blue Sox defeat the Rockford Peaches, 4-3, on opening day. League attendance started off small, and many of those who went to the games did so for the novelty of seeing women play baseball.

“You got a lot of people that liked to see the legs and laugh, but they didn’t expect to see you play good baseball,” player Lavonne “Pepper” Paire said in 1992. “We got them out there maybe because of our uniforms, maybe because of the publicity, but we kept them there because we played damn good baseball.”

Indeed, the players soon began winning over more fans with their talents. Wally Pipp, a former New York Yankees first baseman, called one player, Dorothy “Dottie” Kamenshek, “the fanciest fielding first baseman I’ve ever seen, man or woman.”

The players not only helped take people’s minds off the war, they also captured the patriotic mood of the country. During the playing of the national anthem before each game, the two teams lined up from home plate down the first and third baselines in the shape of a “V” for victory. The ballplayers—many of whom had husbands, boyfriends, or brothers off fighting—also played exhibition games at Army training camps and hospitals.

 By 1945, the year the war ended, the league’s popularity had exploded, with at least one team even outdrawing the local men’s semipro squad. The league’s popularity reached a peak three years later, expanding to 10 teams and attracting more than 900,000 fans to games.

The league had its first games on May 30, 1943, with all the teams located in the Midwest, near Chicago. At a stadium in Rockford, Illinois, only 700 people watched Jochum and the Blue Sox defeat the Rockford Peaches, 4-3, on opening day. League attendance started off small. Many of those who went to the games did so for the novelty of seeing women play baseball.

“You got a lot of people that liked to see the legs and laugh, but they didn’t expect to see you play good baseball,” player Lavonne “Pepper” Paire said in 1992. “We got them out there maybe because of our uniforms, maybe because of the publicity, but we kept them there because we played damn good baseball.”

Indeed, the players soon began winning over more fans with their talents. Wally Pipp, a former New York Yankees first baseman, called one player, Dorothy “Dottie” Kamenshek, “the fanciest fielding first baseman I’ve ever seen, man or woman.”

The players not only helped take people’s minds off the war, they also captured the patriotic mood of the country. Many of the ballplayers had husbands, boyfriends, or brothers off fighting. During the playing of the national anthem before each game, the two teams lined up from home plate down the first and third baselines in the shape of a “V” for victory. They also played exhibition games at Army training camps and hospitals.

By 1945, the year the war ended, the league’s popularity had exploded. At least one team even outdrew the local men’s semipro squad. The league’s popularity reached a peak three years later. It expanded to 10 teams and attracted more than 900,000 fans to games.

Jochum, who had earned the nickname “Sock ’Em Jochum” for her hitting, retired from the Blue Sox after the 1948 season. She used the money she’d saved during her playing career to pay for college, and she later became a teacher.

After 12 seasons, the league folded in 1954, done in largely by the new medium of TV, which had begun broadcasting Major League Baseball, dramatically lifting its popularity. After the war, more traditional gender roles returned, and women were encouraged to give up their jobs to returning veterans and move back into the domestic sphere.

But by then the idea of women in pro sports had begun to take hold. The Ladies Professional Golf Association (L.P.G.A.) teed off for the first time in 1950, and women have made great strides in athletics since (see timeline, below).

Jochum had earned the nickname “Sock ’Em Jochum” for her hitting. She retired from the Blue Sox after the 1948 season. She used the money she’d saved during her playing career to pay for college, and she later became a teacher.

After 12 seasons, the league folded in 1954. It was done in largely by the new medium of TV, which had begun broadcasting Major League Baseball, dramatically lifting its popularity. After the war, more traditional gender roles returned. Women were encouraged to give up their jobs to returning veterans and move back into the domestic sphere.

But by then the idea of women in pro sports had begun to take hold. The Ladies Professional Golf Association (L.P.G.A.) teed off for the first time in 1950. Women have made great strides in athletics since (see timeline, below).

Though the first women’s professional baseball league soon became a largely forgotten piece of history, the players finally received national recognition in 1988 when the Baseball Hall of Fame opened a women in baseball exhibit. Four years later, the league got the Hollywood treatment in the film A League of Their Own, starring Madonna, Tom Hanks, and Rosie O’Donnell.

Today, players like Jochum are remembered as pioneers in sports. For more than a decade, they shone on the ballfield and changed the way many people viewed female athletes.  

Says Jochum: “They realized that women can play as well as the men.”

Though the first women’s professional baseball league soon became a largely forgotten piece of history, the players finally received national recognition in 1988 when the Baseball Hall of Fame opened a women in baseball exhibit. Four years later, the league got the Hollywood treatment in the film A League of Their Own, starring Madonna, Tom Hanks, and Rosie O’Donnell.

Today, players like Jochum are remembered as pioneers in sports. For more than a decade, they shone on the ballfield and changed the way many people viewed female athletes.

Says Jochum: “They realized that women can play as well as the men.”