Helen Callaghan
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Helen Callaghan Candaele St. Aubin (March 13, 1923, Vancouver, British Columbia—December 8, 1992, Santa Barbara, California) was a left-handed center fielder who appeared in five seasons in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL); she played under the name Helen Callaghan.
As a rookie with the Minneapolis Millerettes she hit .287, second in the league. She tied for third in homers, was third in total bases, third in hits, third with 81 runs and seventh with 112 steals, in 111 games. The team's third basewoman was Marge Callaghan, Helen's older sister.
The Millerettes could not compete attendance-wise with the Minneapolis Millers, so the team moved in 1945, becoming the Fort Wayne Daisies. That year Helen Callaghan had her best season, batting .299 to lead the AAGPBL. (The league average was .198 that year.) She tied for the league lead in homers (3), led in total bases (156), was second in steals (92), first in hits (122), second in runs (77) and first in doubles (17). She was often called the "Ted Williams of women's baseball". The league was not yet giving out Player of the Year or All-Star honors, but it's clear Helen Callaghan was a candidate for both. Ft. Wayne finished second and advanced to the championship, but fell 4 games to 1 despite a .400 mark from the younger Callaghan.
She slipped drastically in 1946, hitting just .213, even though league averages rose about 10 points. She still tied for third in steals with 114. After missing the 1947 season due to illness, she returned for part of 1948 after getting married and having her first child. However, that year she hit just .191 as a bench player. She finished her career with Kenosha in 1949 as Helen Candaele, bouncing back to a .251 mark, tied for seventh in the league. She was ninth in total bases (113), eighth in steals (65), sixth in doubles and tied for eighth in triples.
She stole 354 bases in just 388 games. Her career batting average was .257, and she had 35 doubles, 15 triples and 7 home runs. She scored 249 runs, had 85 RBI, 355 hits in 1,382 at-bats, 221 walks, and struck out 161 times. Her OBP was thus approximately .359, while she slugged .319.
[edit] Family
Helen had five sons — Casey Candaele is the most famous. He played nine years with the Montreal Expos, Houston Astros, and Cleveland Indians. Another son, Kelly Candaele, produced a PBS documentary special on the AAGPBL. Penny Marshall saw it and it inspired her to create the movie A League of Their Own. Helen Callaghan married a second time and became Helen Callaghan Candaele St. Aubin.
[edit] Death/Legacy
She died of breast cancer in 1992, aged 69. In June 1998, all sixty-four Canadian women who played in the league were inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
