Rockford Peaches
The Rockford Peaches were a women's professional baseball team who played from 1943 through 1954 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. A founding member, the team represented Rockford, Illinois.
The Peaches were one of two teams to play in every AAGPBL season, the other being the South Bend Blue Sox. They played their home games at Beyer Stadium on 15th Avenue in Rockford. The team's uniform consisted of a peach colored dress featuring the Rockford city seal centered on the chest, along with red socks and cap. In later years, the Peaches wore a white home uniform with black socks and cap.
History
One of the more successful teams in the AAGPBL, the Peaches won the league championship in 1945, 1948, 1949, and 1950 and had its share of star players.
Peaches players who were named to the All-Star teams from 1946-1954 included Dorothy Kamenshek, Lois Florreich, Dorothy Harrell, Carolyn Morris, Alice Pollitt, Ruth Richard, Rose Gacioch, Eleanor Callow, and Joan Berger.
In addition, Florreich was the pitching champion in 1949 during the league's overhand era, Gladys Davis won the league batting crown in the 1943 inaugural season, while Kamenshek earned the honors in the 1946 and 1947 seasons.
When former player Eileen Burmeister was asked why The Peaches supposedly favored theatricality over technical skill, she notably reacted with a shrug and a quick statement that "if God meant for us to play baseball, He would've made us any good at it." On the other hand, pitcher Olive Little hurled the first no-hitter both in team and league's history.[1]
All-time roster
- Bold denotes members of the inaugural roster
- Velma Abbott
- Melba Alspaugh
- Amy Applegren
- Ange Armato
- Beverly Armstrong
- Charlene Barnett
- Joan Berger
- Rita Briggs
- Jean Buckley
- Shirley Burkovich
- Eileen Burmeister
- Aldine Calacurcio
- Eleanor Callow
- Mary Carey
- Betty Carveth
- Bea Chester
- Jean Cione
- Muriel Coben
- Clara Cook
- Donna Cook
- Dorothy Cook
- Betty Jane Cornett
- Dorothy Cramer
- Louella Daetweiler
- Barbara Anne Davis
- Gladys Davis
- Mildred Deegan
- Wanita Dokish
- Cartha Doyle
- Beverly Dustrude
- Louise Erickson
- Elizabeth Farrow
- Dorothy Ferguson
- Helen Filarski
- Alva Jo Fischer
- Lorraine Fisher
- Lois Florreich
- Anita Foss
- Betty Jane Fritz
- Rose Gacioch
- June Gilmore
- Ann Gosbee
- Dorothy Green
- Carol Habben
- Audrey Haine
- Dorothy Harrell
- Josephine Hasham
- Ruby Heafner
- Lillian Hlavaty
- Margaret Holgerson
- Marjorie Hood
- Lillian Jackson
- Donna Jogerst
- Marguerite Jones
- Marilyn Jones
- Margaret Jurgensmeier
- Dorothy Kamenshek
- Joan Kaufman
- Jacquelyn Kelley
- Adeline Kerrar
- Marguerite Kerrigan
- Nancy King
- Irene Kotowicz
- Dolores Lee
- Josephine Lenard
- Barbara Liebrich
- Olive Little
- Claire Lobrovich
- Jean Lovell
- Shirley Luhtala
- Betty Luna
- Gloria McCloskey
- Ethel McCreary
- Marie Mansfield
- Hazel Measner
- Naomi Meier
- Berith Melin
- Bernice Metesch
- Ruth Miller
- Betty Moczynski
- Dorothy Moon
- Mary Moore
- Carolyn Morris
- Doris Nelson
- Helen Nelson
- Helen Nicol
- Helen Nordquist
- Cynthia Normine
- Anna Mae O'Dowd
- Pauline Oravets
- Shirley Palesh
- Suzanne Parsons
- Barbara Payne
- Migdalia Pérez
- Marjorie Peters
- Betty Jean Peterson
- Hattie Peterson
- Alice Pollitt
- Mary Pratt
- Donna Reid
- Ruth Richard
- Ruth Ries
- Kay Rohrer
- Jenny Romatowski
- Irene Ruhnke
- Margaret Russo
- Sarah Jane Sands
- Dorothy Sawyer
- Edna Scheer
- Marilyn Schmidt
- Violet Schmidt
- Josephine Skokan
- Helen Smith
- Mae Starch
- Elma Steck
- Margaret Stefani
- Lee Surkowski
- Rella Swamp
- Georgia Terkowski
- Barbara Thompson
- Gene Travis
- Betty Tucker
- Joan Tysver
- Virginia Ventura
- Zonia Vialat
- Helen Waddell
- Betty Warfel
- Mildred Warwick
- Rossey Weeks
- Marie Wegman
- Helen Westerman
- Margaret Wigiser
- Hazel Wildfong
- Janet Wiley
- Vilma Williams
- Verna Wilson
- Lorraine Wuethrich
- Betty Yahr
- Source: The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: A Biographical Dictionary – W. C. Madden. Publisher: McFarland & Company, 2005. Format: Paperback, 295 pp. Language: English. ISBN 0-7864-3747-2
Back, L-R: Jacquelyn Kelley, Rose Gacioch, Eleanor Callow, Bill Allington (Manager), Marie Mansfield, Amy Irene Applegren, Carol Habben, Jean Buckley. Front, L-R: Dorothy Harrell Doyle, Dorothy Ferguson, Dolores Lee, Joan Berger, Dottie Green (Chaperone), Alice Pollitt, Ruth Richard, Helen Nordquist, Migdalia Perez.
Managers
| * Eddie Stumpf | 1943 |
| * Jack Kloza | 1944 |
| * Bill Allington | 1945 1946 |
| * William Edwards | 1947 |
| * Bill Allington | 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 |
| * Johnny Rawlings | 1953 1954 |
A League of Their Own
The Rockford Peaches feature in the 1992 film A League of Their Own. However, all of the characters in the film are fictional. The team did not play in the 1943 league championship, as depicted in the film. In real life, the Racine Belles faced the Kenosha Comets.
Sources
- ↑ Immodest and Sensational: 150 Years of Canadian Women in Sport, M. Ann Hall, p.57, James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Toronto, 2008, ISBN 978-1-55277-021-4
- Official Website of the AAGPBL
- Gregorich, Barbara (1993). Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball. Harcourt Brace and Company. pp. 131–140.
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