Women in baseball
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Women have a long history in American baseball and many women's teams have existed over the years. Baseball was played at women's colleges in New York and New England as early as the mid-nineteenth century;[1] teams were formed at Vassar College, Smith College, Wellesley College, and Mount Holyoke College.[2] An African American women's team, the Philadelphia Dolly Vardens, was formed in 1867.[3]
A number of barnstorming teams have existed,[4] and women have played alongside major league players in exhibition games. In the 1930s, 17-year-old Jackie Mitchell (originally known as 'Virne Beatrice Mitchell Gilbert') of the Chattanooga Lookouts struck out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game. Commissioner of Baseball Landis voided her contract as a result.[5]
Women's baseball during World War II
During World War II, while the soldiers were away fighting, the baseball players were forced to join the army as it was not fair that other men were dying on the battlefield while others were swinging bats and hitting balls out on the diamond. While the original players left for war, the teams were left with no one. Philip K. Wrigley suggested that women were to replace the males, and play on the teams.
See also
- All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
- The Colorado Silver Bullets (1994-1997)[6]
- Baseball
- Baseball Hall of Fame
- Women In Sports
- Women In Sports Timeline
- Jackie Mitchell
Notes
References
- Cahn, Susan K (1995). Coming on strong: gender and sexuality in twentieth-century women's sport. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-14434-1.
- Gems, Gerald; Linda Borish, Gertrud Pfister (2008). Sports in American History: From Colonization to Globalization. Human Kinetics. ISBN 0-7360-5621-1.
- Ring, Jennifer (2009). Stolen Bases. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-03282-0.