Pauline Pirok

Pauline Pirok [pier-ock] (born October 18, 1926) is a former infielder who played from 1943 through 1948 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5' 2", 132 lb., Pirok batted and threw right-handed. She earned the nickname Pinky Pirok.^[1][2]

Background

Chewing gum magnate and Chicago Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley decided, in 1942, to start a women's professional baseball league, concerned that the 1943 Major League Baseball season might be canceled because of World War II. Since the only organized ball for women in the country was softball, the league created a hybrid game which included both softball and baseball. Wrigley had scouts all over the United States, Canada and even Cuba signing girls for tryouts. About 500 girls attended the call. Of these, only 280 were invited to the final try-outs in Chicago, where 60 of them were chosen to become the first women to ever play professional baseball.

The players were placed on the rosters of four fifteen-player teams. Then, four non-Major League cities were selected that were in close proximity to the AAGPBL headquarters in Chicago and close to each other: Rockford of Illinois, South Bend of Indiana, and Racine and Kenosha of Wisconsin. Publicist Arthur Meyerhoff was given the responsibility of coordinating operations with city officials and civic leaders in communities, as well as a projected budget was developed. The first spring training of the new league was set for May 17, 1943, at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Pauline Pirok survived the final cut to become one of the original players signed by the league.^[3]

Biography

A native of Chicago, Illinois, Pirok entered the AAGPBL in 1943 with the Kenosha Comets, playing for them two and a half years before joining the South Bend Blue Sox (1945–1948). For six years, she divided her playing time at third base and shortstop, making a few appearances as an emergency pitcher. Her most productive season came in 1943, when she hit a career-best .234 average as a 17-year-old rookie. In that same season, Pirok helped Kenosha beat the Blue Sox in a game, 10–0, collecting four hits in five at-bats, including a double and a triple. In the following series against the Rockford Peaches, which the Comets swept, she kept up her hot hitting going 4-for-10, including four of the eight runs that her team scored in the series. During two consecutive years the Comets advanced to the playoffs, but were beaten in the first round. At the end of the season, she was selected to the All-Star Team.^[2][3][4]

At one point during the 1945 season she was leading the league with 20 runs batted in, but Kenosha traded her to South Bend along with Phyllis Koehn in return for Lois Florreich and Dorothy Schroeder. After that Pirok injured her ankle and lost the rest of the season. From 1946 to 1948, she was mostly used to fill at infield, outfield and pinch hit, helping South Bend to make the playoffs in these years, but unable to reach the league finals. She was also one of two hundred players to attend the first AAGPBL spring training outside the United States, which was held in 1947 in Cuba at the Gran Stadium de La Habana.^[3][5]

Following her playing career, Pirok worked as a physical education teacher for 36 years in the Chicago Public School system. After retiring, she became an avid golfer to stay active. Pirok was living in Orland Park, Illinois as of 2008.^[6][7][8]

Batting statistics

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Legacy

The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League folded in 1954, but there is now a permanent display at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at Cooperstown, New York since November 5, 1988 that honors those who were part of this unique experience. The entire AAGPBL is now enshrined in the Hall rather than any individual player. A League of Their Own is a 1992 film about the first season of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. While the film does not use real names, filmmaker Penny Marshall seemed to be aiming for realism, as her film includes fake newsreel footage and pseudo-documentary present day scenes at the beginning and end of the fictitious story. A League of Their Own itself was inspired by the 1987 documentary of the same title, written and produced by Kelly Candaele, one of the five sons of Helen Callaghan, who in 1945 won the AAGPBL batting championship with a .299 average. Pauline Pirok, like many of her colleagues, was relatively unknown until the Marshall's film was exhibited for the first time.^{[10][11][12][13]}

Sources