Ruth Born

Ruth Born
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
Pitcher
Born: (1925-08-08) August 8, 1925
Bay City, Michigan
Bats: Right Throws: Right
Teams
Career highlights and awards
  • Women in Baseball – AAGPBL Permanent Display
    at Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (1988)

Ruth Born (born August 8, 1925) is a former pitcher who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5 ft 3 in (1.60 m), 125 lb, she batted and threw right-handed.[1][2]

Ruth Born was one of the original South Bend Blue Sox founding members of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League for its inaugural season in 1943.[3]

A native of Bay City, Michigan, Born grew up playing sandlot ball with her neighborhood kids at an early age, most of them boys, but did not start participating in an organized league until she was 12 years old, playing at school and in park softball leagues. At the age of 13, she put on her first uniform with a Moose Lodge team.[4][5]

In 1943, she read an advertisement in the local newspaper offering girls an opportunity to try out for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. She wrote the office and was given a tryout in South Bend, Indiana after the season had begun. She made the grade and was accepted on the local team.[5]

Born pitched in just 11 games, going 4–5 with a tenth best earned run average of 3.59. But she did not feel comfortable in the new circuit. I was in over my head, she explained in an interview. Nevertheless, she added that the best thing about playing professional ball was being paid to do what she loved. I enjoyed every minute!, she boasted.[4][5]

She did not return in 1944 and choose to attend college. She earned a bachelor's degree from Valparaiso University and attained a master's degree in psychiatric social work from Loyola University Chicago. Then she went to work for private social agencies in child welfare and family services. She retired from the Federal Department of Health and Human Services in 1991 after 23 years of services.[4][5]

Ruth Born is part of Women in Baseball, a permanent display based at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, which was unveiled in 1988 to honor the entire All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

Career statistics

Pitching

GPWLW-L%ERAIPHRAERBBSOWPHBPWHIP
11 4 5 .444 3.59 67 61 47 27 47 6 7 1 1.61

Batting

GPABRH2B3BHRRBISBBBSOAVEOBP
11 18 1 2 0 0 0 3 0 BB SO .111 .200

Fielding

GPPOAETCDPFA
11 5 15 2 22 1 .909

[1][4]

Sources

  1. 1 2 "All-American Girls Professional Baseball League official website – Ruth Born profile".
  2. ↑ The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: A Biographical Dictionary – W. C. Madden. Publisher: McFarland & Company, 2005. Format: Softcover, 295 pp. Language: English. ISBN 978-0-7864-2263-0
  3. ↑ 1943 South Bend Blue Sox
  4. 1 2 3 4 The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
  5. 1 2 3 4 "The Diamond Angle – Ruth Born Interviewß".
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