As World War II depleted the available manpower available to the major and minor leagues, Chicago Cubs owner Phillip Wrigley came up with a plan to ensure baseball would continue in the war years: the creation of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The inaugural season in 1943 was so successful that two additional teams were added for 1944.
One of the players brought in to fill the rosters of the new teams was Dottie Wiltse, a star softball player from Southern California. Assigned to the newly formed Minneapolis Millerettes, Wiltse went on to become one of the dominant players in the AAGPBL. During her six-year career with the Millerettes and the Fort Wayne Daisies, Dottie Wiltse Collins (married to Harvey Collins in 1946) pitched in 223 games, with a 117–76 record, 1205 strikeouts, and an earned run average of 1.83.
Based on extensive research and interviews with Collins and other principals, this work covers the pitcher’s early career as a softball player, her triumphs in professional baseball, and her part in the renewed interest in the women’s league in the late 1980s.

SABR member and award winner Carolyn M. Trombe lives in Wynantskill, New York. She is an an associate member of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association.

Carolyn M. Trombe
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 208
Bibliographic Info: photos, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2005
pISBN: 978-0-7864-2188-6
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8238-2
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vii

Preface      1

First Inning

Daddy’s Little Pitcher: 1936–1939      5

Second Inning

The Million Dollar Baby: 1940–1943      26

Third Inning

Off to the Big Time: The Minneapolis Millerettes, 1944      46

Fourth Inning

The Orphans Find a Home: The Fort Wayne Daisies, 1945      69

Fifth Inning

Give Me Your Answer, Do: The Daisies, 1946      93

Sixth Inning

A Pregnant Pause: The Daisies, 1947–1948      115

Seventh Inning

Ladies Don’t Grow Up to Play Baseball: 1950–1983      136

Eighth Inning

Home at Last: The 1980s to the Present      158

Ninth Inning

Epilogue      183

Bibliography      187

Index      191

“revealing and delightful”—The Columnist.com.