For a dozen years in the 1940s and 1950s, more than 700 women played professional baseball in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Though some saw their brand of ball as a sideshow or wartime diversion, the women were all tough competitors and superb athletes. They set records that remain unequaled by their male counterparts, including Sophie Kurys’ 201 stolen bases in a single season and Joanne Winter’s 63 consecutive scoreless innings. And the 1944 AAGPBL All-Star game was the first night game at Chicago’s Wrigley Field.
This is the most comprehensive look ever at the players of this women’s league. From Velma Abbott to Agnes “Aggie” Zurkowski, over 600 players are profiled. For each player, vital dates, place of birth, height, weight, defensive position, teams played for and seasons active are provided, along with complete career statistics. These data are followed (in most cases) by a brief biographical sketch that details the player’s career, how she came to play in the league and information on her post-baseball career. Most of the photographs are from the personal files of the players and have never before been published.

W.C. Madden, former editor and journalism instructor, is a member of the White County Historical Society and Tippecanoe Historical Association, and the author of 44 books. He lives in Monticello, Indiana.

W.C. Madden
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 295
Bibliographic Info: 147 photos, index
Copyright Date: 2005 [1997]
pISBN: 978-0-7864-2263-0
eISBN: 978-1-4766-2158-6
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments     v
Introduction     1

A Brief History of the AAGPBL     3
Abbreviations Used in Statistics     5
The Players     7
Index     281

“excellent”—Choice; “more than 700 women…comprehensive”—Sports Collectors Digest; “fills an information gap by providing data not readily available elsewhere”—Booklist; “fascinating”—VOYA; “an excellent resource and an enjoyable book to read…can be recommended for both circulating and reference collections in public and academic libraries as well as women’s studies and sports collections”—ARBA; “well-researched…helps fill the void”—Legends Sports Memorabilia; “there is no other reference work comparable…public, school, and academic libraries will want to acquire”—Reference & User Services Quarterly; “a considerable amount of information”—Nine.