Here are some "A" Illinois history research papers:

The Rockford Peaches:

The Economic and Social

Impact in Rockford, Illinois

December 2006

The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) was a forgotten memory of most Americans.  Women playing baseball was unheard of until two moments brought that memory back to the forefront of people’s mind and the girls who played suddenly became icons for many.  Those two events were the opening of the permanent exhibit Women In Baseball at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York in November 1988[1], and the second was the film produced and directed by Penny Marshall in 1992 entitled A League of Their Own.  It was a long road for the memory to get to this point; however, for many of the players, when the league ended they stopped speaking about their time in the major league.  Times had changed and so had the public’s opinion about women - it was no longer seen as their patriotic duty to play but to return to their home life as a wife and mother.

Four teams began the league and over the years the league would grow to include fourteen teams, although they did not all exist at the same time.  Only two of those fourteen would last the entire time of the league’s existence from 1943 to 1954:  The South Bend Blue Sox and the Rockford Peaches.  The Peaches were successful due to the social and economic environment that developed in Rockford, Illinois.  The Peaches impacted their home city of Rockford, Illinois just as much as the city impacted many of the players, but who were the Peaches and how did they come to the city of Rockford and last as long as they did?  Why did the city come to love the Peaches to the point of giving the Peaches enough money to finish their season with donations from the fans?  How did the league start in the first place and what would motivate these girls enough to leave home and embark on a journey that no one before or since had done?  These are all questions that will be answered in this the history of the Rockford Peaches.

The Big Picture

The 1930s were the years of the Great Depression in America and throughout the world.  Many Americans were out of work, going hungry, and loosing their homes.  Many families suddenly found themselves in trouble and breaking up because they were unable to care for each other.  Nevertheless 1939 was a year of change.  The Germans advanced upon Poland and France and Great Britain due their alliances declared war on Germany, thus beginning World War II.

The United States found Franklin D. Roosevelt calling for the draft to be reinstated in 1941, not to get involved in the war but to keep the peace at home. [2]  All men from the age of twenty one to thirty six years were required to sign up to be drafted into service.  Little did the city of Rockford, Illinois know that the first number to be pulled in the draft, 158, would be one of their own, twenty-six year old George Darrington.  Darrington did not have to serve immediately, however, due to the fact that he had a four-year-old son.[3]  The city and county did its part in World War II, supplying the 1,870 men required for volunteer service, as well as producing the heavy machinery necessary to fight.  Total losses for Winnebago County vary from 285 to over 350 in Rockford alone.[4]  Rockford became a leading city in Illinois for the war effort, that leading role was not unusual for those living there.

Midway

The second[5] largest city in Illinois today was founded in 1834 under the name of Midway.  In 1852, Midway received a name change, Rockford, and also a political change when it was incorporated as a city.[6]  Rockford served as the county seat as well being an agricultural center and an industrial center for the area of Winnebago County.   Corn, wheat, cattle, and hogs were the mainstay for the agriculture industry which all became easier to ship to Chicago when the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad came to town.  Rockford Water Power Company also became intrinsic to the city when they built a dam over the Rock River and began supplying power to the cities manufactures.  Businesses thrived in Rockford and were varied in their operations[7]; furniture however, took the lead and was the mainstay in the area supplied a living for those within city limits.[8]

When the depression hit, Rockford felt the effect and many of FDR’s New Deal programs were put into place.  The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was instrumental in keeping Rockford a working city.  WPA employees constructed the Armory, Levings Lake and Park, airport runways for Camp Grant, outbuildings in Alpine Park and Sandy Hallow Golf Course, . . . The WPA can also be credited for the installation of municipal lighting in the city and upgrades to fire stations.  One of the last WPA projects completed . . . was the removal of streetcar rails.[9]   With the start of World War II, the New Deal programs were no longer necessary for manufacturing was back in full swing and the men were off to fight.

Philip K. Wrigley and Rockford

            Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis -- commissioner of baseball and league president made the announcement that the war effort came before baseball, and baseball no matter how badly played would continue on a restricted basis with the blessings of President Roosevelt.[10]  Philip K. Wrigley, the chewing gum magnet and owner of the Chicago Cubs, was an ardent patriot when it came to supporting the war effort.  Wrigley realized that with the draft system in place many of the professional baseball players were going to be serving.

            The year 1942 ended up being horrible for the Cubs and the question became how was baseball going to survive?  Wrigley had the answer:  an all-girls baseball league.  With women not a part of the draft and with the men no longer available to work their manufacturing jobs the idea of Rosie the Riveter had become a popular notion with America, why not, according to Wrigley, have Rosie the Right Fielder?  Hundreds of softball teams existed in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s and was a popular sport for both men and women.  Over 1,000,000 people had attended softball games in 1942 alone and many did not mind paying to view the sport.[11]   Most of the teams of the time period were sponsored through businesses, churches, and sports clubs.  Wrigley figured why not have professional teams.

            Wrigley approached major league baseball team owners but none were interested in his idea, except for Branch Rickey, president of the Brooklyn Dodgers.  They formed a Board of Trustees along with Paul Harper.  Harper, an attorney and part of the Cubs Board of Directors, now took on the responsibility of establishing a not-for-profit baseball organization.  Hired on to help were Jim Gallagher to take care of the rules and regulations of the new club and Arthur Meyerhoff to take care of advertising and finding cities to buy into the concept.[12]  Ken Sellers, who had worked for Wrigley as the Cub’s general manager was signed on as league president in charge of the day-to-day operations.[13]

            The four mid-size industrial cities, all within 100 miles of Chicago, Illinois, that signed on to have a franchise were South Bend, Indiana; Kenosha, Wisconsin; Racine, Wisconsin; and Rockford, Illinois.  Rockford’s population in 1940 was around 85,000 people[14] and had become a war production town building tanks and weapons where they had once made farm implements.  Rockford also was near Camp Grant[15], which had been reopened with the war effort.  Camp Grant was “the nation’s largest recruit reception center and the Army’s most important medical training center.  In full operation, more that 10,000 trainees passed through the camp every month” and “about 100,000 medical department soldiers were trained there during the war.”[16] 

            The cities put up the $22,500 needed in start up costs for their teams.[17]  In Rockford the first guarantor was the President of Smith Oil and Refining Company, Ernest Smith.  Smith owed Branch Rickey a favor and paid his debt off by introducing the Peaches to Rockford.[18]  Wrigley put up $100,000 dollars of his own money to match the cities contributions.[19]  It is estimated that total cost to start the league was between $200,000 and $250,000 all of which was provided by Wrigley.[20]  During the first season in 1943 the league as a whole proved to be popular with the public for 200,000 people attended in a total gate-receipt of $125,000; unfortunately for Wrigley this was a net loss of $75,000.[21]

A Girl in a Man’s World

            The girls who came to the AAGPBL were not strangers to the world of sports and competition.  Many were fans of professional baseball having heroes such as Dodgers shortstop Pee Wee Reese and second baseman Jackie Robinson, Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig or right fielder Babe Ruth, along with Ted Williams Boston Red Sox left fielder and center fielder Dom DiMaggio, Joe’s younger brother.  Many of these professional players inspired the girls, who would soon become an inspiration to others.  As the Peaches 1948 outfielder and first baseman Gene Travis put it, “Dolf Camilli [Dodger’s First Base 1933-1945] was instrumental in my desire to be a first baseman.”[22] 

Many of these girls learned to play on the city lots in their hometowns right alongside the boys of the community or from family members.  Marilyn Jones, Rockford Peaches catcher from 1950-1952 stated, “I had a brother only twenty-two months older than I.  I competed with him in sports my whole life.”  By the time Jones was twelve years old she began playing organized baseball on playground leagues in Providence, Rhode Island and by age fifteen she was good enough to have a summer job so her employer could use her on the company team.[23]  Louis Erickson, pitcher from 1948-1950 remembers, “I’d get a ball and throw it up in the air out in the yard, and catch it myself, just run around under it.  His [her uncle] glove was so old it had holes in it, so old the horsehair it was padded with was comin’ out.  I’d stick rags in there so the ball wouldn’t sting so bad.”[24] She also remembers playing, “catch with my dad.  He was a very good pitcher for local teams, though I never got to see him play.  He showed me how to throw a curveball.”[25]  It was not only the men in the family who encouraged the girls pursuits sometimes it was their mothers as was the case with Dottie Key, centerfield 1948-1954, whose parents separated when she was a toddler.  Key recalls,

    My mom worked at a dry-cleaning place at the front counter.  We were poor.  We couldn’t afford bats and balls.  Remember when parcels from the store were tied up with string?  We saved all the string, and my ball was made from this hard ball of string.  My mom and I varnished it.  Somebody else made me a bat.[26] 

             During the 1930s and 1940s this type of behavior exhibited by young girls was not typical and therefore the girls were seen as tomboys.  The girls themselves, however, did not see themselves that way and did not realize that was how people perceived them until later in life.  Right fielder and pitcher (1950-1954) Marie “Boston” Mansfield stated it most clearly, “I didn’t even consider myself one [a tomboy] at the time.  After I grew up, my family would say, ‘She was a real tomboy when she was small.’  I never gave it a thought really.  I just did what I felt like doing.  If that was a tomboy, it didn’t bother me at all.”[27]

            As much as it may not have bothered the players to be different and seen as tomboys it did concern Wrigley and his staff.  Wrigley had no desire for the game to take on the rough aspects of drinking, smoking, smoking and fighting that softball had.  Wrigley was a smart businessman and knew that, as author Carolyn Trombe points out that,

    The novelty of women playing professional baseball lay in the fact that they clearly were women in every way who happened to be able to wield a bat, throw a ball, and run the bases. . . . his insistence upon the feminine angle makes sense.  Quite simply, the teams would attract more followers if they acted like ladies.[28]

The uniform issued to the players was a one-piece tunic dress.  The skirt was less than six inches off the knee and concluded with silk panties, a belt, socks, hat, and cleats.  The uniform was “designed to attract fans to the ballpark and to remind them once they were there that they were watching not only real baseball, but real girls.”[29]  The girls were also required to attend charm school.  Alice “Al” Pollitt who played third base from 1947 to 1953 recalls attending classes, “You had to walk with a book on your head, and learn to sit. . . . I don’t know what they were thinking of there; they just wasted their money.  We just laughed about Charm School, you know, like we knew it all anyway.  Of course, the truth is we didn’t know it all.”[30]  Wrigley’s insistence, not only while he was involved but even when he left the league, of behaving like ladies had an impact on the girls of the league just as their home cities did.

Rockford Rules, United Team

            Rules of conduct were set up for the girls playing in all the cities in 1943.  These rules totaled fifteen items and the girls were expected to abide by them.  They were as simple as leaving notice of where they were going and a phone number in case they had to be reached in an emergency.  Looking at the rules today, they also went to the extreme of showing that Wrigley was serious about the femininity of the players: 

1.  At no time may a player appear in the stands in her uniform, or wear slacks or shorts in public.

2.  Boyish bobs are not permissible. . . with longer hair preferable to short hair cuts.  Lipstick should always be on.

3.  Smoking or drinking is not permissible in public places.  Liquor drinking will not

be permissible under any circumstances.  Obscene language will not be allowed at any time.

4.  All social engagements must be approved by chaperones.  Legitimate requests for dates can be allowed by chaperones.[31]

 If players chose to ignore the rules punishment would cost them anywhere from five to ten dollars or even suspension depending on how many times they violated the rules.  Enforcement of the rules varied from team to team as well as by chaperone, however, in Rockford those in charge were strict and conformed to the rules.  Millie Lundahl, chaperone for the Peaches from 1946 to 1947 recalls the difference between the two managers they had at the time Eddie Ainsmith and Bill Allington:

    He [Ainsmith] did not know how to handle girls.  He didn’t want them punished for things, and I said, ‘But those are the rules!’  He’d let them go in a bar and get a drink in their uniforms, and just say, “Oh, it doesn’t hurt anything.”  After one road trip I called the Board of Directors and tried to resign.  ‘I want you to get somebody else in my job; I’m not doing one thing.  Eddies says they can do it, and I say they can’t.’  The next day the President of the Board and three Directors told Eddie he was through.  Allington was marvelous.  He knew everything about the girls, and he used good psychology in getting them to do things, and he was a teacher as well as a coach.[32]

             Not only did the players have the rules of the league they also had their chaperones and coaches looking over their shoulders and scheduling almost every hour of the day for them.[33]  They made sure that the players, anywhere from one to four, could “rent rooms from families whose houses were within walking distance of the ballpark.”[34]  Having the players live in local families houses was done for three reasons:  it kept the young players from becoming homesick, it gave the parents, who had to sign for the player if they were under twenty-one, a peace of mind, and it provided supervision. 

            Friendship between players were important not only to the girls but to the Peaches team as a whole.  Their friendships were different from today due to the fact that they actually did not get to spend that much time together. Jones recalled that, “when we played ball, there wasn’t much socializing.  You’d go out to eat after the game, but you all were at different places.”[35]  There were two choices of how to spend their few hours of personal time - alone or socializing.  For the most part alone time meant players were reading, writing letters, or doing laundry.  When time was spent socializing with each other they usually took in a movie or engaged in friendly competition such as cards or swimming, however, they were also known to sneak out of their houses and fraternize.  The no fraternization policy seems to be the rule that was broke most often, even though it was the most strictly enforced rule by Bill Allington.[36]  As author, Susan Johnson, and a young fan of the Rockford Peaches points out,

    If players were going to get in trouble, it usually involved being out too late, not making the two-hour post-game curfew.  Eating out after the game would - perhaps with the help of a few beers - turn out to be longer than planned.  There are many stories of players creeping down hotel hallways, hoping to avoid the watchful eyes of chaperones.[37]

In Rockford, Rookies were subjected to mild hazing from veterans.  Mansfield explained,

    They’d put Limburger cheese in you glove, or hide your uniform or tie your clothes together.  Things like that.  It never really bothered me too much.  And if it did, you certainly didn’t let them know it.  Of course once you were no longer a rookie, then you started doin’ it to a new rookie.  The torch got passed, you know.[38]

The ability for the Peaches to win so much was due to the fact that so many of them did get along and helped each other.  Dottie Kamenshek, Rockford’s first baseman and seven-time All-Star, played from 1943 to 1951 and again in 1953 recalled,

    You helped another player out if she was blue or down or she didn’t have her family there.  You cheered ‘em up.  You also included everyone when you did things.  You’d say, ‘You eating with anyone tonight?  Would you like to come along with us?’  Especially the rookies, the younger ones, to have them become a part of your team.[39] 

No matter how good a team worked together, what truly mattered to the success of the Rockford Peaches was the support of the community and the fans that came to see them play. 

Fandom

   Male and female attended the games at Beyer Stadium, also known as the Peach Orchard.  Age ranged from five-years to fifty-years old.  But the median age was ten- to twenty-years old with most attending anywhere from one to twenty games on average for at least three seasons.[40]

    Once they [the Peaches] take the field their fans are there, roaring their support while greeting the exploits of visitors with stoney silence.  Hometown players can get energy from their fans and can play beyond themselves.  The practical effect of fan support plus the other home-field advantages is easily documented:  teams in all sports typically win a higher percentage of their games at home than they do on the road.[41]

This is a nice sentiment from a fan; however, it definitely did not start out that way in Rockford where fans came out initially for three reasons:  entertainment, the excitement of attending a game, and patriotism.  Entertainment was the main reason that most people attended the first game at Beyer Stadium.  Girls playing a man’s game, in skirts none-the-less, had to be a good laugh.  As the Rockford Register-Republic who covered the first game in Rockford put it,

    The time was early evening of June 5, 1943.  A skeptical and curious throng, glad of

    something that would take their minds off the war, had come out to the 15^th ave. [sic]

    high school field, ‘just for the laughs,’ to see women try to play baseball.  In the back

                                                                   of everybody’s mind was the thought that perhaps the draft boards would strip the

                                                       men’s clubs of players and that evn the major league parks would stand idle if women

                                                       couldn’t learn the game, just as women were then learning to operate lathes and drill

                                                                   presses.[42]

Girls in skirts - sliding, pitching, catching, fielding and hitting was enough of a reason for those attending the first night.  By the end of the game, however, they knew that they had attended something special.  For as the article went on it stated, “It’s now Labor day of 1950.  And tonight an enthusiastic throng no longer skeptical will be out at the Peach Orchard to help the Peaches close out another pennant race.”[43]

            Henrietta Skinner, the team’s fan club president for three years and lifelong booster, recalled that with the war on there was not much fun in Rockford except going to the ball games of the Peaches.  “The Peaches were winning and winning was fun.”[44]  It was common for the crowds to number between 6,000 and 7,000 people at the games.[45]

            A variety of traditional and promotional nights were set up at Beyer Stadium.  Mayor C. Henry Bloom and City Clerk Elmer O. participated in opening day ceremonies throwing out the first pitch and catching it respectfully.  Mildred Peters, an organist, was also hired to entertain the fans during and after the game.  Promotion nights were big nights for fans attending and they occurred frequently.

    In one week in August 1950, Rockford fans were treated to a fashion show, a pre-game contest between two men’s softball league teams, a night honoring first baseman Dottie Kamenshek at which Rockford’s 1949 League pennant was flown for the first time, Out of Town Night where the fan traveling the farthest won a prize, and the Fire Department’s exhibition of their new hook-and-ladder truck.

Author and fan Susan Johnson recalled winning a free bag of groceries.

    My little sister - six years younger - cannot remember anything about any Peaches games, but she does remember the family winning a free bag of groceries.  All the promotions were fun:  they gave the community something to do and entertained little sisters.  But what really kept the fans coming back was good baseball.[46]

            Excitement was another void that was filled by the Peaches.  “The excitement was so great that the Peaches outdrew their male counterparts, the Rockford Rox, by some 15,000 fans in 12 fewer playing dates in 1947.”[47]  A total of 900,000 fans attended home games of the Peaches in the first ten seasons of the leagues existence.  WROK news reporter Fred Speer was a member of the Rox Knothole Gang[48] who also attended the Peach’s games.  “I went to all of the Peaches’ home games and let me tell you, the Peaches were more exciting.”[49]  This excitement was felt due to the combining of softball elements underhand pitching with a smaller ball, longer base paths, and a greater pitching distance.  In 1948, in order to keep up with the players hitting home runs the pitchers had to switch to overhand pitching.[50]

            The excitement felt to attend a home game spilled over into the excitement of patriotism.  As stated earlier, Wrigley was a patriot and felt that it should be instilled in the game of baseball as much as possible.  Due to the girl’s league, traditions in professional baseball were started and still exist.  The first was having the National Anthem played before each game.  The second was having the girls stand down both baselines while the anthem was being played.  If one looks closely at this stance you would notice that the players make the letter V.  The letter stood for the word victory.  Which is what all were hoping for in World War II.

            The fans and city leaders showed their appreciation for the players by hosting barbecues and picnics as well as luncheons hosted by the different fraternal organizations.  For the girls, even if they did not want to attend, there was no way to decline an offer. [51]  Fan and batgirl, Connie Pagles Baxter recalls her family hosting a barbecue every year, which is what lead her to become a batgirl.  Baxter stated, “The girls played horseshoes, rode the tractor and inspected the barn while . . . mother prepared a country meal of chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy and sweet corn.[52]  The city loved the team so much that a 1950 vehicle sticker had a picture of a Peach with a baseball bat.[53]

            As the league progressed Rockford took the lead in broadcasting as well.  They were one of the few leagues to broadcast not only home games but also away games.  The season lasted from Memorial Day to Labor Day and fans would attend faithfully and “then wait patiently” while the team was on the road.  “Meanwhile, they tuned WROK for broadcasts of out-of-town games.  Once a fan telephoned the station to complain about static.  A station employee apologized and suggested listening to a White Sox game instead.  ‘Traitor!’ the irate fan retorted.”[54]  Rapid fan loyalty was not uncommon in Rockford for as a study conducted by Karen H. Weiller and Catriona T. Higgs suggests:  “the core of the League’s success can be attributed to this strong and stable identification with the teams and players.”[55]

            It also helped that it was a cheap way to spend the evening, children got in for twenty-five cents while adults cost seventy-five cents by 1954, the last season of play, admission reached its high of ninety-five cents.[56]  Regular fans sat in the same seats and rooted for their favorite player.  As noted by Weiller and Higgs, “After every game we bought out player a drink . . . all the other gals liked Coke or 7up, but my player like black coffee, so many a night I’d get scaled running to the locker room with hot coffee.”[57]  The fans who usually took part in this ritual were the young girls who looked up to the Peaches and fantasized about one day being a Peach themselves, this dream became a reality only for a few - like Barbara “Bobbie” Thompson.  Thompson began playing when she was eight years old and was a fan.  In 1951, upon her dad’s suggestion that she go to the tryouts to see what things were about and to figure out what she needed to learn, she surprised everyone - including herself, by making the team.[58]

A League and Town of Their Own

            Making the team was a big deal to those who played for it proved to themselves that they could compete and compete well.  “I used to be so sad because we never did have a girls’ league.  My aunt said to me one time, ‘Someday, Snookie, they’re gonna have a league, a girl’s league, and then you’re gonna be able to play.’”[59]  Dorothy “Snookie” Doyle ended up playing for the Peaches as a shortstop from 1944 until 1952.

Most players never considered that they would not make the team when they arrived for tryouts.  Erickson didn’t give tryouts a second thought; “I played on the back streets with the neighbor kids.  At the time I didn’t think about it.  I really didn’t.  I just figured, well, I knew how to play ball.”  However, she was surprised that the league discovered her,  “How they found me, that’s enough right there.  From a little hole in the hill like this is [a small Wisconsin town] . . . and to have it turn out like it did!”[60]  Key’s sentiments are the same,

    A lot stayed and a lot went home.  It would have been hard for me to take, having to go home.  Because I wanted to play ball.  I don’t know what else I would have done.  I really don’t.  I was determined.  I think I would have been ashamed to go home. . . . I never worked so hard or kept my eyes and ears so open, because I was not goin’ home! 

Dottie signed a contract with the Peaches for $75 a week in 1945.  At the time she was working in a warehouse for between $18 and $20 a week.”[61]

            Money was a motivating factor for joining the league as well.  Salaries in 1943 ran from forty-five dollars to eight-five dollars a week depending on the position a player was at and how good the player was a making deals.  By 1950 salaries were running between fifty-five dollars to one hundred twenty-five dollars a week.  For most players this was double what they had making in their other jobs.  Pitcher Helen “Nickie” Fox (1943-1954) was a clerk making twelve dollars fifty cents prior to joining the league, after joining she made eighty-five dollars a week.[62]  Jones recalls, “My Dad didn’t want me to go, he didn’t want me to give up the secure job I had.”  Instead she received a contract for fifty-five dollars a week, double what she was making at the phone company.[63]

            The money that the girls made gave them a sense of freedom they had not experienced before and it was difficult for them to give up the idea of being a ball player and being single.  Most players continued to stay single for their entire life for others marriage did come -eventually.  Key recalls,  “I knew what I wanted.  Don kept saying, ‘Let’s get married now.’  In 1946, 1947, 1948. “Nope,” I said, and ‘Nope’ and “Nope.  I’m going back to play ball.”  Then in 1949 I said, ‘Okay, but I’m still going to play ball.’  That was fine with him.  He was my number one fan.”[64]

Players married their fans and at least five Peaches, Helen “Sis” Waddell, Key, Doyle, Jones, and Dorothy Ferguson ended up staying in Rockford the rest of their lives, due to their marriages and the love they had for the city of Rockford. 

Economic and Personal Success

            Since the league was run as a not-for-profit enterprise they club had to find a way to give away its excess earnings after the distribution of league expenses for each team.  The Scholarship Series was one program established.  The scholarship, for one thousand dollars was awarded to a girl whose team would win the post-season tournament.  The league donated five hundred dollars and the other five hundred came from the ticket sales of the post-season.  The money was to be used to pay for “tuition, fees, and other expenses for a four-year course in physical education at the respective state university.”[65]

It was decided in 1945 by the Management Corporation, who took over the league, the money earmarked under Wrigley, should go to the Parks and Recreation departments in order to support the baseball teams of the towns.  The towns were to use the money to support youth baseball and recreation programs.[66] 

            In 1947, the Junior League Girls Baseball program for girls 14 and up was started in Rockford.  The girls playing for this league received uniforms and equipment that the Peaches no longer were using and in return the recreation program taught the girls how to play according to AAGPBL rules.  This was done in order to prepare young girls to join the league at a later time.[67]

The fans and city responded in kind to the Peaches paying the players in a different way.  Since business owners could not pay the players for any endorsements the merchants came up with a way to pay the players for doing what they were suppose to.

    In 1950, three businesses . . . promised cash prizes to Peaches who distinguished themselves during games.  Hoffman and Son Jewelers and Optometrists awarded $2.00 to women who hit doubles; Mandt Brake Service gave $3.00 to those who hit triples; and Johnson and Burke Jewelers awarded $3.00 to pitchers who pitched shutouts and catchers who caught them, as well as $5.00 to players who hit home runs.”[68]

Key remembers fans giving money to the players for doing well also, “I hit a home run over the center fielder’s head.  And when I was done, I had to go around the edge of the stands because people wanted to give me money.”[69]  Ruth Richards broke her ankle when her cleat became stuck sliding into second.  The Rockford Morning Star reported that,  “A collection was taken among fans for Catcher Ruth Richard, who broke her ankle in the last game of the regular season.  The total collected was $602.  Ruth will have to wear a cast on her leg for eight more weeks.”[70]

            In 1951 the league went through a major shift in management.  “A commission was instituted to conduct league business . . . , and all team personnel were placed under team rather than league control.”[71]  With this shift a change began to occur in the league.  There was no central scouting program or player allocations so girls were now under contract to their team and could either stay or leave depending on the money.  “By 1952, some of the older players were aware that the league’s financial stability was in jeopardy, and they opted to seek ‘real jobs,’ a college education, or play in the Chicago league rather than return . . .”[72]

            The Peaches fans remained loyal and in 1954 when the team could not afford to rent Beyer Stadium the fans stepped in.

    The gates of Beyer stadium are ajar again this year for the Rockford Peaches - subject to payment of $1,000 the club owes the board of education.  Members of the board have informally approved a new Peaches Fans’ association request to rent the field this year, after the fans’ group had promised to pay off the old debt.  With payment of the $1,000, board members appeared glad to return a tarpaulin, score board and athletic equipment which Hugh Tolmie, board director of buildings and grounds, had been holding as security.[73]

But their support just was not enough to keep the league running.  At the end of 1954, the AAGPBL disbanded through the agreement of the five teams that were still remaining.  Still fans and players were left wondering how it had come to this point.

Why the League Ultimately Failed

            There are two main reasons why the league disbanded in 1954:  ownership change and the changing social climate of America.  As stated early, in 1951 Rockford and the other clubs bought the ownership of their teams and so changed the outlook of the game.  By buying themselves out of the league the clubs saved themselves $7,000[74] but new problems were created.  No longer were teams kept at an even ability and skill level and city interest now took over the league interest.  With the caliber of player ability dropping the AAGPBL had nowhere to turn to for new recruits, except for the Negro League, which would have created a scandal, and player raids became common for the balance of talent began to shift, leading to a drop in attendance. Promotion of the league suffered as well since the cities could not afford to do it themselves. The budget went from $8,445 in 1948 to $200 in 1952.[75]

Money issues were also plaguing the league and team owners could not take the chance of having negative publicity or experience any high risks, such as hiring Negro League players, that would cause the attendance of fans drop any further than what they had.[76]  Just as television was starting to become popular the fans of girl’s baseball were starting to drift away.  Rockford was struggling with attendance in 1953 to the point that the Peaches owners asked Kamenshek, who had retired two seasons before, to come back to play for the season just to get people in the seats.[77]  Jean Kaufman described the final days of the league:

                                                                Financially, they were really having problems.  We never did get our last paychecks.

                                                                After the last game of the season, a couple of players kept their uniforms.  They

                                                                wouldn’t turn them in until they got paid.  I wish I had kept mine, because it would

                                                                have been a nice memento.  I think the cleaning company wound up with the

                                                    uniforms.[78]

Where had all the loyal fans gone?  It was a simple answer.  Society had changed and left the girls behind.  Having gone through two wars, World War II and Korea in such a short time had caused a backlash in how Americans perceived women working.  No longer were Americans interested in the strong, independent woman doing their patriotic duty, they now wanted to focus on the “women’s roles within the family”[79]

            The world was changing as well and no longer were people stranded in their cities.  In 1949 bus system ridership decreased by 12% from the year before and by 1951 the Central Illinois Electric and Gas Company, owners of the bus system, was operating at a loss of more than $35,000.[80]  The use of the automobile had increased dramatically since the end of World War II not only in the United States where between the years 1946 to 1950 over twenty one million cars were sold and in Rockford where the citizens suddenly found their streets clogged with traffic.  With the lifting of the gas rationing people were now able to travel to find entertainment further than their place of residence. 

            Television was also causing a change in the number of people attending ball games.  In May 1953 KTVO, channel 39, began operation followed seven months later by WREX-TV channel 13 - people no longer needed to leave their homes to enjoy a game of baseball for they could now watch the major leagues on television.[81]

Allington’s All-Stars

            Former Peaches manager, Allington did not want to see the league end and so he took it upon himself to keep the game going - with radical changes.  In 1954 Allington’s All Star’s went out on an Exhibition Tour to see how interest was.  Termed as the “battle of the sexes” it called for all men’s teams to challenge the women in a head to head game.  The gimmick worked and the team played for the next two months.[82]

In 1955, the first official season began with Allington choosing eleven players to be on his team:  seven from the Fort Wayne Daisies, three from the Peaches, one from the South Bend Blue Sox, and one from the Grand Rapids Chicks.  The 1955 players included:  Betty Foss, Katie

Horstman, Jean Geissinger, Maxine Kline, Dottie Schroeder, Lois Youngen, and Dolly Vanderlip from the Daisies; Joan Berger, Ruth Richard, and Dolores Lee from the Peaches; Gertrude Dunn from the Blue Sox and Jeneane DesCombes from the Grand Rapids Chicks.[83]  The team played baseball under the men’s rules with the exception that the pitcher and catcher for each team switched sides so the men pitched to the men and the women to the women.  By doing this it made up for the physical differences between the two sexes.

Allington had no start up cost for his team since everyone who was on it had played in the AAGPBL and therefore had their own gloves, baseballs, and shoes[84] Their uniforms were the old Daisies uniforms with the patches changed on them.  Travel took place in two vehicles - Allington’s and a player’s.  Advertising and Booking agent Mat Pascale was able to find seventy-nine games against white men’s teams in that year.[85] 

The team traveled a total of 12,626 miles and they were responsible for paying for their lodging and meals as well as any miscellaneous expenses.  In return, they, including Allington, received a cut of the gate receipts from each game, so they were paid by each game that they played in.  It is for this reason that many of the girls played no matter how hurt they were.  Pay for the 1955 season ranged from $868.48 to $889.48, however with all of the players expenses gross income was actually closer to $420 to $470 for the season or $120-$134 a month.[86]

The original team minus Betty Foss returned in 1956 along with three new players - Mamie Redman, Jean Smith, and Margaret Holland[87] and the rumor spread that they would be playing all over the world.  For as the Fort Wayne newspaper reported, “Baseball promoters in Japan attempted to induce the team to tour their country playing local competition, but satisfactory financial arrangements have not materialized.” Financially, the team did not fair as well in the sixty-nine games they played.  Net income ended up being around $152.78; it was not for the lack of fans that caused such a small income but the fact that they had too many fans.  Allington’s team traveled all over the country and the girls couldn’t make any money due to the expenses. [88] 

Allington’s All Americans changed to Allington’s World Champion in 1957.  The team began to change as well, players now included Joan (Berger) Eisenberger, Maxine Kline, Jean Geissinger, Ruth Richard, Dolores Lee, Dottie Schroeder, Betty Foss, Jean Smith, and two new players who’s names appeared in the announcement of the team but they never played during the season:  Hazel Brooks and Mary Wilson.[89]  With eighty-three games scheduled the financial picture looked brighter.  Unfortunately, the distance was just as great playing in fifteen different states.  Hotel hopping for five months had brought in around $98.74 and the girls along with Allington called it quits at the height of their popularity.  In August, they played a special game against some former South Bend Blue Sox players who still lived in South Bend.  Their old coach even came out of retirement to participate in the event.  This season turned out to be the last season that women would play professional baseball.

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