When Women Stepped Up to the Plate

“They weren’t just keeping baseball alive —
they were keeping America’s spirit alive.”

The year was 1943.
Across America, factories roared, ration books filled kitchen drawers, and baseball diamonds grew quiet. The men who once played under summer lights were now halfway across the world. But then came a new sound — the thud of a ball in a woman’s glove.

Philip K. Wrigley, owner of the Chicago Cubs, refused to let America’s pastime fade away. His idea? Create a league of women players to keep baseball — and morale — alive. He thought it would be as temporary as women working in factories.

In May’s Long Wait (pages 21–22), I wrote about the many jobs women took on during the war. But I left out one of the most exciting ones — the women who kept America’s favorite game alive.

Beyond the factories and offices, another kind of teamwork was forming — one that took place under summer skies and stadium lights. Four teams were actually formed.

 At the beginning of each game, during World War II, the players would line up in a “V” for victory before the Star-Spangled Banner was sung. They also had their own Victory Song, which appears below.

On and off the field, the women were expected to live by a strict Code of Conduct — and even attend Charm School! If a player broke a rule, she faced fines: five dollars for the first offense, ten for the second, and suspension for the third.

Here are a few of the rules that guided their behavior, courtesy of the Northern Indiana Historical Society:

1. Always appear in feminine attire when not playing. Uniforms, slacks, or shorts in public were forbidden.
   
2. Hair must be neatly styled, preferably long. Lipstick should always be worn.
   
3. No smoking, drinking, or foul language in public.
   
4. All social engagements required chaperone approval.
   
5. Jewelry could not be worn during games or practice.
   
6. Players had curfews and approved housing.
   
7. Skirts had to be at least six inches below the knee.
   
8. No fraternizing with players from opposing teams during the season.
   
9. No relatives or visitors allowed on the bench.
   
10. Missing your train meant paying your own fare!

(The full list appears on www.aagpbl.org.)

The movie A League of Their Own tells the story of the women’s professional league, which ran from 1943 to 1954.

When we visited Cooperstown in 2007, Stan and I were lucky enough to meet two women who had played for the Rockford Peaches in 1947. Stan asked them how accurate the movie was. They said it was “about 80% right.”

They mentioned that sisters often played on the same team — something the movie only hinted at. As Stan pointed out, for many women from rural areas, practicing with a sister just made sense. The players also believed that at least two women in the league were talented enough to play in the Major Leagues with the men, but obviously, they were never given the opportunity.

Learning about these women ballplayers of World War II gave me a new way to picture life on the home front — full of determination, teamwork, and hope that carried our parents’ generation through hard times.

They opened doors that would never close again.
Just like May’s long wait for Bernie, these women waited too — for news, for peace, for their chance to prove what they could do.

Whenever I think of them now, I hear the echo of that Victory Song and imagine their pride.
They didn’t just play ball.
They played for all of us.

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Sources

• https://www.history.com/articles/womens-baseball-league-world-war-ii
• https://sandlotstats.com/PDFs/OtherLeagues-Ch16.pdf – part of Stan’s Interesting Facts section