The Baseball Guru - Women in Baseball February 2001 by Leslie Heaphy

Baseball season is just around the corner so another winter of waiting is nearly over. There will be lots to look forward to this season and hopefully many of you will be able to attend the women's games being played in your area.

Cleveland hosted the 1^st women and baseball conference the weekend of February 9-11^th with sessions on the history of the game, playing and coaching as well as organizing teams and leagues. The key note speaker was Dorothy Seymour Mills with Audrey Daniels from the AAGPBBL also speaking. The place to find out more about these kind of events is www.MsWBL.com.

The conference brought together players, coaches, and other interested people to discuss the future of women's baseball which looks bright. The idea that came out of the conference is to establish a national organization to help coordinate all the efforts that are going on and to keep people in contact with one another. It will also help us to document the history that is being created now. A national tournament and more international competition can be expected also.

Also attending this conference were two women umpires from Canada who have worked for men's and women's games there. The exciting piece they shared with us is the upcoming Female Umpire's Clinic in Kincardine, Ontario this fall (September 28-30, 2001. If you have any interest in becoming an umpire or just want more details you can reach Lisa Turbitt-Baker at 905-633-9425. This clinic is entering its fifth year being presented.

Committee Project Update: Based on responses I have received and talking to some others who will be involved in this project I have proposed to Mark Alvarez a book that is more comprehensive than a top 25 and will include a whole variety of broad essays as well as individual entries to cover as much of the history as we can and make this useful to researchers and fans alike. Preliminary guidelines have been written and passed on to Mark Alvarez so that we can begin to move forward. Stay tuned for more information and requests for participation. I hope to see a large response from our committee for research and writing when the time comes. What would be helpful to me at this time would be to hear from the members of our committee about their areas of expertise concerning women and baseball. Please e-mail or write and let me know what areas you could be most helpful with.

Remember to keep watching for articles, books, other programs pertaining to this subject and send them to me.

Keep sending me information and I will be sure it gets passed along.

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Recent books, articles, websites and other projects. Thanks to the following people for sending material.

Gai Berlage, Dick Clark, Harrington Crissey, Jim Glennie, Denver Howard, Larry Lester, Dorothy Mills(Seymour), Jim Nitz, John Pardon, SABR-L, Joan Thomas, Justine Warren, Tim Wiles.

(**Denotes item available for a SASE, 1 stamp per 4 pages).

WWW.MSWBL.COM-- new website from the Cleveland area. It is an on-line baseball magazine to promote and inform people about women's baseball.

www.akisa.com/Books-E.html-- this site has a number of listings for different women's baseball groups as well as books and other information

Up to the Plate by Margot Fortunato Galt, 1995.

** Results of the Championship game at the Roy Hobbs Baseball Championship in November

**AAGPBL Series III card set released by Larry Fritsch Inc. (Call 715-344-8687).

**Obituary from Sports Collectors Digest on Dolores Moore.

** "Women Take Field Again as Players Reunite in Milwaukee" Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 25 August 2000.

** "These Girls Could Play Ball." The Journal Times, 28 August 2000.

** "Tip of the Cap for Pioneers." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 27 August 2000.

** "Belles, Old Rivals Safe at Home" Racine Journal Times, 29 August 2000.

** "Kenosha Comets Reunite for a Day of their Own." Kenosha News, 29 August 2000.

** "Getting back in the Swing of things." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 27 August 2000.

** "Talented Chicks Forced to Leave Nest." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 26 August 2000.

** "Weaker Sex, Who Says?" Sport Life March 1949.

** "How Women Play Ball." Chicago Tribune, 18 May 1879

HBO program entitled "Sex in Sports" had a short section on Beverly D'Angelo, a South Bend player.

** "The True First Female Ump."

"Baseball as a gender specific Sport" can be found at www.prgwmn.com

** Interested in how to get a new women's team started? Looking for tips and ideas? Request a copy of the starter kit put together by Jim Glennie.

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Research Requests

Tom Brucato is looking for the championship series results for the AAGPBL. He has the winners but would like more details. Any information can be sent to me or to Tom at tbrucato@umr.com

Anyone with any information on umpire Christine Wren please send it to Leslie Heaphy.

Justine Warren continues to look for input as to why women play baseball. Ideas can be sent to her at Jwarren101@aol.com.

John Pardon is looking for information about the uniform shown in the movie "A League of their Own" that said on it Peekskill Parks. Any information can be sent directly to John at PO Box 728, Crugers, NY 10521.

Any articles about the AAGPBL Summer 2000 reunion? Please pass on to Leslie Heaphy.

The Public Museum of Grand Rapids is looking for memorabilia, artifacts etc for an exhibit on baseball they are planning for the year 2003. If you can help them out or want to learn more about their plans you can reach them at Public Museum of Grand Rapids, 272 Pearl Str., NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504

Anyone have any articles from last year's many women's games that were played all over the country? Please send copies to Leslie Heaphy so they can be saved and become part of the record of Women and baseball. The same will be true for this upcoming season-if you see an article just make a copy and send it to me.

What are you looking for? What are you currently working on? Let us know and we can help one another as we are doing our research.

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Trivia Question

Does the name Mary Hamilton Van der Beck ring any bells for anyone? If you know who she is and her connection to baseball please e-mail and we'll see who knows the correct answer.

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Women's Baseball Festival 2001

Will be held from June 28- July 1^st in Toronto. The championship games will be played at the Skydome.

Women's World Series--July 4^th through the 8^th in Toronto. For more details on either of these upcoming competitions contact Peter Topolie from Baseball Ontario at 519-740-3900 or at baseball@iprimus.ca

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http://www.womenplayingbaseball.com/

a good link to all kinds of information about women's teams and tournaments around the country.

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Roy Hobbs Women's Amateur National Championships--October 24-28, 2001 in Fort Myers, Florida. For more details contact Tom Giffen at 888-484-7422 or tom@royhobbs.com. They also have a website at www.royhobbs.com

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Interested in writing a review for our newsletter? How about writing up your thoughts on books about the Colorado Silver Bullets? Send your reviews to Leslie Heaphy for inclusion in the next newsletter. If you have another book you'd like to review write up your comments and send them in.

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Looking for a chance to play baseball yourself or know someone who wants to play? Contact Justine Warren at Jwarren101@aol.com or Jim Glennie at jimbosk@mindspring.com

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Kim Braatz

An outfielder for the Colorado Silver Bullets. Kim played softball for the University of New Mexico before joining the Bullets. In 1990 she received second team All-American honors at the university. In 1993 Kim hit .466 for a professional softball team in Italy and also coached an 18 and under team while there. With Colorado Kim was best known for her stellar defensive play, tying for the team lead in assists by an outfielder even though she missed part of the season with a back injury.

(most of the information above came from Kim's baseball card put out by the Silver Bullets.)

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There are a number of recent changes in the AAGPBL Player's Association including a new web address at www.AAGPBL.org

Jeneane Lesko will be the new editor of their newsletter and can be reached at 4401 145^th Ave NE #J-5 Bellevue, WA 98007 or at Jeneane@aol.com.

The player's reunion will take place this fall in Grand Rapids, MI September 5-9^th, 2001.

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Series # 3 of the AAGPBL Cards is now available from Fritsch Cards for $10.95. They can be ordered at 735 Old Wasau Rd. PO Box 862, Stevens Point, WI 54481.

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Please send correspondence, questions, suggestions, ideas to Leslie Heaphy for future newsletters. Also, I heard from a number of you and am grateful for the responses. Those who did not respond please try to let me know whether you still wish to receive our newsletter. Please write or e-mail me as to whether you wish to continue to be on the mailing list. If I do not hear from you I will not be sending future issues of the newsletter. Thanks for your help in keeping our list updated. Just a reminder that some of you have not paid your dues to SABR yet this year and should send that in if you also want to continue receiving other SABR publications.

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Thanks,

Leslie and Claudia

Looking Ahead: SABR 31 in Milwaukee from July 11-15^th. On the program as of now is a player panel from the AAGPBL and our committee meeting scheduled on Thursday, July 12 at 9 a.m.