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

Baseball season has arrived and there are lots of surprises to watch. As a result of lots of planning already this year the Women's World Series is being held from July 4-8, 2001 in Toronto. Teams will be playing from Canada, Japan, Australia and the United States. For more details you can contact Jim Glennie at Women's International Baseball Association, 294 Willoughby Rd, Mason, MI 48854 or at jimbosk@mindspring.com. This is an exciting development for women's baseball.

This Labor day Cleveland, Ohio will be playing host to the WBL's Baseball Fest. Activities will include an All Star game, the WBL Championship game between the Eastern and Great Lakes Conference, a homerun derby, a girls tournament and more. The girls tournament is designed for teams under age 13. For more information or to sign up a team contact Justine Warren at jwarren101@baseballglory.com.

The Waterbury Diamonds reported in their May newsletter that they won the recent Citrus Blast by defeating the Ocala Lightning 11-8. En route to that final victory they also defeated the Florida Tornadoes, the South Bend Blue Sox, the Orlando Fire, and the Chicago Storm.

Lots of information can be found on the internet on most of the women's teams that are currently playing. If you find a good site please pass on the address so it can be shared with others.

The AAGPBL will be holding their annual reunion in Grand Rapids, MI in early September. If you have an interest in attending and meeting some of the players you can contact the AAGPBL Player's Association for more details.

At this year's annual SABR meeting our committee will be gathering at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, July 12^th to discuss guidelines for our book project. Claudia Perry will be conducting our meeting. We hope many of you will be present but if you cannot be there and have ideas or suggestions please send them to me before the July 12^th meeting so they can be passed on to the committee. It also looks like there will be a player panel from the AAGPBL that should be exciting to go and listen to.

Committee Project Update: The progress is slow but it is happening. 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. The idea is to include individual entries for prominent players but to have longer essays covering each team in the AAGPBL, the Colorado Silver Bullets, the current teams playing, etc. Preliminary guidelines are being worked on and will be shared at our committee meeting in Milwaukee. 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.

Michelle Cristens, Dick Clark, Paul Debono, Jim Glennie, Mary Lou Kolanko, Larry Lester, Skip McAfee, Barry Swanton, Justine Warren, and Tim Wiles.

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

"From the Grandstands to the Dugout: Women in Baseball Literature." By Kathleen Sulivan Porter, Dissertation, 1999.

** 6 pages of materials related to baseball in Canada from the AAGPBL and today.

** "Baseball's Black Trailblazer." On Effa Manley, 13 February 2001.

** "Gendered Baselines: The Tour of the Chicago blackstocking."

** "Lady is an Ump" about Ria Cortesio.

** "Diamond Girls" by Michelle Christens, written for a class project.

** "Welcome to the US Women's Baseball…"

** "Woman to Play 1^st Base for the Havana Stars." 5/12/17 Chicago Defender

**"MaryLou Kolanko Was a Girl of Summer"

** "A League of Her own" on Peanut Johnson

"An Invitation to see the Hanshin Tigers: Japanese Baseball as seen through the Eyes of a Female Fan." Nine, Vol. 9.

"Confessions of an All-American Girl: Madonna's Model" Faye Dancer with John Holway in Nine, Vol. 9

** Rockford Peaches 1945 Program Booklet

**Copy of a player's contract for Bobbie Little

** "Belles Split with Rockford"

** Short article on Spring Training in Havan, Cuba in 1947.

** Induction program for the 1998 ceremony at the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame

** Short excerpts from a 1944 True sport magazine

** "Players Recall Glory Days"

**Section from the AAGPBL Newsletter on the 1943 Racine Belles and the 1943 South Bend Blue Sox

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Research Requests

Patricia Martinelli is looking for information on the Philadelphia Bobbies--please send any help to her at ghostwrtr@netzero.com

Frank Fitzpatrick is looking for information about the Dolly Vardens who played in the 1860s. Any help you can offer him please send directly to Leslie Heaphy or to Frank at ffitzpatrick@phillynews.com

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

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 with information about women playing in other countries, particularly Latin America? Please send any information you have to Leslie Heaphy.

Suzanne Howarth is looking for information on women who have played professional softball. Ideas can be passed on through Leslie Heaphy. She is particularly interested in African-American women players.

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

(repeated since no one sent in a reply)

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.

Have a good question to ask our members? Please send it in before the next newsletter for inclusion.

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Want to be published in our newsletter? I continue to look for reviews, player bios, short articles, poetry--anything that you are writing about women and baseball. Share your work with others who share your interests.

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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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Ruth Middleton

An outfielder for Chicago, Battle Creek and Muskegon. Originally from Winnipeg Ruth joined the AAGPBL in 1950 and played through the 1953 season. She played in 195 games during her career and batted .185. Her real prowess came in the field where she had a good arm and covered a lot of ground. She also stole 25 bases while walking 77 times.

(Information from her Larry Fritsch Baseball Card, 1995).

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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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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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Interested in something in particular related to Women's baseball? Where can you go for information? The best place to start is the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Ask for Tim Wiles. The Northern Indiana Center for History in south Bend has the archives for the AAGPBL. The Joyce Sports Research Collection at the University of Notre Dame has AAGPBL Materials. Ask for the curator George Rugg. The Midway Village and Museum Center in Rockford, IL has an exhibit for the Rockford Peaches. You can call them at 815-397-9112 for hours. The Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame has materials related to Canadian players in the AAGPBL.

You will also want to check out the redone website at http://www.AAGPBL.org

There is a great deal of excellent information contained on this website, especially in their articles section.

*********************************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. Our committee is only as active as you the members help to make it. 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

Congrats to the following players on the American team playing in the women's World Series in Toronto in July.

Allison Adams (MD)

Elaine Amundsen (CT)

Tammy Chambless (FL)

Ashley Cook (MA)

Christene Dennis (FL)

Danielle Feretti (CT)

Jen Goodwin (MA)

Katherine Gurley (OH)

Jill Haas (RI)

Terri Lynn Herbst (NY)

` Karen Hunger (FL)

Theresa MacGregor (CO)

Melissa Miller (IN)

Donna Mills (MA)

Erin Mullen (OH)

Millie Muniz (FL)

Judy O'Brien (MA)

Jen Pawol (NY)

Victoria Ruelas (CA)

Trista Russo (NY)

Deb Sroczynski (MA)

Katy Smythe (MI)

Joni Stegeman (IL)

Amy Stinton (CT)

Kate Titus (CA)

Shelly Uwaine (HI)

Molly McKesson (FL-Inj. Reserve)