Leslie
Heaphy /
Ladies
Leagues
Women in Baseball
Committee Newsletter
November
2001
Vol. XXV
@Society for American
Baseball Research
Send info., questions,
submissions, etc to Leslie Heaphy, 2214 31st str, NW Canton, OH
44709, or e-mail; Lheaphy@stark.kent.edu
******************************************************************************
Let me begin by
congratulating Team USA for their victory in July at the World Series
Tournament. Japan got the Silver
and Australia won the bronze.
CONGRATULATIONS
to all!!!!!!!!
The baseball season
has wound to a conclusion. Now
is the time we begin to reflect and reminisce about past glories as we wait
for the spring and another season.
This year was an exciting one for womens
baseball. It began with a national
conference this past winter, saw the creation of a U. S. National team and
the playing of a World Series at the Skydome in Toronto in July, and Jim
Nitz moderated the panel of AAGPBBL players at the SABR Annual Meeting this
summer. The participants included
Vivian Sheriffs Anderson, Annastasia Batikis, Jackie Mattson Baumgart, Betty
Moczynski, Mary OHara, Joyce Hill Westerman.
The season recently
culminated with two events. The
AAGPBBL held their reunion in September and an umpires clinic for female
umpires was held in Ontario. All
of these activities point toward exciting things to come for the
sport. With the increased activity
we need to continue to think about documenting this history as it is happening
so that twenty years from now we are not in the position we are now in looking
to the past and searching for the
stories. Please send me any
and all articles, programs, citations etc that you
find. It will be better for
me to receive the information four times than not at
all. You can either mail the materials to me or attach them
as e-mails or even fax an article to me at
330-494-6121. Thanks in advance
for your continued help in preserving the history of women in
baseball.
A great example
of this kind of work was an exhibit this past July in Fort
Wayne. The exhibit focused on
the Fort Wayne Daisies.
*********************************
Committee Project
Update: Guidelines are being finalized and
prepared for authors. A beginning
list of topics and people has been created with the committee input
included. Letters will be going
out to many of you asking you to write specific sections based on your interests
you have shared with me previously.
If you would like to be involved and have not let me know of your
interest and are of expertise please do so
soon. If you are not interested
in writing but would be willing to do some research for the various entries
please let me know that as well.
There is lots of room for the entire committees
participation. The general timeline
we are looking at is to have the first round of articles turned in by August
2002.
Some of the topics
will include: an historical overview, Little League integration, Bloomer
Girls, female owners, etc.
*********************************
Recent books,
articles, websites and other projects.
Thanks to the following people for sending
material.
William Albach,
Jim Amato, Dick Clark, Jim Glennie, Mary Lou Kolanko, Larry Lester, Skip
McAfee, Barry Swanton, Justine Warren, Tim Wiles and Laura
Wulf.
(**Denotes item
available for a SASE, 1 stamp per 4 pages).
**Diamonds
are a Gals Worst Friend: Women in Baseball History and Fiction.
Peter Bjarkman
** Womens
Baseball Literature Bibliography by Peter Bjarkman
** They played
the Game Review by Stephen Lehman
** Transition
of Womens Baseball by Gai
Berlage (10 pp).
** Five short news
articles from the 19th century
** Diamond Angle
Interviews with Salty Ferguson, Earlene Risinger and Pepper Paire
Davis
**
Robinsons Legacy:
Black Women and Negro Baseball by Gai
Berlage
** Mixed
Signals by Julianna Skluzacek
** She loved
Baseball by Amy Essington
** I Havent
Got Ball
players. Ive got Girls
by Robert Rudd and Marshall Most
** Our Forgotten
World Champions: the 1944 Milwaukee Chicks by Thomas Morgan and James
Nitz
** NY Clipper
articles
** Grace
CoolidgeThe First Lady of Baseball by David
Pietrusza
** Playing
Ball with Girls Stephen Lehman
** Baseball
is a mans game: Or is it? by Jean Hastings
Ardell
** Force
Out by Diana Helmer
** You Hit
Like My Mother by Diana Helmer
** Dream Come
True about Katy Smythe
** Chicago Tribune
article from 1870
** The Double
Standard by Ken McMillan
** Lonely
Voice about a female announcer
** Roster of US Womens Baseball team for
the World Series this past summer
Leagues of
Their Own
Beginning in February, 2003 the Grand Rapids Public Museum will be
hosting an exhibit examining the connections between Michigan and the AAGPBL
and black baseball. Find out more about this exciting new exhibit by calling
616-456-3977 or at www.grmuseum.org
*********************************
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.
Maddie Johnston
is a fan and player in London who is looking for information about teams
in England. Anyone with any
ideas can send them directly to me and I will forward them to
her.
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.
*********************************
Trivia
Question
What positions did
Faye Dancer play when she was in the AAGPBBL?
Have a good question
to ask our members? Please send
it in before the next newsletter for inclusion.
********************************
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.
********************************
Stacy
Sunny
A catcher and third
baseman for the Colorado Silver Bullets in 1994 and 1995 Sunny had the third
highest batting average for the team in
1994. Before joining the Bullets
Sunny had played for UCLA and Nebraska.
When she is not playing baseball Sunny works as a freelance TV/Film
producer.
(Information from
her Silver Bullets baseball card)
*********************************
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.
*********************************
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.
*********************************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.
*********************************
Thanks,
Leslie and
Claudia