(crowd chattering) (bat smacking) (crowd roaring) - [Narrator 1] Baseball, America's pastime.

Sandlot leagues, town leagues, minor and major leagues, all provided men and boys places to play as amateurs and professionals.

In 1943, however, a war and a baseball magnate's desire to save the game gave young women the chance to play professional baseball on a team of their own.

- I get teary-eyed just thinking about it because it was never a dream to become a professional ball player.

- The people, oh, they're gonna go out and have a good laugh and see this novelty, women playing in skirts.

We had a full house.

Well, they weren't laughing when they saw how well we played.

I never thought I would see a women's professional baseball team, and never thought I'd be on one.

(mellow wistful music) - From its beginnings, American women played baseball, but there was ongoing debate about the role of women in competitive sports.

In towns and cities around the country, most little girls who loved baseball found their passion for playing limited to backyard lots and fields, while some communities provided more organized opportunities.

- Well, I happened to be the only girl in a neighborhood of all boys, and that was from age 10 on.

So if I didn't play with them, I wouldn't be playing with anybody.

So my mother and father, always knew where to find me.

At the ball field.

- The Christmas when I was about 12 years old, I asked for a baseball glove.

And my mother told me that girls don't get baseball gloves.

And I said, well then I don't want anything for Christmas.

If I can't have a glove, I don't want anything.

- The team came down to my house and they told me they didn't want me on the team anymore because the other town's kids and teams were laughing at us because they had a girl on the team.

But it took 'em about a week before they came trudging back down and asked me to join 'em again because they'd lost two games, and they wanted me back on the team.

I said, well, that proves that winning is more important than having a girl on a team.

- In school, the guidance counselor was trying to get me interested in college courses.

And I always told her that I was gonna play professional ball.

And she said, "But, Sue, "girls don't play professional baseball."

I said, I don't care.

I kind of had the attitude the good Lord would see to that.

- I can remember telling my dad once my dream was if I could play ball every day, that would be my dream come true.

(planes roaring overhead) (explosive blasting) - [Narrator 1] In January of 1942, shortly after Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt received a letter from Baseball Commissioner Landis.

"The time is approaching," he wrote, "when in ordinary conditions, "our teams would be heading for spring training.

"However," he continued, "In as much as these "are not ordinary times, "I venture to ask what you have in mind "as to whether professional baseball "should continue to operate."

The president responded with an emphatic yes.

It would be best for the country, he wrote, to keep baseball going.

Spring training took place.

And the 1942 professional season began.

As the war intensified, over 500 major leaguers and 4,000 minor leaguers left for the armed services.

The 1943 baseball season was likely to become a casualty of the war effort.

Philip K. Wrigley, owner of the Chicago Cubs, as well as baseball fields in Chicago and Los Angeles, knew women's softball often outdrew professional men's baseball teams.

He had the funding and the organization to create an alternative to men's major league baseball.

Let women play baseball instead.

(bat smacking) Women playing baseball not only would keep the game alive till the boys came marching home, but would also provide entertainment for war workers.

By putting teams in Midwestern cities that were centers for war manufacturing, Wrigley was guaranteed an audience searching for relaxation.

In addition to scouting, Wrigley knew that publicity was key to finding the best ballplayers to bring on board.

He placed articles in national magazines, as well as local newspapers and sports magazines.

Every year, the All-American Girls' Professional Baseball League would advertise nationwide for players.

- My dad was reading the paper.

And he said to me, there's a All-American girls' baseball league that's having tryouts, and it's gonna be right in the neighborhood.

- And the boys, they came up to me and asked me if I'd hit some fly balls to them getting ready for the game.

I said, sure.

So I did that for about 10 minutes.

And then I went back and sat on the bench.

And this man came up to me, asked me if I'd like to play professional baseball.

And I said, yeah, I'm trying to, 'cause I've seen it in the magazine.

(train horn blowing) (train rattling) This is the first time I'd actually been away from home by myself.

It was an experience for me.

- I had mixed feelings about it.

I didn't know if I wanted to be away from home or get on a bus and go to all these strange towns.

Even just getting to Chicago.

I was kinda scared to tell you the truth because I hadn't been out like that.

- [Narrator 1] Players faced stiff competition in league tryouts.

Hundreds of girls and women showed up.

The earliest tryouts were held at local stadiums and gymnasiums, with final tryouts in early spring.

- I was 15, walking over there, and thinking to myself, "Will I be able to catch the ball?

"Are they gonna throw really hard to me?

"Are there gonna be ladies there throwing?"

- I think there was something like 500 of us that were there, and they hit balls to us, and grounders, and fly balls over our shoulders, and did about everything they could do but have us stand on our heads.

- Then they eliminated 200 people the first day.

And then they divided it by infielders, outfielders.

So you did your fielding for the infielders and throwing for outfielders, and that's how they got to sort of eliminate everybody.

- Then I got the opportunity and got a contract and everything to come in the following year.

I was born blind.

I thought, well, I'm not gonna tell 'em I'm blind in one eye.

And nobody knew it, even my friends.

- Well, I don't think I ever thought I wasn't gonna make it.

I just think I had enough confidence and thought I knew how to play ball well enough that I didn't know that there was any way they wouldn't pick me.

- There were quite a few there that didn't make it.

They put this poster up in the hotel the next morning.

If your name was on there, you made it.

- [Narrator 1] Some players were excluded despite their talent.

African-American players were not allowed in the All-American League.

Not even Mamie Johnson.

So skilled, she was the first woman to pitch in the Negro Leagues.

In the segregated world of mid-century American sports, Wrigley was not willing to risk his success by trying to recruit Black women players.

After tryouts, players who won a spot reported for spring training to hone their skills.

Unlike Major League baseball, the All-American teams trained together.

- I went to spring training.

It was held in Chicago.

We stayed at the Allerton Hotel and worked out in one of the big Chicago parks.

- You had to learn not only how to play, but the intricacies of the game.

The whole game, the whole thing, whether you were a catcher or first basement, a pitcher or an outfielder, you learned it all.

- We'd all do calisthenics together in the morning, and then we would break for infield, outfield, pitching practice, and then the pitchers would run.

We'd shag fly balls while the outfield was throwing in the first, second, or third, with the regular fielders and stuff.

But we were kept busy all day long.

- We had a strong passion for the game.

Everybody was trying to do their best, and trying to make the team.

And so, it was a very competitive spring training.

I mean, you could see everyone you were playing against, so you knew what you had to compete against.

You knew what you had to beat.

- That was my first spring training, and we got to go to Newton, North Carolina, got my first train ride, was excited.

And then when I went down South, why they had a whole different language again.

That draw, and especially in Newton, North Carolina.

I remember people would.

And I was playing outfield, and there was one kid in the stand at right field, and he says, "Hey, Yankee, go home."

I says, "Yankee, I'm a Reds fan."

He says, "Communist?"

- [Narrator 1] While the league's players were eager to get started, Americans worried about the effect of competitive sports on women.

Believing competition was against a woman's feminine nature.

Wrigley's solution?

He emphasized the player's femininity while drilling them in the fundamentals of professional baseball.

They were to look like women, but play like men.

Wrigley even hired Helen Rubenstein, a well-known beauty maven, to run a charm school for the players.

- One night, Helena Rubenstein's ladies came in.

Mr. Wrigley had it in his mind that we were gonna dress like ladies and look like ladies.

- When he had the charm pool, they looked at me and they picked me out of that whole bunch and used me as an example, because I just came up, and I wasn't a type to, I was a tomboy anyway, to dress up real fancy.

But they say, "Hey, you, hey, and you come up here, "and we're gonna use ya."

So they fix my hair and fix me all up.

And I was a little embarrassed.

I was only 15.

- We learned how to sit properly, stand properly, how to walk with a book on your head straight and tall.

And we learned all those essential things.

- League uniforms also emphasized the player's femininity.

They wore a one-piece tunic dress with satin shorts underneath.

- I thought, oh my God, I couldn't play in those.

I couldn't show my legs like that.

Being from the farm, you were very modest.

And so, that was one thing I thought I couldn't do that.

- Oh, I have to tell you, the first time I put that uniform on, I cried.

Because what flooded in my mind was this little kid at home, playing with the boys, and here I am.

I kind of stood there for a little bit after I was dressed, and I says, "Oh, this is it."

This is it.

(lively music) - [Narrator 1] Four teams formed the original group of women ball players.

The Racine Belles and the Kenosha Comets in Wisconsin, the Rockford, Illinois Peaches, and the South Bend, Indiana Blue Sox.

- Our purpose was to entertain the troops and defense workers.

So when we went out on the field, first thing we did was march out in a V, and that was for victory for the armed forces.

- It was gratifying because we were doing something for our country.

We were entertaining on the home front.

(bat smacking) (crowd applauding) (bat smacking) - Well, when the league first started, they didn't believe that we could play till they saw us play.

And then they came all the time.

- [Narrator 1] The enthusiastic reception by fans prompted the league to add more teams.

In Fort Wayne, Indiana, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Peoria, Illinois, and Muskegon, Michigan.

(jubilant music) - [Narrator 2] The players on these clubs are not necessarily hometown products.

Talent scouts seek them out just as the big league scouts get their stars.

And the girls come from as far away as Arizona and Boston.

They play for pay and they play for keeps.

This is action all the way.

(jubilant music continues) - I could still hear this guy up in the stand.

"Oh, look at the outfits.

"Hey, oh, oh, ladies, ladies."

I think about the third inning, he couldn't believe those ladies sliding and everything, and he'd come to every game, he was really impressed.

But I can still see it.

And then he'd say, "Beautiful," if they made a nice play, "Beautiful."

- I think the uniform was, in the 1940s, a significant part of the drawing of the fans that came to the game.

As I remember in the '40s, women didn't wear shorts, not in public.

And a lot of these gals were really attractive too.

Come out with this short uniform, these good-looking legs.

And.

(lively music) - [Narrator 1] For a steady supply of new players, the league also added traveling teams to publicize the games, to train future players, and occasionally to pick up new recruits.

- It was called the touring team.

And we were to be the PR people, like kind of introduce it all over the United States.

And also to kind of find talent.

So in every state that we played, there were tryouts.

- They advertised in the paper ahead of time that we were coming, and they were to come out and tryout.

Well, we picked up Sue Kidd in Arkansas.

- They warmed me up on the side to a catcher.

In fact, I think it was Wimp Baumgartner.

And she was quite excited that I could throw the ball and throw the curve.

And then they let me try on the mound a little bit, and let me hit a few balls.

And they were ready to sign me.

- It was just play a game or two and on the bus, and get to the next town.

- When I think of the conditions, no air conditioning, we were on the bus, sweltering, clothes hanging in your face, drying out.

And trying to sleep on the bus, taking turns using one another's laps as headrests, feet up in the air.

- Some people used to say, "Oh, how did you do it?

"How did you, those long bus rides?"

When you're 16 years old and you're doing something you love to do, that was the least of my concerns, was the bus ride.

- [Narrator 1] The league had decided at the very beginning that parental support was important to get some of the younger players on the teams.

The only way to do that was to assure parents that their daughters would be well looked after.

Chaperones, often former players themselves, kept a strict eye on the girls and enforced league rules regarding behavior and appearance.

- The chaperone was in charge of everything.

They were the trainer, they were the business person.

They had to see, you had to have the uniforms, you had to get the first aid.

If you had to see a doctor, they went with you.

They made the appointment.

They arranged where you were gonna live, who you were gonna live with.

The chaperones found us private homes to live in, and living accommodations were good.

We were always very comfortable.

- Of course, we had chaperones, we had a terrific bus driver, was like a grandfather to us.

And they assured my folks that I would be taken care of, I'd be supervised, and I was.

- We had bed check every night, and if you were caught out after bed check, well, you could be fined or sent home.

And this one girl, she did go out after bed check.

She was going to the vending machine.

Well, she got caught, then she got fined a week's pay.

And that was pretty big money back then.

Well, they could've sent her home.

So, you didn't wanna do anything to be sent home.

So, you obeyed 'em.

- They were strict, that when they told you the rules, and they gave us a little booklet of what the rules were, and told us that that's what we had to do.

- The rules, that's what threw me.

I couldn't believe the rules.

Lipstick on every day all the time.

Because a chaperone would remind you.

And I mean, she was strict.

Every time we try to get out of it or something, she would say, "Okay, you either wear it or you get fined."

Fine first time was $5, and then $10, and then $20, and then suspension.

You were out.

Man, I didn't wanna go home.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator 3] Let's switch to some activity on a little more glamorous scale.

These girls look like a group of college co-eds.

But as you see them now, they're the South Bend, Indiana entry in the All-American Girls' Professional Baseball League.

Now in its third year of successful operations.

- [Narrator 1] Chaperones also approved, or didn't, the girls' dates.

And generally did the best they could to keep dozens of young women in line with the expectations of the league.

It was not an easy job, but it was critical to keeping players focused on playing ball, and to keep worried parents at ease.

- We were allowed to go out if sometime the fans, someone would ask us out for dinner, or whatever.

So this young fellow asked me if he could take me out to dinner.

And I said to him, I says, "Well, you'd have to ask the chaperone."

Because us, I'm saying teenagers, had to ask permission.

So he went in and talked to Helen, and he came out and he was smiling.

And he said to me, "I didn't wanna marry you.

"I just wanted to take you out to dinner."

- Some guys would come up and ask me for a date.

And I says, "Well, I don't know, "I have to ask the chaperone.

And she says, "Only if I go along."

I thought, "Go along?"

I thought, "Wow."

And I says, "No, I'll wait until I'm 16."

(wistful music) - [Narrator 1] When the league began, Philip K. Wrigley paid half the cost, the teams' salaries, uniforms, travel, equipment, advertising, and administration, while local businessmen paid the rest.

There were 44 league coaches, called managers.

They were key to improving players' skills.

The best known managers came mostly from professional baseball, both major and minor leagues.

And from woman's fast pitch softball leagues.

- Max Carey came out.

He showed me how to in initiate a double play, how to time it, where you just hit the corner of the bag and get off.

And it was like people would just, "Oh."

And that all came from Max Carey.

- I was under the tutelage of Bill Ellington.

I learned more from him in one week than I did in all the time before.

'Cause as we look back at it now, it has to do with we came with the skills, and the professional managers helped us to become professional.

Jimmy Fox, the manager, I mean the Jimmy Fox, we knew he was like Babe Ruth.

And we thought, "Wow, we're playing under this guy?"

I played better because Jimmy was a hitter, and I loved to hit the ball.

And I remember one time I was up the plate, and he says, "Gosh," he says, "Did you live on a farm "and milk cows?"

I thought, "Wow, you mean, does it show?"

I was thinking about smelling the manure, and all that.

I thought, "Wow."

And he says, "No," he says, "Because I was on a farm.

"You got a wrist action like a farmer."

Like milking cows, because that's where I got my wrist actin.

I thought, well, way to go.

And I hated to milk those cows.

And there it was the greatest thing I ever did.

- They treated us as baseball players.

That doesn't mean they didn't treat us with respect.

They respected us as women.

And concerned about things like we were up all night riding on the bus.

The managers were very concerned about that.

And the bus driver.

That helping us with our luggage, and make sure, now be careful, this is a bad step, or something.

They were very aware that we were women, but as far as the game was concerned, we were treated like ballplayers.

(jubilant music) - [Narrator 1] But they were ballplayers who wore skirts.

Players wearing short skirts slid into base on bare legs.

When they slid, accidentally or on purpose, the players suffered what were called strawberries.

The top layer of skin on their legs peeled off from the friction of the slide.

- When they said, "There's no crying in baseball," I have to say, I mean, we wouldn't have thought to cry.

I mean, I never saw a woman cry there at all.

But I'm going to tell you, those strawberries, and reopening them, because I was on base every night, that was not an easy thing.

But it's interesting, you didn't think of it till after you slid.

And ah, you could hardly get up, but you took it.

- Everybody's saying just shake it off, shake it off.

Well, I'm not gonna cry out there.

I'd like to.

- I had to slide home, scraped this whole knee all up.

The blood was pouring right out.

So they cleared the bench for where I'd sit.

And the chaperone would clean it up.

And then they'd pour the Merthiolate on it.

And you know how that feels, "Ooh we."

Then a couple of girls (exhales sharply), blowing so it don't sting so much.

And just tent me up, went out in the field again.

- [Narrator 1] Players suffered other injuries as well.

And like all great athletes, the All-Americans seldom let an injury stop them for long.

(jubilant music continues) - I got a dirty bounce and it cut my eye here.

So the chaperone came out and a nurse.

And they said, "We have to have you get stitches."

And I said, "I'm not going any place until I finished."

I said, "Put a bandaid on it, and I'm going back out."

- I was sliding into third base.

And the grass was wet, and my spike caught in the grass as I slid, and that wet grass wrapped around that spike.

And just my foot stopped, but I went.

- We had one of the leading center fielders, Pat Keegal.

And she slid into second base and came up screaming.

And her bone was sticking through the sock.

- I didn't like sliding in those short skirts.

I did that once into second base, and oh my gosh.

I went, "Oh God, it hurt."

And so anyways, I always made sure I either get a single, double, triple, or home run.

I wanna make sure I get to that base without sliding.

(jubilant music continues) - [Narrator 1] The hard work required of the All-Americans was rewarded handsomely.

The league had to pay enough to continue to attract new players.

- Well, my dad was making $50 or $40 in the plant at that time.

And I thought, "Oh wow, I'm gonna make more than my dad."

- I signed a contract for $70, and I thought I was a millionaire.

But on the road, we got $33.75 a day.

Well, back then, you could buy breakfast for a quarter, a dinner for 75 cents, lunch for a dollar and a half.

- We started out with 50, and the highest paid would be 125.

And then later on when I played with Battle Creek, they paid me 325 a week.

And then I got a bonus and received for being the most valuable player.

- Oh my gosh.

Can you imagine getting that that early in life, to get that much, oh my God.

- I would've played for nothing.

They didn't know it, but I think most of the girls would've.

That they just loved playing and being there.

- [Narrator 1] The women particularly loved the time they went to Cuba.

In 1947, the league sent the women to Havana for spring training.

The Brooklyn Dodgers had gone there, instead of to the segregated South, to protect Jackie Robinson, the first African American player to join the major leagues.

Cuba was well known for its exceptional baseball players, including women, four of whom joined the league soon after its appearance in Havana.

- It was wild.

We went to the ballpark in the taxi cab.

They didn't have traffic lights.

Whoever got to the corner, beeped their horn first, they had the right of way.

(carefree music) - Oh, it was hot.

And we trained there very hard for two weeks.

And the Brooklyn Dodgers were training there same time we were, and we outdrew them.

And they came over, and they said, "What's going on over here?"

- They couldn't figure out why they didn't have all the people.

They said, baseball feminina, they're over there.

They're watching the women.

(carefree music) (carefree music continues) - [Narrator 1] By this time, the league had become a growing and popular addition to sports in America.

(crowd clamoring) At its height, the league's 10 teams entertained nearly a million fans.

- We had good crowds.

We drew very well.

We were advertised, it was advertised.

And we did radio interviews, and things like that.

So, they knew we were there.

- I can remember 10,000 people being at South Field.

I don't even know where they put 'em all.

(crowd chattering) - And then the fans, oh, it was unbelievable.

They lined up just to get your autograph.

- It was exciting.

You began to think you had some importance in this world.

- Good mix, you had families coming to the game.

You had men, you had young boys, teenagers.

And the young girls were very interested, and the parents would come with 'em.

So it was really a family atmosphere.

- July of '48, I went down to see them playing.

I was aghast at the baseball.

I was just amazed at how great they were.

It was really an awakening to me because I followed the papers, and I would see the clips of the different games away.

It's not like being there and seeing it.

When you see it, you really have to believe it.

(lively music) - [Narrator 4] It's good for a single, but she's gonna try to stretch it to a double.

Watch her yank off her cap as she sails for second.

An honest to goodness slide is one indication of a fast brand of baseball that finds great favor among a large and varied fandom.

- You had to have confidence.

You had to think that every time you walked out on that mound, you walked out on that mound for one purpose.

And that was to win that ballgame.

If somebody asks ya, are you good, you say, you betcha.

(wistful music) - The one game was in Kalamazoo.

Probably the shocker of my life, because I hit one off the fence in center field.

I mean, right off the top of the fence.

And it come back into the field, I only got a triple.

And I don't know if I scored or not, or what happened.

I was in seventh heaven to see me hit that ball that far.

- Yeah, I was a good pitcher.

Well, the thing, oh, the big thing that was really something was that I was a lousy batter, because of my left eye was blind, and everything.

And I hit a home run.

Unbelievable, I couldn't believe it myself.

- I was a left-handed pitcher and that was a great attribute 'cause we only had like three or four left-handed pitch pitchers in the league.

So they weren't used to seeing the ball coming at them and breaking away.

- I was primarily a power pitcher.

I had a change up.

And later in years, I developed a two-fingered knuckle curve.

And obviously, that's a ball that's thrown with a spin on it, and when it loses enough momentum, it falls off.

And I was left-handed and it was good for pitching against some of the very, very good left-handed hitters.

- I was playing right field and there was a long low fly that I had to run and reach down to catch down here.

And I just saw the runner starting in from third.

So I just heaved it toward the catcher.

And we're taught to bounce it in, if you're coming from center field, or one bounce if you're from right field.

But I just heaved it and it got to the catcher on the fly, and she tagged the runner coming out.

So it was a double out.

- I threw the ball, it was a really hard fastball, and right at her head, and man, she hit the dirt.

And she got up and she started coming after me at the mound.

And I started backing up.

I had no idea what was gonna happen next.

But my teammates come off the bench and started coming at her to protect her.

And of course, then the umpires came out and broke it all up.

But I was nervous the rest of that game because she scared me.

I thought she was gonna be after me after the game.

So the ball was hit to me and it carried me over, my momentum carried me over the foul line a little bit, and I had to make a quick turn, and make a good throw home.

I made a bullet throw, a gun nailed her.

You should've heard the crowd.

Wow, what an arm, what an arm!

That made me feel good (laughs).

That was good.

- 1953, I'm catching with Fort Wayne, I mean with the South Bend Blue Sox, and I catch a perfect game.

Jean Faut, who probably is one of the all-time greats in our league, she could play any position, she could hit the ball outta the ballpark, she could pitch, she had all the pitches in the world, she pitched a perfect game.

September 3rd, 1953, we beat the Kalamazoo Lassies four to zip in Kalamazoo, on their home turf.

- I was a mathematical wiz in school.

And I got to where I would remember the rotation that I pitched to the best hitters.

And I always changed it the next time they came up to bat.

So, there were little crazy things like that that I used to do that gave me a little edge.

- [Narrator 1] Over the course of the league's history, the game evolved from fast pitch softball to overhand baseball.

- Philip Wrigley wanted the game to be faster and more like baseball.

And so, the pitcher's mound was lengthened.

And the base paths were lengthened.

And we were now pitching either side arm.

I believe started side arm and then side arm and overhand.

So those were the changes that were made.

Of course in regular softball, you can't lead off now.

So, we could do everything that the major leagues could do.

- I think most of the changes that were made over the years, were made primarily to bring more people into the ballpark.

Softball was not a novelty, but boy, throwing it side arm from distance and a smaller ball, that's kinda different.

Nine inches is very different than 10 inches or a 12-inch softball.

So, my softball every once a while would fly off into right field.

I'm trying to throw it to second base.

So here we are, and I got this wonderful little nine-inch ball I can really get a hold of.

- But when they really went to complete overhand pitching, I was home free.

'Cause I knew all the pitches.

And they had a lot of trouble hitting me.

- Oh my God, how easy.

I mean, girls' hands are smaller than men.

I could grip that ball, wow.

And hit, we were hitting home runs galore.

And so, it was the best thing that ever happened.

I smacked one over the second baseman's head.

And 'cause we're playing baseball rules now.

We're a bigger diamond.

We're not the softball diamond.

And I got to first base and I says, "It's about time."

- It was so different from softball because you had longer bases.

You could actually steal without having to worry about the pitch going over home plate in softball.

So, that was my joy, I loved that.

I thought that was the greatest thing in the world.

- [Narrator 1] Pitching, catching, throwing, hitting, that's baseball.

But so is stealing.

One thing that softball didn't allow.

The most successful base stealer in baseball history was Sophie Kurys, who played eight years for the Racine Belles.

In one year, she stole 201 basses in 203 attempts, and did that in the year that the base path was lengthened.

- I just went nuts that year.

I mean, I just had it going and it's like the energizer, you can't quit.

Well, I steal mostly because even when we were behind, if I got on second, if we were two or three runs behind, get a run in.

And before you know it, you're back in the ballgame.

- I just went out because I loved the damn game.

We played with our hearts, we played hard, and we were tired sometime, you know?

But we played with our hearts.

And we wanted to win.

- I was playing the game of my dream.

And when we were playing every day, if we weren't playing, we were out practicing.

And I loved it, I loved it.

So I often think, some of the girls got homesick.

I never got homesick 'cause I knew I was playing where I wanted to be.

- I was 16 years old.

I thought, my goodness, I can play till at least I'm 35 or 40.

I thought, this is my career.

I planned for nothing else.

I didn't go on to college, didn't do anything.

I thought this is my career.

- [Narrator 1] Unfortunately, the league did not go on forever.

It continued to evolve as independent team owners took over.

The charm school had vanished.

Although the rules regarding lady-like behavior remained.

The uniform skirts got shorter so that women could play the more demanding baseball that had replaced softball.

Ball sizes shrank, pitchers and catchers needed new skills to play hardball.

Eventually, there were simply not enough well-trained girls and women coming up from the farm teams to fill the positions as veterans retired.

- See, the older players were getting older.

And they were leaving.

If they started early in '43 and '44, '45, see, a lot of those was getting out at '50, '52 and three.

So, they were bringing in a lot of rookies.

People that had never played baseball before.

Major leagues took over the television, and all that.

And people stayed home.

They didn't come out to watch us.

- [Narrator 1] By 1951, the league was down to eight teams.

In 1952, Kenosha and Peoria teams shut up shop.

Battle Creek followed suit.

And by 1954, there were only five teams left.

South Bend, Rockford, Grand Rapids, Fort Wayne, and Kalamazoo.

(wistful music) (wistful music continues) Fewer than 300,000 fans saw the games.

And by the end of August, the season and the league were over.

- One of my last paychecks was handed out to me in $1 bills.

That tells you a lot.

That even told me a lot as a kid, 'cause I was only 19 when this was all over.

- The league just didn't have any financing.

They couldn't afford to pay the salaries anymore.

So therefore, they disbanded.

And so, it just, the era had died.

- I could've cried my heart out.

I just turned 21 at the end of that season.

I figured I had a good 10 years, nine or 10 years left.

If it had gone on.

- I never thought about it ever ending, or never thought about maybe someday I could never play this game.

I was living, I guess, for the moment.

I don't know.

I was so happy.

But I never thought about that ending.

I thought it would just go on, and on, and on.

- Well, the reaction was very, very sad because we counted, especially the young ones, we were just getting in our prime.

And we thought, my gosh, what are we gonna do now?

We gotta work (laughs).

That was our biggest reaction.

What are we gonna do?

I mean, here, I just got outta high school, okay?

And I thought, "Wow, now I gotta look for a job."

And so, that was most of us.

We were very, very upset, believe me.

(somber music) - [Narrator 1] The All-American Girls' Professional Baseball League faded from history.

But not from the memories of the players and fans alike.

The girls and women went their separate ways, and seldom spoke of their experiences.

(somber music continues) - No, you'd go home and you wouldn't talk about it.

There would be no one there to talk to about it.

You didn't wanna go around broadcasting all the time.

So, unless somebody asked you a question or something, you just didn't talk about it.

It was another world.

- [Narrator 1] Those who had participated in the first professional baseball league for women knew that the league had had a profound effect on their lives.

- I think I was very fortunate to have had the opportunity to play professional baseball with the All-American League.

I think that we were at the right place at the right time.

- It really defined who I was.

I gained so much confidence in playing and learned so much from the teamwork.

And the friendships and camaraderie that was involved in that playing in those years.

- Not only did it change, but it changed me, but I learned so much about teamwork, camaraderie, trust in people.

It was just a wonderful experience.

And I don't think that I could've gotten that from any other profession that I would've gotten into, like I got from that league.

- Because of the opportunity I had to play in this baseball league, that I was able to make money, that I was able to then get my education.

And that was so important to a lot of the girls that played in the league.

If it had not been for that opportunity, there would've not been any college education for many of us.

- It was only four years out of my life.

But it's a significant four years.

I wouldn't trade those four years for 40 of some of my other years.

(somber music continues) - [Narrator 1] In the 1970s, researchers Merrie Fidler and Sharon Roepke wrote about the league.

And ex-players called for a reunion.

In 1986, Kelly Candaele, son of infielder Helen Callaghan, produced a documentary called "A League of Their Own" to capture the history of the league, and its players.

Two years later, in 1988, the league finally received recognition in a permanent exhibit in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

Candaele's documentary inspired director Penny Marshall's film featuring Gina Davis as a catcher and Tom Hanks as a manager, Jimmy Dugan.

Dugan's reaction to one of his players weeping when criticized became a catchphrase.

"There's no crying in baseball."

The American Film Institute rated that line as one of the best in film history.

(crowd chattering) Publicity generated by the reunions, the documentary, the Hall of Fame, and the film led many of the league players to share their experiences for the first time on a national and international stage.

The league had meant something to all of them, far beyond baseball.

The game they loved to play, the game that gave them a team of their own.

- Ever since I played ball, from the first night I joined South Bend Blue Sox, I have never, never in my life missed a night without thanking God for that opportunity.

And I'm 86 today.

That was a wonderful time of your life.

- The All-American Girls' Professional Baseball League, if it hadn't been for those women in the '40s who stuck through all those changes from fast pitch softball to bring it into being baseball the way that they have, there wouldn't have been a league because fast pitch softball was pretty ordinary sport at that time.

But women to play actual baseball is what people give us credit for.

- I hope we opened up sports for girls.

I hope we helped with the Title IX.

I feel like we did, the way sports have taken hold in all the high schools and the colleges for women.

And I think we opened the door.

- I went to a couple of the United States Olympic softball team games.

And these young women come up to us, and hug us, and say, "Thank you, because of you, "we can now do this."

- Yeah, looking back, we were pioneers.

Because it was an awful long time after our league folded, before any women got any recognition in sports.

So in our own way, we were pioneers.

But like they all tell you, we would've done it for nothing.

- At the time we were playing, we had no idea that we would be recognized in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and that we were a part of history.

And the part of history never entered our mind until they said, "Okay, we will make a movie about you.

"You're the pioneers of baseball."

And then it hit us, that we did do something that was great.

(pensive wistful music) (lively old-timey music) - I got a degree from Alverno College, and it was English history, math, and then education.

I got the masters and the doctorate, and then another masters.

I got all three almost simultaneously.

And that comes too, I think, in baseball.

Not only did I have intelligence, but they said they couldn't keep up with my energy.

- I did some further work in the scientific foundations of physical education, and ended up teaching the scientific foundations to sports medicine people.

I worked myself up to be dispatcher.

And from dispatcher, I went on to be supervisor, then I became manager of all highway transportation of (indistinct).

- No, I ended up, I could teach English, I could teach biology, I could teach Phys Ed, health, genetics.

I took a lot of biology, 'cause I was almost thinking about going in to be a doctor.

- I entered the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Waukegan, Illinois.

Went to the convent, was a nun five years.

- I was hired as administrative secretary of a mosquito biology training program at the University of Notre Dame, financed by the National Institutes of Health.

- So I ended up with the three masters, the doctorate, and the bachelors.

And what I really wanted to do is study law and help the causes of the poor.

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