What do you know about the AAGPBL?

     Some random information this week…

     I am not a fan or watching professional sports. I guess one would say I’m not a huge sports fan. However, every two years when the Winter and Summer Olympics come around, I am glued to my TV. I absolutely love watching the Olympics! I get pretty competitive in cheering on Team USA athletes and have to check the daily medal count online to see how many overall medals and gold medals Team USA has compared to the rest of the world. My true patriotism comes out for sure!

     Aside from the Olympics, I really don’t watch sporting events on TV. Perhaps an occasional Super Bowl game and a few Hawkeye football games, but that’s the extent of my viewing.

     However, there is one classic sports movie from the early ‘90s that spurred my interest in a particular sport: “A League of Their Own.”

     I loved and still love that movie, which is based on a true story about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (or AAGPBL for short). It doesn’t age, and there are so many memorable moments from the movie that fans still talk about today.

     Recently, one of the lead actresses who played Kit Keller, Lori Petty, shared via Twitter that she was in the Los Angeles airport when a Customs agent asked her if Dottie dropped the ball on purpose. Allow me to explain…

     Dottie Hinson was played by Geena Davis. Dottie was Kit’s older sister. By the end of the movie, both were playing for opposing teams. In the final game of the season to decide who wins the World Series pennant, Kit hits the ball and rounds the bases to home plate. Dottie is playing catcher at home when the sisters collide. In slow motion, you witness the collision and Dottie ultimately dropping the ball.

     The one question that has always gone unanswered: Did Dottie drop the ball on purpose.

     In a simple Tweet, Petty says, “She did NOT.”

     That sparked a great conversation from fans who took Petty’s side and others who said, “Of course she did! She loves her sister more than baseball!”

     I also think Dottie dropped the ball on purpose. She wanted nothing more than for her kid sister to win the pennant and go on to have a successful life, career, in baseball. You would have done it, too.

     After many years of fawning over “A League of Their Own,” I did some research into the many non-fiction books that have been published over the years about the AAGPBL. Many of the books out there weren’t published until after the movie, which introduced so many people to a sport that went unnoticed for decades.

     One book in particular that I found and started reading is called “When Women Played Hardball” by Susan E. Johnson.

     It’s a fascinating book in which Johnson interviews 20-some former AAGPBL players about their lives pre-baseball, during the 11 years the league existed, and their lives since. Many of these former athletes are well into their 80s, and made a name for themselves by playing pro ball.

     The AAGPBL, started by Philip K. Wrigley, was predominately a Midwest venture. The 15 teams all came from Midwest states. The Racine Belles were based out of Racine, Wis.; the Kenosha Comets from Kenosha, Wis.; and the Rockford Peaches from Rockford, Ill.

     I have visited all these towns and found no sign of their AAGPBL history. Pretty sad…

     This was such a pivotal movement in our nation’s athletic history. We honor men of sports, but nothing commemorating a time in our history when the men went off to war and the women stepped up to play hardball? Sad…

     There are many books out there about the AAGPBL, that I encourage any sports fan to give them a try! You can visit the Monticello library and look into inter-library loan if our library does not have the books. You can follow news about the AAGPBL and former players on Facebook: “All American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association.”