The AAGPBL Changed the Game for Women in Baseball

by Max Moreno, age 12

In 1943, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) began in Wisconsin, with over 500 women participating. World War II influenced the AAGPBL. At the time, baseball was America's pastime and people were worried that the sport would come to a halt due to men being drafted to fight in the war.

Women were already playing a similar sport: softball. This sport was created in 1887 for indoor play and had the same rules as baseball, just with a smaller field, a bigger ball, and an underhand pitch. During the war, many people turned to softball as their main form of entertainment. Many thought of softball as a “women's sport” and baseball as a “men’s sport” but the AAGPBL proved otherwise.

The AAGPBL consisted of six teams, with three of them being established in Wisconsin: the Milwaukee Chicks, the Kenosha Comets, and the Racine Belles. The AAGPBL Chicks played for Milwaukee, but fans referred to the team as the “Brewerettes” after the city’s Minor League Baseball team, the Brewers. Player salaries were $40 to $80 per week compared to the average salary of $45 per week. Players were also required to wear skirts with shorts underneath in an attempt to portray a feminine image. Skirts didn't prevent players from sliding into bases, and many players would get badly scraped knees, or “strawberries” as these injuries were commonly known.

The AAGPBL allowed many women to play baseball, except for one group: Black women. This was due to the heightened racism and discrimination of the time. Although Black players weren't allowed to participate in the AAGPBL Jackie Robinson proved that Black people can play with white people and was one of the reasons that discrimination ended in the MLB.

AAGPBL ended after a decade when men came home from the war, but it drew more than a million fans and gave 500 women an opportunity that did not exist before.

[Source: Wisconsin Magazine Of History]