1950 All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Season
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The 1950 All-American Girls Professional Baseball League season marked the eight season of the circuit. The teams
Fort Wayne Daisies The Fort Wayne Daisies were a women's professional baseball team based in Fort Wayne, Indiana that played from through as members of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. History The Daisies represented Fort Wayne, Indiana, and ...
, Grand Rapids Chicks,
Kenosha Comets The Kenosha Comets were a women's professional baseball team based in Kenosha, Wisconsin that played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The team played their home games at Kenosha's Lake Front Stadium, but l ...
,
Muskegon Lassies The Muskegon Lassies were one of the expansion teams of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in the 1946 season, representing Muskegon, Michigan. The team played their home games at Marsh Field. The league, its teams, and its story ...
, Peoria Redwings,
Racine Belles The Racine Belles were one of the original teams of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League playing from through out of Racine, Wisconsin. The Belles won the league's first championship. The team played its home games at Horlick F ...
,
Rockford Peaches The Rockford Peaches were a women's professional baseball team who played from 1943 to 1954 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. A founding member, the team represented Rockford, Illinois. The Peaches were one of 2 teams to p ...
and
South Bend Blue Sox The South Bend Blue Sox was a women's professional baseball team who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. A founding member, the team represented South Bend, Indiana, and played their home games at Bendix F ...
competed through a 112-game schedule. In 1950 the league used a livelier 10 inches ball. Finally, the batting was able to take advantage of the pitching, when five hitters reached the .300
average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...
mark for the year. Fort Wayne's
rookie A rookie is a person new to an occupation, profession, or hobby. In sports, a ''rookie'' is a professional athlete in their first season (or year). In contrast with a veteran who has experience, a rookie is typically considered needing more tra ...
Betty Foss led the circuit with a .346 average, to set a new season mark. Nevertheless, three
no-hitter In baseball, a no-hitter or no-hit game is a game in which a team does not record a hit (baseball), hit through conventional methods. Major League Baseball (MLB) officially defines a no-hitter as a completed game in which a team that batted in ...
s were recorded in the season, two of them by Jean Cione of Kenosha during the month of August. Her first was a 12-inning gem against Grand Rapids, and the second came in a seven-inning
shutout In team sports, a shutout (North American English, US) or clean sheet (Commonwealth English, UK) is a game in which the losing team fails to score. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketba ...
over Racine. Previously, Kenosha's
Ruby Stephens Ruby Lee Stephens '' tevie' (October 2, 1924 – March 21, 1996) was a pitcher who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. She batted and threw right-handed. Stephens was born and grew up in Clearwater, Flori ...
had pitched a nine-inning no-no against the Lassies in July.''All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Record Book'' Grand Rapids' Alma Ziegler posted a 19–7 record and a solid 1.38
earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...
in 35 games, leading all pitchers in
winning percentage In sports, a winning percentage or Copeland score is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. The statistic is commonly used in standings or rankings to compare teams or individuals. It is defined as wins divided by the to ...
(.732). She also tossed 43 straight
shutout In team sports, a shutout (North American English, US) or clean sheet (Commonwealth English, UK) is a game in which the losing team fails to score. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketba ...
inning In baseball, softball, and similar games, an inning is the basic unit of play, consisting of two halves or frames, the "top" (first half) and the "bottom" (second half). In each half, one team bats until three outs are made, with the other tea ...
, and finished second in ERA behind South Bend's
Jean Faut Jean Anna Faut ''Winsch/Eastman(January 17, 1925 – February 28, 2023) was an American starting pitcher who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at , 137 lb., she batted and threw right-hande ...
(1.12). Ziegler was honored with the
Player of the Year Award Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year. In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is held on b ...
. The league returned to the Shaugnessy format during the playoffs, featuring the top four teams of the season. In the best-of-five first round, first place Rockford won Kenosha and second place Fort Wayne defeated fourth place Grand Rapids. The final series took all seven games to decide the champion team. After winning the first two games, Rockford lost the next two games to Fort Wayne. Rockford took a 3–2 advantage in Game 5, but Fort Wayne won the next contest to send the series to a seventh game. Finally, Rockford never gave Fort Wayne a chance at another upset and won the series, four to three games.
Helen Nicol Helen Nicol (later Fox; May 9, 1920 – July 25, 2021) was a Canadian-American baseball pitcher who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Listed at , , Nicol batted and threw right-handed. She w ...
was credited with three of the four victories of Rockford in the finals, including a shutout in decisive Game 7.
Bill Allington William Baird Allington (October 26, 1903 – August 17, 1966) was an American minor league baseball player and manager. Listed at 5' 9" and 160 pounds, Allington batted and threw right-handed. He was born in St. Clair County, Michigan. ...
guided the Peaches to their third title in a row, fourth overall, to set two all-time records for a
manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...
. In 1950 the AAGPBL declined in attendance for the second consecutive year. Poor financial management finally caught up to the league and it began to slide. At the end of the season, team directors voted to purchase the league from
Arthur Meyerhoff Arthur E. Meyerhoff (1895–1986) was an advertising agency executive and entrepreneur. He was born in Chicago, Illinois. Meyerhoff died in 1986; services were held at the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Rancho Santa Fe, California Califo ...
and operate their teams independently. That season had been a nightmare for Muskegon, after registering the worst record in the circuit and a relocation during the midseason to
Kalamazoo, Michigan Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 73,598. It is the principal city of the Kalamazoo–Portage metropolitan are ...
, where the team was renamed the
Kalamazoo Lassies The Kalamazoo Lassies were a team who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The team represented Kalamazoo, Michigan. Home games were initially played at Lindstrom Field, but later games were played at the ...
. Besides this, the Racine franchise, a two-time champion and one of the four original teams, had to move to
Battle Creek, Michigan Battle Creek is a city in northwestern Calhoun County, Michigan, United States, at the confluence of the Kalamazoo River, Kalamazoo and Battle Creek River, Battle Creek rivers. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a tota ...
. The team would be renamed the Battle Creek Belles for the next season.All-American Girls Professional Baseball League History
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Teams


Map of teams


Standings


Postseason


Batting statistics


Pitching statistics


All-Star Game


See also

*
1950 Major League Baseball season The 1950 major league baseball season began on April 18, 1950. The regular season ended on October 1, with the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees as the regular season champions of the National League and American League, respectively. Th ...
*
1950 Nippon Professional Baseball season The 1950 Nippon Professional Baseball season was the first season for baseball in Japan that used the new two league format since the split the previous year. The two leagues would be known as the Central League and the Pacific League. Regular s ...


Sources


External links


AAGPBL Official WebsiteAAGPBL RecordsBaseball Historian filesSABR Projects – Jim Sargent articlesYouTube videos
{{All-American Girls Professional Baseball League All-American Girls Professional Baseball League seasons All-American Girls Professional Baseball League season 1950s in women's baseball All-American Girls Professional Baseball League season