Doris Cook �Little Cookie״(born June 23, 1931) is a former

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

and

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch ...

who played from through in the

All-American Girls Professional Baseball League The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) was a professional women's baseball league founded by Philip K. Wrigley, which existed from 1943 to 1954. The AAGPBL is the forerunner of women's professional league sports in the Uni ...

. Listed at , 130 lb., she batted right-handed and threw left-handed. Doris Cook joined the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in 1949 at the age of 17, following in the footsteps of her older sister, Donna Cook, who played in the league from 1946 to 1954. Born in

Muskegon, Michigan Muskegon ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Muskegon County, Michigan, United States. Situated around a harbor of Lake Michigan, Muskegon is known for fishing, sailing regattas, and boating. It is the most populous city along Lake Michigan' ...

, Doris was one of twelve children into the family of Sidney and Daisy (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Johnson) Cook. She played in a city

softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...

league at age 14, before being scouted by the league under recommendation of her sister. She was signed a contract and relocated to the

Springfield Sallies The Springfield Sallies were a women's professional baseball team who were members of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in the 1948 season and became a development team. The Sallies were based in Springfield, Illinois and playe ...

rookie team, a traveling developmental squad of the AAGPBL, which entertained crowds across the country, playing exhibition games before

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

contests.1949 Springfield Sallies
Retrieved 2019-03-28. Cook won her first game as a pitcher on the tour, which started in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

and ended up in Canada. She played in

Yankee Stadium Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx in New York City. It is the home field of Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees and New York City FC of Major League Soccer. The stadium opened in April 2009, replacing the Yankee S ...

and

Griffith Stadium Griffith Stadium stood in Washington, D.C., from 1911 to 1965, between Georgia Avenue and 5th Street (left field), and between W Street and Florida Avenue NW. The site was once home to a wooden baseball park. Built in 1891, it was called Bounda ...

. ''We traded autographed balls with

Tommy Henrich Thomas David Henrich (February 20, 1913 – December 1, 2009), nicknamed "the Clutch" and "Old Reliable", was an Americans, American professional baseball player of German American, German descent. He played his entire Major League Baseball c ...

of the Yankees'', she recalled in an interview. From 1949 to 1950, she posted a 6–11 record in 17 pitching appearances and batted a 137

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 ...

(10-for-73). In 1951 Cook was promoted to 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 ...

, playing for them two and a half years before joining the

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 ...

during the 1953 midseason. Paired with her sister Donna in South Bend, for the first time in her professional career, she retired from the league following the 1953 season. Cook went 0–1 with a 5.74

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 22 games pitched and played 74 games at

left field In baseball, a left fielder, abbreviated LF, is an outfielder who plays defense in left field. Left field is the area of the outfield to the left of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In the numbering syst ...

, while collecting a .128 batting average. ''I was more of a defensive player than an offensive one'', she explained.The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Following her baseball career, Cook worked in banking for more of two decades before retiring in 1994. Since 1988 she is part of ''Women in Baseball'', a permanent display based at the

Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by a private foundation. It serves as the central collection and gathering space for the history of baseball in the United S ...

Cooperstown, New York Cooperstown is a village in and the county seat of Otsego County, New York, United States. Most of the village lies within the town of Otsego, but some of the eastern part is in the town of Middlefield. Located at the foot of Otsego Lake in ...

, which was unveiled to honor the entire All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. She also was elected to the Muskegon Area Sports Hall of Fame along with her sister Donna in 1993. She currently lives in her hometown of Muskegon.

Career statistics

Pitching Fielding Batting

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cook, Doris All-American Girls Professional Baseball League players Springfield Sallies players Kalamazoo Lassies players South Bend Blue Sox players Baseball players from Muskegon, Michigan Baseball outfielders 1931 births Living people 20th-century American sportswomen