Katherine Ann Heim (later McDaniel; August 21, 1917 – May 11, 2015) was a Canadian

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the catc ...

who played 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 5' 6", 125 lb., Heim batted and threw right handed. She was nicknamed ״Heime״ by her teammates. Born in

Athabasca, Alberta Athabasca (2021 census (Canada), 2021 population 2,759), originally named Athabasca Landing, is a town in northern Alberta, Canada. It is located north of Edmonton at the intersection of Alberta Highway 2, Highway 2 and Alberta Highway 55, Hig ...

, Kay Heim was one of the 68 players born in Canada to join the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in its twelve years history. She also became one of the original 60 founding members of the league in its 1943 inaugural season. While she was a light-hitting catcher, Heim highlighted as a defensive specialist with good pitch-calling skills and possessed a strong, accurate throwing arm. She helped the

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 ...

win the pennant title the first year, though the team lost to the

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 ...

in the best-of-five Championship Round. The next year, she fractured an ankle during the midseason and missed the rest of the season.The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League She then returned home, married Ray McDaniel and decided not to return for the 1945 season. The couple had two sons, Raymond and Robert along with two children from her previous marriage, Robert and Kathleen. She moved with the family to the United States and became a citizen in 1948. Besides this, she was employed in a glass company based in

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

and started to play

bowling Bowling is a Throwing sports#Target sports, target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a bowling ball, ball toward Bowling pin, pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). Most references to ''bowling'' are ...

and coached softball while their boys grew up. Heim gained honorary inductions into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame in 1987 and the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998. She received further recognition in 1988 when she joined a group of Canadian ballplayers at ''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. In 1992, Heim, along with Jean Havlish and Nancy Mudge, two other Minnesota residents and former AAGPBL players, were invited to throw out the first pitch in a game

Angels An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...

Twins Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of Twin Last Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two e ...

played at the

Metrodome The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (commonly called the Metrodome) was a domed sports stadium in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. It opened in 1982 as a replacement for Metropolitan Stadium, the former home of the National Football League's (NFL) ...

. The trio also was honored by the

Colorado Silver Bullets The Colorado Silver Bullets were an all-female professional baseball team that played in the United States from 1994 to 1997. The Bullets were the first such team since the folding of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in 1954. ...

all-female baseball team in their 1994 inaugural season, in which they threw out the first ball pitch of a game celebrated in Saint Paul. She died at the age of 97 in 2015 in

Rosemount, Minnesota Rosemount is a city in Dakota County, Minnesota, United States, on the southern edge of the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area. The population was 25,650 at the 2020 census. History Rosemount was established as a township in 1858 and incorporated ...

, where she lived.

Career statistics

Batting Fielding

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heim, Kay All-American Girls Professional Baseball League players Kenosha Comets players Canadian baseball players Canadian emigrants to the United States People from Athabasca, Alberta Baseball people from Alberta 1917 births 2015 deaths People from Rosemount, Minnesota Sportspeople from Dakota County, Minnesota 21st-century American women