Mildred Marion Warwick
�Mille״(October 18, 1922 – December 9, 2006) was an
infielder
An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field, between first base and third base.
Standard arrangement of positions
In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns pla ...
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 5' 2", 115 lb., she batted and threw right handed.
Born in
Regina, Saskatchewan
Regina ( ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The city is the second-largest in the province, and is a commercial centre for southern Saskatchewan. As of the 2021 Canadian census, ...
, Warwick was one of the 68 players born in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
to join the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in its twelve-year history. She was one of the most feared hitters in the early years of the circuit, setting an all-time hitting streak record during her very short career.
The first AAGPBL
spring training
Spring training, also called spring camp, is the preseason of the Summer Professional Baseball Leagues, such as Major League Baseball (MLB), and it is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spri ...
was set for May 17, 1943, at
Wrigley Field
Wrigley Field is a ballpark on the North Side, Chicago, North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charl ...
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 ...
.
Philip K. Wrigley
Philip Knight Wrigley (December 5, 1894 – April 12, 1977) was an American chewing gum manufacturer and a Major League Baseball executive, inheriting both of those roles as the son of William Wrigley Jr.
Biography
Wrigley was born in Chicago in ...
, founder of the league, had
scouts
Scouting or the Scout Movement is a youth social movement, movement which became popularly established in the first decade of the twentieth century. It follows the Scout method of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activi ...
all over the United States and Canada signing girls for tryouts. About 500 of them attended the call. Of these, only 280 were invited to the final try-outs in Chicago where 60 were chosen to become the first women to ever play professional baseball. The league started with four teams, 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 ...
, 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 ...
, the
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 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 ...
. Each team was made up of fifteen girls. Warwick survived the final cut and was assigned to the Rockford team, where she played in just two seasons.
[
Warwick grew up in Regina along with five brothers, including a twin. Brothers Grant and ]Bill
Bill(s) may refer to:
Common meanings
* Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States)
* Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature
* Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer
* Bill, a bird or animal's beak
Pl ...
played hockey at the time. At an early age, she played softball with her brothers at a big field next to her home. She began playing softball in school at age 12. She played for the Regina Army Navy Bombers team when she was 20, when a scout of the league saw her hitting and fielding abilities and invited her to Wrigley Field.[The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League]
She started at third base
A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...
for the Peaches, managed by Eddie Stumpf, as a part of a well assembled infield that included Dorothy Kamenshek ( 1B), Mildred Deegan
Mildred Eleanor Deegan (December 11, 1919 – July 21, 2002) was an American pitcher, outfielder and second basewoman who played ten seasons in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, from to .
Background
Deegan was one of 25 playe ...
( 2B) and her fellow Gladys Davis (SS).
From June 20 to 27, 1943, Warwick hit safely in 13 consecutive games to set an all-time league record that stood until Kenosha Comets' Elizabeth Mahon tied it two years later. She batted a .263 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 ...
in 88 games, a pretty good performance considering her teammate Davis was the only one to reach the .300 mark in the inaugural season (.332). Warwick also scored 62 runs and drove in 30 more, ranking eight in hits
Hits or H.I.T.S. may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* '' H.I.T.S.'', 1991 album by New Kids on the Block
* ''...Hits'' (Phil Collins album), 1998
* ''Hits'' (compilation series), 1984–2006; 2014, a British compilation album s ...
(93) and ninth in total bases
In baseball statistics, total bases is the number of bases a player gains with hit (baseball), hits. It is a weighted sum with values of 1 for a single (baseball), single, 2 for a double (baseball), double, 3 for a triple (baseball), triple and 4 ...
(115), while tying for seventh in triples
TripleS (; ; stylized as tripleS) is a South Korean 24-member multinational girl group formed by Modhaus. They aim to be the world's first decentralized idol group, where the members will rotate between the full group, sub-units, and solo activi ...
(7) and runs. She also established another league record with 10 assists at third base in a single game.[All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Record Book]
For the first three seasons, the league did not have an official All-Star team. Nevertheless, on July 1, 1943 the first AAGPBL All-Star Game was held, which coincidentally became the first night game ever played at Wrigley Field. The contest was played under temporary lights between two teams composed of Kenosha and Racine players against Rockford and South Bend players.
Warwick played another season in 1944. In 1945 she married hockey
''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...
player Ken McAuley, a goaltender
In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as goalie or netminder) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their own team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays ...
for the NHL
The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...
New York Rangers
The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in New York City. The Rangers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The team plays ...
, and decided to settle down with her husband in Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...
, Alberta. She continued to play fastpitch softball
Fastpitch softball, or simply fastpitch, is a form of softball played by both women and men. While the teams are most often segregated by sex, coed fast-pitch leagues also exist. Considered the most competitive form of softball, fastpitch is the ...
for an Edmonton team that clinched the Canadian title in 1951. She also worked for the Department of Energy for 27 years, retiring in 1988. She was widowed in 1992.
After retiring, Warwick attended AAGPBL Players Association reunions. The association was largely responsible for the opening of ''Women in Baseball'', a permanent display 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 ...
in 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 in 1988 to honor the entire All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.
In 1986 Warwick was inducted into the Saskatchewan Hall of Fame and Museum along with her brothers Claude, a professional boxer, and Grant, Richard, and William, all of them professional hockey players. Then, she was admitted into the Alberta Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991, and to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in 1998.Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum – 1998 Induction
Warwick died in 2006 in Edmonton, Alberta, at the age of 84.
Career statistics
Batting
Fielding
Sources
{{DEFAULTSORT:Warwick, Mildred
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League players
Canadian baseball players
Baseball players from Regina, Saskatchewan
1922 births
2006 deaths
Canadian emigrants to the United States
20th-century Canadian sportswomen