Girls of Summer: In Their Own League by Lois Browne Read Free Book Online

play pro ball. She had good reason to believe that he would be less than thrilled at the prospect. They had been married for nearly five years. In 1942, she had had to pass up a chance to play in Montreal for a team sponsored by Ogilvie Oats because he insisted she stay home. This time, however, her mother-in-law encouraged her to go now and tell Maury later. This bold maneuver worked.
    When Baker became the South Bend Blue Sox catcher – and the League’s most widely recognized star – Maury burst with pride . But he accepted her ball career on the understanding that Bonnie would call it quits when he came marching home.
    The players reported for 1943 spring training – held for the first and only time at Wrigley Field itself – in a state of great anticipation . Only 60 players would survive, chosen to fill berths on the All-American’s four founding teams.
    They traveled by train, wi th one or two delays en route. War work had priority; so did anyone in service uniform. Players scrambled for early-morning or late-night connections, clutching cardboard suitcases and other must-have gear, including, in one case, a portable gramophone. Some had never been on a train before.
    To many of them, Chicago must have seemed like another planet .
    Lillian Jackson, recruited from Nashville, Tennessee, was thrilled to discover that she and the other hopefuls would use the same locker rooms and showers as the Cubs.
    All the players had been told beforehand that there’d be myriad rules and regulations governing personal conduct. They had received the patented no-shame, no-blame pep talk, and knew that chaperones would monitor their every move.
    Unsuitable behavior was spelled out in their contracts, complete with the penalties - $10 for back-chatting umpires, $50 for appearing “unkempt” in public . The League was keen on comparing its standard document to an Actors’ Equity agreement. This suggestion added a touch of show-biz panache.
    Smoking and drinking hard liquor in public were forbidden . Every social engagement had to be cleared ahead of time with the chaperone. A curfew called for players to be tucked safely into bed two hours after the game – just time enough for a shower, change and a bite to eat. Even close friends and blood relatives were kept well away from the bench; a no-fraternization clause prohibited off-the-field contacts with rival club members.
    All this was understood – but the League uniform came as an unwelcome surprise . Unless the players had seen the photograph that caught Bonnie Baker’s eye, they hadn’t realized they’d be playing in skirts.
    By the early 1940s, young women everywhere were wearing pants . Rosie the Riveter – the symbol of a woman’s ability to do a man’s work – went about her business in slacks or overalls. Shorts were customary for casual wear; jeans (known as dungarees) were big with teenagers. But the All-American wanted something entirely different.
    Most female softball teams wore modified men’s uniforms, but there were exceptions . Clubs from the southwestern states, notably the Arizona Ramblers, wore shorts. So did the Moose Jaw Royals, from wind-swept Saskatchewan – but in deference to the prairie climate they wore them with leotards, which made the players look like trapeze artists.
    The ultimate fashion statement was made by Toronto’s Sunday Morning Class, as described in the 1942 scouting report: “Their entire uniform is white . On their heads they wear a small stocking cap about the size of a small plate. The fact that none of the girls have a boyish haircut makes the tiny cap appear even smaller than it really is. Instead of shirts they wear a tight-fitting long-sleeved sweater that makes them appear like a group of Hollywood sweater girls. Flowing out from the bottom of the sweater is a short full-pleated skirt that barely reaches their knees. The pleats are very small and as the players cavort about the field they give one the impression of a