Really in a league of their own

Having made numerous trips to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, I encountered a first there this weekend.
That's because my GF and I actually met real-life baseball players there when we visited the Cooperstown landmark. We got to meet (in no particular order) Gloria Elliott, Sarah Jane Ferguson, Joanne McComb and Dolly Brumfield, all of whom played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

You might remember the AAGPBL from the 1992 film, "A League of Their Own," which chronicled the way the league kept baseball alive in American during World War II.

Before the foursome gave a lecture about the league at the Hall of Fame on Saturday — that was a ticketed event — they were on hand to share their stories about playing back then. This Kalamazoo Lassies uniform belonged to pitcher Gloria Elliott (seen above directly to the right of the uniform), who played in the league from 1950-54. A Staten Island native, Gloria learned to pitch from her older brothers and even developed a knuckleball, a pitch that most men find hard to throw to this day!

Just the brief chat was both informative and entertaining, making us both remember the movie, which focused on the Rockford Peaches.

As depicted in "A League of Their Own," the women talked about how each team had chaperones which had to approve the players' social commitments, including dates. As one of the former players told us, by the time the team's chaperone and manager were done interrogating a player's prospective date, it was too late as the team had already moved on to the next town for another series of games. Not to mention the fact that the league's by-laws said the players must act like ladies at all times, on and off the field, among other antiquated regulations.

The Hall of Fame has an entire exhibit dedicated to women in the game, including those from the AAGPBL.

This, for example, is an actual uniform worn by a Rockford Peach when the league was in existence, from 1943-54. Actresses like Geena Davis, Lori Petty and Rosie O'Donnell portrayed the Peaches and showed what it was like to try to compete for fans' attention in a time in which many of the top major-leaguers were sent off to fight the war. It's a great movie — one I own on DVD — and one that's definitely worth another viewing, particular since the Major League Baseball season starts on Sunday night.

As if fighting to draw a crowd to the stadiums wasn't enough, the AAGPBL's players had other obstacles to deal with.

Even the costumes from the film (seen here from another section of the Hall of Fame that focuses on baseball movies) showed how many players altered their uniforms so as to make playing easier. As Gloria explained, she had to take in the skirt on her uniform to make pitching easier. She said before she had to do it because she'd often drop the ball during her wind-up, as it would get caught in her skirt. Similarly, sliding in a skirt wasn't easy or comfortable, they said, thus making similar alterations necessary.

Again, particularly after meeting the women who actually lived it, "A League of Their Own" is must-see movie watching.

And if you do watch the flick, look out for this: In the same section of the Hall of Fame dedicated to baseball films, they have this baseball card on display which depicts actor Tom Hanks portraying Jimmy Dugan, the washed-up big-league who ends up managing the Rockford Peaches in "A League of Their Own." For a collector like me, it's one of the coolest baseball cards in the place, one of the few I can't buy on eBay.

Can't get enough about baseball movies? Check out this book by my fav professor of all-time!