Obit of the Day

Obit of the Day: How Did She Play in Peoria?

Amy Applegren, pitcher for the Rockford Peaches, Muskegon Lassies, and South Bend Blue Sox in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, died on April 3rd. The league, founded by gum magnate and Chicago Cubs’ owner, Philip K. Wrigley, played from 1943-1954 throughout the Midwest, including Peoria, Applegren’s hometown.

With their iconic, and impractical, skirt uniforms the women of the AAGPBL began playing a modified form of softball (12” ball, 40 feet from home, underhand pitching, as you see above) and evolved to something just slightly different than the men’s game (10” ball v. MLB 9-9 1/4”; 55 feet from home vs. MLB 60’ 6”; overhand).

According to the All-American Girls’ Professional Baseball League Record Book, Applegren’s numbers for nine seasons (she missed the first and last season of the AAGPBL):

Pitching:
GP W L W-L% ERA IP H RA ER BB SO WHIP
206 86 98 .467 2.52 1451 905 586 407 880 501 1.23

Hitting:
GP AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB BB SO BA
234 1007 102 237 15 3 1 73 61 72 66 .235

Fielding:
PO A E TC DP FA
2435 535 90 3060 86 .971

H/t on this obit for my friend, Tim Wiles.

(Image courtesy of wikipedia.org)