May 23, 1943

Rockford Morning Star
Girls Softball Stars In Training

Seventy-five girls, the pick of the United States and Canada softball teams, are in the midst of a training session in Chicago that will determine the sixty that will be selected to make up the personnel of the four league teams to play in Rockford, Racine and Kenosha in Wisconsin, and South Bend in Indiana in the All-American Girls Softball loop. Pictured above are three of the stars drilling in Chicago. Above are Irene Runke (left) and Clara Schillace, star shortstop and outfielder. To the left is Edythe Perlick, the "Babe Ruth" of the squad. Driven indoors by the inclement weather for five days the girls were able to use Wrigley Field for their workouts Saturday and Sunday. Four team managers, all former pilots of major and minor league teams, will pick the four teams May 24 and 25 and the groups will be assigned to the four cities. The Rockford team will come here May 26 and workout at the high school stadium, where all home games of the local team will be played, until May 30 when the team leaves for the league opener at South Bend. The Rockford opening game has been set for June 5.

May 28, 1943

Rockford Morning Star

Twin Bills Open Girls' Professional Softball Loop Sunday

4-Team League Ready to Start

Rockford at S. Bend, Racine at Kenosha to Feature Opening Day

By Jayne Miller

Chicago, May 28 - (UP) - A new league where a slim figure will be as important as a fat batting average opens Sunday with the backing of two major league baseball magnates who are learning that a shiny nose can cause as much trouble as a fielding error.

It will be beauty at the bat, pulchritude on the pitcher's mound, and glamour in the gardens when the nation's first professional girls' softball league opens its initial season with teams from Rockford, Ill., Racine and Kenosha, Wis., and South Bend, Ind.

The schedule for opening day sends Rockford to South Bend and Racine to Kenosha for a pair of double-headers on Sunday.

The 70 girls in the league wound up their 10 days of spring training here this week. Part of the training was done in the Chicago Cubs' Wrigley field. The rest took place in a beauty parlor because league President Ken Sells had decreed that the girls must be beautiful.

Backed by Wrigley, Rickey 

The leading backers of the All-American Girls Softball league are P.K. Wrigley, owner of the Chicago Cubs, and Branch Rickey, president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who personally probably still prefer a player with a .400 average to one with a Hollywood profile.

But in the girls' league, sister, it's not only can you hit, but can you do it graceful like.

Each player who steps up to the plate will be as trim as a ballet dancer in her short-skirted pastel uniform. Every curl will be in place, her lipstick on precisely, and a tsk! tsk! to the girl who hits a homer while her face is shiny.

The girls will watch their diet, too. Outmoded is the cry to pass the potatoes. It's "hand me the powderpuff, dearie."

One girl who will have no trouble pounding out homers while looking as petite and feminine as a French mannequin is Mrs. Terrie Davis, Toronto, Can.

Rockford Shortstop

Terrie plays shortstop for the Rockford, Ill., team. She stands all of five feet, four inches and weighs 125 pounds in her peach-colored uniform. Her batting average last year with the Toronto Canadian championship Sunday morning class team nudged .400.

Her physiognomy is a little marred right now.

"I've been playing ball for over 12 years," she confided. "I never had a scratch or a bruise. so what happens? The first time I come up to bat here at Wrigley Field, I pop a foul tip. Bang! Down comes the ball right on my eye. Just look at the shiner!"

Her black eye, however, wasn't as noticeable as she made out. Sells had sent her to a beauty operator who laid on grease paint and powder.

Terrie of is one of the few married women in the league. (Most players are enthusiastic 18-year-olds). Her husband, Theodore, works in a Toronto war plant.

Son Is Player, Too

"Both Ted and I love playing ball," she said. "In fact we met on a baseball diamond. But the real batter in the family is our six-year-old son, Gerald. You ought to see him swing. He's going to be a second DiMaggio."

When Terrie isn't keeping house or playing softball, she designs dresses.

"But I never would have thought of anything as cute as these uniforms," she said, pirouetting so that her short skirt flared to show a glimpse of matching tights.

Gladys "Terrie" Davis

May 19, 1943

Rockford Morning Star
Savanna Girl Given Tryout At Wrigley Field

(Consolidated News Service)

Savanna, Ill., May 18 - Betty McFadden, star Savanna girl softball pitcher and first baseman, has been one of the 75 girls selected for tryouts for positions on the four All-American Girls softball teams. The youthful star, who played first for the Savanna All-Stars and the Savanna-Thomson Girls, left for the tryouts at Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago Cubs, last Monday.

Teams will be picked on May 24 and 25, with 15 players making up each team. Rockford, Kenosha, Wis., South Bend, Ind., and Racine, Wis., have been picked for the home cities of the four teams.

Miss McFadden, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Maurice McFadden, graduated from the Savanna Township high school, and was working at the Savanna Ordnance Depot before signing her softball contract. She was granted a leave of absence to make the tryout.

The four teams, in addition to the regular 108-game schedule, will play exhibition games in other industrial cities. The purpose of the league is to provide recreation for war defense workers.

May 16, 1943

Rockford Morning Star
Rockford Gets Berth In Loop
All-American Girls Softball Team To Come Here

Rockford has been definitely picked as one of the four cities assigned a berth in the All-American Girls Softball league, it was announced last night by league officials. Racine and Kenosha in Wisconsin, Rockford in Illinois and South Bend in Indiana are the four cities that have been given league franchises.

The league is being backed by Philip K. Wrigley, owner of the Chicago Cubs, and Branch Rickey, vice president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers. The league has been provided with capital of $100,000 by Wrigley and its president is Ken Sells, former Rockford boy who has been assistant to the Cubs general manager Jimmy Gallagher.

Open on May 30

The league will start play on Sunday, May 30 with Kenosha and South Bend at home, Racine playing at Kenosha and the Rockford team at South Bend. The Rockford and Racine openings will be played on Saturday, June 5. The league will close Sept. 1 with a schedule of 108 games to be played by each team.

League officials state that they have secured a lease from the Rockford board of education for the use of the high school stadium for all home games for the Rockford team. Games will be played afternoon and at night.

The league was organized for the purpose of providing recreation and relaxation to defense workers and for that reason Rockford, Racine, Kenosha and South Bend, all big manufacturing cities engaged mostly in war work, were selected for the league.

A total of seventy-five girl softball stars from all parts of the United States and four Canadian provinces have been signed up for league plays and all are scheduled to arrive in Chicago to start trial workouts Monday at Wrigley Field, the home of the Cubs.

Four managers have been signed to manage the league teams and they will conduct the trial workouts. Either May 24 or 25 these four managers will select the players to comprise the four teams, sixty girl softball stars, fifteen to each team, to be selected.

Will Pick Teams

The managers have been told to pick the four teams as nearly equal as to playing ability as possible and not until the personnel of the four teams has been announced will the managers know which team they are to manage. The four managers engaged by the league heads have all had experience managing professional men's baseball teams.

The team that is assigned to Rockford will come here May 26 with its manager and will work out at the stadium for three days before leaving for the league opening at South Bend. Rockford softball fans have been invited to watch the workouts of the Rockford team, the time of the drills to be announced later.

The players will all be outfitted in the same costumes as worn by the women tennis stars in national meets. The four cities in the league will be canvassed by league officials to find out the best starting times for the games that will benefit the most war workers in the various industries.

June 4, 1943

Rockford Morning Star
Mayor To Toss First Ball Saturday
By Harry D. Milne
Morning Star Sports Editor

Mayor Henry Bloom will toss the first ball and Ken Selles of Chicago, former Rockford boy, president of the league, will attempt to catch it in in part of the opening ceremonies Saturday night at the high school stadium when the Rockford and South Bend, Ind., teams officially open the season here of the All-American Girls Softball league.

There will be other ceremonies, Melvin Shaffer, business manager of the team announces, such as flag raising with the members of the two teams of girl softball stars marching out onto the field in their attractive uniforms and forming a big "V". The game is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m.

Sunday night the two teams will swing into a doubleheader at the stadium. The girls play a full nine-inning game and play under the rules of men's hardball with nine players on a side. Base runners are allowed to take a lead off the base and pitchers will throw the ball with one foot on the pitching rubber. There will be no safety player on either team.

In league games played so far the action has been fast with games being completed in much faster time than in men's hardball. Double plays are a feature of this game with with the Rockford team getting more than its share of twin killings in tilts played up to date.

Through Wednesday night the Rockford Peaches, named after the color of their uniforms, has a .500 percentage in the league standings with three wins and three defeats. The Peaches dropped their first three games at South Bend but came back to win the next two and to defeat Kenosha Wednesday night. The Peaches are anxious to win the five-game series with South Bend slated for Saturday and Sunday nights and Monday and the fans are assured of seeing some spirited competition when the two teams clash.

Rockford Beats Kenosha Girls By 7-5 Score
(Special to the Morning Star)

Kenosha, Wis., June 3 - Scoring three runs in the fifth to tie the score 5 and 5 the Rockford Peaches defeated Kenosha here tonight 7 to 5 with single runs in the sixth and eighth frames. The win gives Rockford four victories out of seven games played for a .571 percentage in the league standings.

Dorothy Green of Boston, a catcher, joined Rockford today and was behind the plate from the fourth inning on, handling Clara Cook, a southpaw, in excellent style. Rockford made a dozen hits, paced by Burmeister's trio, including a double.

Kenosha took an early lead, scoring one in the second and two in the third. Rockford made a couple in the fourth but the home team came back with two in the same inning to lead 5 to 2. In the fifth the visitors tied it up and then went on to win.

Score by innings:
Rockford ........	0	0	0	2	3	1	0	1	0	-	7	11	4
Kenosha ........	0	1	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	-	5	7	3
Cook and Burmeister, Green; Bennett, Harney and Westerman.

Rockford Register-Republic

Rockford Peaches Bid for League Lead as Home Opener Nears

Now Second in Softball Race
South Bend Blue Sox Here Saturday Night For First Home Game

"We'll be in first place when we come home."

This assurance was broadcast to Rockford fans today by the Rockford Peaches, the city's entry in the new All-American Girls softball league, as they prepared to wind up their first road trip of the season at Kenosha and stage an "opening night" celebration for the hometown followers Saturday night.

South Bend, from whom the Peaches won two out of five to launch a winning streak that now stands at four straight games, will provide the opposition. The curtain will go up at 7:30 p.m., with Mayor Henry Bloom throwing the first pitch and Ken Sells, president of the new league and a former aide on the Chicago Cubs managerial staff, doing the catching. 

Coach Eddie Stumpf and his Rockford girls blasted their way into second place last night with a 7-5 decision over Kenosha at the latter's field, and only today's game with the same team stood between the Peaches and league leadership when they open at home tomorrow. The Rockford girls, displaying considerable nervousness, dropped three games in a row at South Bend over the holiday week-end.

Then their nervousness vanished and they set the Blue Sox down twice in a row and continued on to Kenosha to pick up two more. It was a sizzling scoring struggle, throwing with excitement all the way, as the Rockford Peaches whipped Kenosha last night in the Lake Front stadium.

New Catcher on Staff

Dorothy Green of Boston, a catcher, joined Rockford Thursday and was behind the plate from the fourth inning on, handling the slants of Clara Cook, a southpaw, in excellent style.

Rockford assembled a dozen hits, paced by Ella Gurmeister's trio, including a double. The visitors sent Bennett to the showers in the eighth.

After trailing 5-2, Rockford splurged for three markers in the fifth to tie it at 5-5. Then shoved over a marker in the sixth and seventh while holding Kenosha scoreless.

Two Rockford runs developed in the fourth inning. Fritz walked and scored on McCreary's single, she reached second when Kenosha's left fielder bobbled the retrieve. After Burmeister skied to left, Cook poked a single to left counting McCreary.

Fritz, McCreary Score

With Davis out on a tap to first baseman to the first baseman to open the fifth, Kamenshak singled to right field, Fritz was safe and a Kenosha error failed to check Kamenshak at second. McCreary strolled and Burmeister's clout to center registered Kamenshak. Cook's single accounted for Fritz at the counting station and when she attempted to stretch the hit into a double she was nabbed at second but McCreary raced home.

Davis whaled a triple to center in the sixth, and after Kamenshak rolled out to first, she raced in on Fritz's infield ball which was fielded too slow to nip the Rockford runner at the plate.

The Peaches had four errors sprinkled throughout the game as compared to three for Kenosha, but they displayed a lot of hustle and spirit and put on the pressure in the right spot to keep their winning streak alive.

Box score:
Rockford (7)				Kenosha (5)
	AB	R	H		AB	R	H
Jackson, lf	4	0	2	Koehn, cf-3b	5	2	2
Wuetrich, 2b	2	0	0	Ruhnke, ss	5	0	1
Green, c	2	0	0	Mickelson, rf	5	1	0
Warwick, 3b	5	0	0	Hartnett, 3b	0	0	0
Davis, ss	3	1	1	Wohlm'der cf	3	0	1
Kamenshak, 1b	5	2	2	O'Hara, 1b	4	0	1
Fritz, rf	4	2	1	Lester, 2b	4	1	0
McCreary, 1b	4	2	1	Holle, lf	4	0	0
Burmeister, c	5	0	3	Westerman, c	4	1	1
Cook, p	5	0	2	Bennett, p	2	0	0
				Harney, p	2	0	1
Totals	40	7	12	Totals	38	5	7
Rockford ................. 000 231 010 - 7
Kenosha ................. 012 200 000 - 5
Home run - Koehn. Three base hit - Davis. Two base hit - Burmeister. Stuck out - By Bennet, 1, Harney 1; Cook, 3. Losing Pitcher - Harney. Wild pitches - Cook, Harney. Passed ball - Westerman. Hit by pitcher (Bennett) - Jackson, Green. Double players - Lester to O'Hara. Umpires - Green and Gembler.

STANDINGS
	Won	Lost	Pct.
Racine ..........	3	1	.750
Rockford .......	4	3	.571
South Bend ...	3	4	.429
Kenosha .......	1	3	.250