Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better in a Skirt

                As thousands of men are drafted into the military when the United States enters World War II, a deficit within the American workforce becomes evident. This also becomes obvious in the area of professional sports- especially in the favorite American pastime of baseball. As companies and professional sports teams realize they need warm bodies to stay afloat and keep society moving smoothly, they look to an untapped resource within the United States: American women. Previously overlooked due to the misconception of lack of physical and intellectual ability, American women are encouraged to “step up to the plate” and take on roles within society to help support the war effort and support their families. It was this last resort that helped enable the redefinition of traditional roles of American women and open doors in professional sports that were previously seen as “too” masculine for them to play.

               

     Due to the Great Depression and the draft initiated after the attack on Pearl Harbor, attendance in baseball was quickly falling. Already known for his unconventional ideas, chewing gum business magnate and owner of the Chicago Cubs, Phillip Wrigley, came up with the idea to create a women’s baseball league in order to bring in fans. The women’s league was meant to keep people interested in baseball during the war when many of the male major league players were serving in the army.  This was controversial idea at the time. In those days, women who played baseball had the reputation to that of prostitutes.  Wrigley knew that in order to make his plan successful, he would have to portray the girls as the ideal “All Americans” and keep their femininity intact, even while playing a masculine sport. Advertisements went out all around the country and scouts were instructed to search for feminine women who were good softball players.  At first, Wrigley tried to persuade the Major League baseball parks to allow the girls to play at their fields when their teams were on the road. Since none of the Major Leagues wanted any part of it, Wrigley was forced to seek out minor league teams close to the League’s headquarters in Chicago. Wrigley wanted to keep the games in middle sized cities with a war industry and give the league a patriotic symbol during the international conflict. It was also meant as easy-access entertainment for the hardworking people within the cities. It was a risk, but Wrigley’s genius gave the girls more than they ever bargained for.

                Each team consisted of 15 players, a manager, and a woman chaperon.  Considering the girls were a “selling product”, femininity was a key element in Wrigley’s advertisement. They were required to wear skirts, to go the salon once a week, always wear make-up, and attend Helena Rubenstein’s evening charm classes. Although they had these requirements, they were still expected to play ball to the best of their ability and put on a good show. Not many expected much out of the newly found teams, but much to the public’s surprise, no one ever thought they could play as well as they did. Their first season in 1943 had a good start. The four original teams, the Racine Belles, South Bend Blue Sox, Kenosha Comets, and the Rockford Peaches started gaining massive popularity. Unfortunately,  Wrigley lost a lot of money with the franchise due to the fact it was non-profit. For only $10,000, Wrigley sold it to Arthur Meyerhoff who immediately turned it to a profit-organization and launched a major advertisement campaign all over the country to promote awareness of the teams. The fans were at first attracted to the girls, but then became hooked by their baseball skills. From an attendance figure of 259,000 for a six team league in 1944, the interest increased in six league cities in 1945 to bring 450,000 patrons to the gate and in 1946, as an indication of full-blown maturity, the attendance in eight league cities topped the three-quarters of a million mark with 754,000.  The teams played a full season of baseball, with single games scheduled every night of the week and doubleheaders on Sundays and holidays.  The girls proved that they could play like Joe DiMaggio while looking like his wife, Marilyn Monroe.

                 The All American Girls Professional Baseball League lasted for eleven years, but folded once the war ended. Men returned from overseas and resumed their roles in Major League Baseball, leaving less tolerance for women stepping outside their domestic roles as a house wife. In addition, the “family fever” began to rise and men wanted their wives back at home instead of running around a baseball field. Due to this domestic isolation, it seemed as though women’s baseball just fell off the earth. There was hardly any recognition for these breakthrough eleven years of women’s rights until over thirty years later. If one of the players were to try and tell someone of their baseball career, no one believed there was a girl’s baseball team. Though that may have been true for the parts of the U.S. that did not have access to the AAGPBL, those that were able to see this phenomenon obtained a better idea of a woman’s capabilities both mentally and physically. Without even realizing it, the AAGPBL helped further the fight for gender equality just by showing that gals can play ball like the guys. It was not just for show either. The girls enjoyed what they were doing and would have played whether it was for a professional team or not. But, thanks to their participation in professional baseball –if only for eleven years- they set a platform for future creation and acceptance of professional women’s sports teams for years to come.

                It was an unintentional advancement in women’s rights during the forties and fifties within the United States as Phillip Wrigley created the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. Starting out with just four teams, Wrigley created a legacy that lasted for eleven years, consisted of over 12 teams, and brought in almost a million spectators in one season. Young women, from the ages of 15 to 25, played baseball in short skirts, make-up and curls while proving that they could play just as well as any Major-Leaguer in America. Though it was not easily accepted and was just a substitution until the men from war came home, it put America in a place where boundaries could be broken, or at least bent to a point where someone else could break these boundaries. Girls worked, girls played and girls won, proving that not only could they be home makers, but could also make home runs.