The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League - Essay Example

The league was later purchased in 1950, and a Player's Association introduced in 1986, which was soon followed by recognition through induction of the girls in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988.One of the major issues facing the new league was its hybrid status between softball and baseball, so rules of both games had to be incorporated and modified, including ball size, pitching techniques, number of players, but mostly in order to level the gender differences for the sake of interest.

The new rules were drafted by Jack Sheehan of the Chicago Cubs, Vern Hernlund, supervisor of recreation for the Chicago Parks Department, and Ken Sells. Then they scouted the U.S and Canada for talented female softball players, and the response was phenomenal, as literally hundreds of women wanted to join the League. The field was narrowed to 60 women who formed the first professional baseball league. Each team included a female chaperone, plus a famous male sports figure as their manager.It was evident that issues of decorum for women were of concern.

Nicknamed the Glamour League, the women, who were very well paid, were expected to adhere to "high moral standards and rules of conduct", attending Helen Rubenstein's charm school, beauty salons, and wearing special uniforms of "a one-piece short-skirted flared tunic, satin shorts, knee-high baseball socks, and baseball hat". Not only was the war directly responsible for changing traditional women's roles, but indirectly by giving birth to women's baseball, as Wrigley conceptualized the idea of the "All-American Girl" counterpart to "America's young men [who] were off fighting for our country, dreaming of the girls they left behind".

As Daisy Junor, former Blue Sox player, reveals in an interview to Carmen Pauls ("Memories of an All-American Girl)", it was a challenge for the women involved to adjust their lives to the idea of playing what was hitherto considered a male sport (played by and enjoyed by men). The twenty-two-year-old former softball player had just gotten married and had to leave her husband to join the team. She describes the grueling living, traveling, and training conditions: the late-night games, having to eat dinner at a bar, and the inevitable sneaky beers and poker when their chaperone's back was turned.

She also recounts her experience playing in the politically turbulent Cuba in the spring of 1947, when, amidst fears for their safety they were locked in a hotel room. She gleefully remembers the enamored well-dressed Cuban men who gawked at them, contrasted with the reception in the US where the "Glamor League" girls "were expected to play ball like men, even though they were wearing short skirts which caused serious leg burns and bruises during slides. The girls received lessons on how to charm a date, and sip tea like a lady.

The All-American Girls were to be every boy's ideal woman as well as the girl next door." She recalls the difficulty experienced by some girls, who were uncomfortable wearing those short skirts required of them.One thing is clear: despite the gendered nature of the League, these women went on to chart a course of respect for their talent in baseball, and for the aptitude of women in general in sports. Their large fan base and the continued expansion of the League after the war, contrary to the expectations of its founder Philip Wrigley, goes to show that these women broke out of their mold and hit everyone's expectations out of the ballpark.