When Dorothy "Snookie" Harrell Doyle was a child in the 1930s she enjoyed playing baseball with the boys in her community. Only knowing one other girl who liked the game, Snookie played baseball with the boys at school until she was in the fifth grade. At this time her teacher decided that it was not a good idea for a young girl to play baseball with boys, and forbade her to do so. Snookie enjoyed the game too much to give it up and so she continued to play outside of school with the boys in her community. These older boys gave Snookie a hard time and tried to make her so upset that she would quit. Snookie kept playing though, and voiced her frustration to her aunt about not having a girls' baseball league. Her aunt assured her, " ... Someday, Snookie, they're gonna have a league, a girls' league, and then you're gonna be able to play."1 Her aunt was right. In 1944 Snookie began the first of her nine seasons as a Rockford Peach in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, the first and only women's professional baseball league. She played, but not completely on her own terms. Snookie, like the other players, would have to present herself in the image of a feminine, "all-American girl" in order to earn the right to play baseball like men. League management and players would struggle to balance the gender of the players with the masculinity of competitive sport. For more than one hundred years, as women have fought for equality in society, they also gained more opportunities in sports. Female athletes challenged perceived gender roles that supported the dominance of men in both sports and society and faced public criticism for it. Few desired to make a grand contribution to society. Rather, they simply wanted the opportunity to participate in a sport they enjoyed. They did not see themselves as trailblazers, but as women wanting the chance to be athletes. They earned both the respect and antipathy of the public while challenging gender roles and laying a foundation for the future. The women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League stood at the forefront of this struggle to be both women and athletes.2 Philip K. Wrigley, president of the William Wrigley, Jr. chewing gum company and owner of the Chicago Cubs, developed the League in 1943. He wanted to address the threat of baseball's decline as an increasing number of male players left professional baseball to accept war related jobs or fight in World War II. Wrigley recruited players from all over the United States and Canada and initially established four teams in the Midwest. The AAGPBL featured skilled athletes who attracted crowds, praise, and criticism. While some of the public embraced the women, others ridiculed them. Even though few women played baseball in the early 1940s, and competitive sports for women had always been controversial, there is a long tradition of women playing baseball in America. Founders of elite women's colleges in the nineteenth century believed that women should have the same opportunities as men, including a secondary education. They also believed in the importance of physical health and its relationship with mental health, and required women to participate in some form of physical education as part of their curriculum. Appropriate activities included swimming, skating, and gardening. While these colleges required students to
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