All-American Girls Professional Baseball League players

Maybelle Blair (born January 16, 1927) is a former All-American Girls Professional Baseball League player. Listed at 5 feet 6 inches (168 cm) and 150 pounds (68 kg), she batted and threw right-handed.Born in Inglewood, California, Blair was an efficient pitcher when she joined the league with the Peoria Redwings in its 1948 season, even though she appeared in only one game for the team, and then moved the next year to a professional softball league in Chicago to play for the Chicago Cardinals. Later, she played for the Jax Girls softball club of New Orleans.Afterwards, Blair attended Compton Junior College in California and then Los Angeles School of Physiotherapy. Following her graduation, she worked at a treatment center in Los Angeles before began a long 37-year career at Northrop Corporation, where she started as a chauffeur and ended up as the manager of highway transportation, being one of the three female managers the company employed in that period.Following her retirement, Blair became vice president of Center for Extended Learning for Seniors (CELS); an educational travel tours program provider for Elderhostel.Blair also became an active collaborator in different projects of the AAGPBL Players Association since its foundation in 1982, serving on the Board of Directors and the Chair of the Fundraising Committee. The association helped to bring the league story to the public eye and was largely responsible for the opening of Women in Baseball, a permanent display based at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, which was unveiled in 1988 to honor the entire All-American Girls Professional Baseball League rather than any individual personality.In 2022, Blair publicly came out as a lesbian while promoting the TV series A League of Their Own, saying that prior to her time in the AAGPBL, “I thought I was the only one in the world… I hid for 75, 85 years and this is actually, basically, the first time I’ve ever come out.”

Lillian Ann Luckey (July 9, 1919 – December 13, 2021) was an American baseball pitcher who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5 ft 1 in (1.55 m), 126 lb (57 kg), she batted and threw right handed.Born in South Bend, Indiana on July 9, 1919, Luckey joined the All American League in its 1946 season. She was assigned to the South Bend Blue Sox club and appeared in eight games for them.She posted a 2–4 record with a 3.44 ERA, allowing 37 runs - 21 earned - on 51 hits and 48 walks, while striking out 10 through 54 innings of work. As a hitter, she went 2 for 15 for a .133 batting average.The All American League folded in 1954, but there is a permanent display at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at Cooperstown, New York since 1988 that honors the entire league rather than any individual figure.In July 2008, it was reported that Luckey still played golf twice a week at the age of 89. She died in Niles, Michigan, on December 13, 2021, at the age of 102.

Frances L. Janssen [Big Red, or Little Red] (January 25, 1926 – November 27, 2008) was an American pitcher who played from 1948 through 1952 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) and weighing over 155 lb, she batted and threw right-handed.
She was a well-traveled pitcher during her five-year career in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. She moved constantly from one city to another because the league office shifted players to help teams stay competitive. Janssen was also cut twice from the league, but she kept playing for seven different teams for different periods of time and different stays.
Born in Remington, Indiana, Frances was the daughter of Fred and Anna (née Petersen) Janssen, who emigrated from Germany in the mid-1910s and settled in the farmlands of Indiana. She had a brother, Paul, and four sisters, Betty, Tinie, Wilma, and Anna. Almost six feet tall, Frances played basketball and organized softball while attending Gilboa High School. She later received an associate degree in business from South Bend IUPUI and attended the International Business College of Fort Wayne. She graduated in 1944 and immediately went to work in an office. [3]
By this time, several girls from her local softball team had been scouted and signed by the league. Frances gave it a tryout in 1946, but she did not make the grade. She then insisted again in 1948 and was accepted. After spring training, she was assigned to the South Bend Blue Sox for a couple of days before being sent to the Grand Rapids Chicks. She went 4–4 with a 3.98 earned run average in 11 games and was released after one month of action. I got released because I couldn't throw a curveball, she recalled in an interview. [1] But Janssen did not give up and accepted a demotion to the Chicago Colleens/Springfield Sallies rookie touring teams to work things out. The Colleens and the Sallies had lost their franchises after their poor performances the previous year. Both teams played exhibition games against each other as they traveled primarily through the South and East, traveling through 20 states and playing in 46 cities. We traveled more than 10,000 miles in 1949 from Illinois to Texas, across the Gulf States, and up to New Jersey and Pennsylvania, she later explained in an interview with Jim Sargent for the Society for American Baseball Research. We played in minor league parks in Tulsa and Baltimore, as well as in city parks, and we drew good crowds.
In two of those games, she was asked to switch to the Sallies and serve as playing manager as well as chaperone. She handled both jobs well while also leading her Colleens team in pitching. By the way, she came along fine and hurled two one-hitter shutouts against Springfield at Oklahoma and South Carolina ballparks. She finished the tour with a 16–6 record in 23 pitching appearances. Nevertheless, since the league counted the whole tour as exhibition games, no official statistics were kept.
Janssen was promoted to the Peoria Redwings in 1950 and ended up pitching for the Fort Wayne Daisies in the postseason. She went 3-3 with a 3.87 ERA in 19 games for Peoria and Fort Wayne and pitched 12 innings of shutout ball without a decision in three playoff games, even though the Daisies lost to the Rockford Peaches in the best-of-seven final round.
She opened the 1951 season with Fort Wayne and returned to Peoria early in the year, which made her feel like the end of the world, according to her own words. Then she was sent to the Kalamazoo Lassies during the midseason and finished the year with the Battle Creek Belles. Through her lengthy and arduous journey, Janssen posted a career-best 26 games pitched, only six behind Belles teammate Migdalia Pérez, while also setting career-highs in ERA (2.67), innings pitched (145), and strikeouts (43). She had a very good season overall, although this was not reflected in her 6–10 losing record. [1]
Janssen spent the entire 1952 season with Battle Creek and was used in relief duties, a seldom-used role in the league. She appeared in only five games, going 0-1 with a 5.00 ERA in 18 innings of work. [1]
Following her baseball days, Janssen played center for the South Bend Rockettes women's basketball team and volleyball with the South Bend Turners for more than a decade. She helped the Rockettes win five national championships and won a national champion title with the Turners. She was also an insurance representative for Laven Insurance Company in South Bend for 25 years and retired in 1991. [4]

Nancy DeShone [Rockwell / Dinehart] (March 22, 1932 – October 6, 2007) was an All-American Girls Professional Baseball League player. Listed at 5' 3", 120 lb., she batted and threw left handed.Born in Elkhart, Indiana, Nancy DeShone attended Theodore Roosevelt High School in Indiana, where she earned a number of ribbons while participating in the school sports for girls.A strong-armed, left-handed pitcher, she hurled for the Miles Laboratories club in a fastpitch softball factory league, leading Miles to a championship title in South Bend, Indiana. While pitching in a championship game, she was approached by an All American League scout and was drafted in 1948.At age 16, DeShone joined the South Bend Blue Sox and was assigned as an outfielder. But she did not see much action, going hitless in two at bats in a game, because she primed as a pitcher. She then was dealt to the Fort Wayne Daisies in 1949, but she decided to return to school and earn her diplom.After graduation, Nancy worked in sales and management and married Rodney Rockwell in 1950. The couple had four daughters: Debbi, Sherry, Jacki and Conni. Her husband died in 1992. She later married James Dinehart and became the stepmother of James' children: Kathleen, Debra, Laura, Martin and Dale.In between, Nancy remained interested in baseball and coached women's softball, Little League Baseball, and tee-ball for children aged 4 to 8 over the years.In 1993, Nancy was the chairperson for the 50th reunion of the AAGPBL Players Association held in South Bend, where she coordinated activities for more of 200 former league's players at the five-day event.
The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League folded in 1954, but there is a permanent display at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at Cooperstown, New York since 1988 that honors the entire league rather than any individual figure.Nancy DeShone died in 2007 in South Bend, Indiana, at the age of 75.

Patricia Roy (October 3, 1938 – May 23, 2017) was an All-American Girls Professional Baseball League infielder. Listed at 5' 10", 125 lb., she batted and threw right handed.Patricia Roy played a season in the league but her career was cut short after an insurance company refused to cover players under the age of 18.Born in Goshen, Indiana, Patricia was the daughter of Arthur and Margaret Roy. She grew up in Harlan, Indiana, near Fort Wayne, and participated in pick-up games and sandlot ball with the boys before joining an organized Pony League baseball team. But after surpassing her male counterparts, Patricia was told that girls could not play in that league. She then went to the Junior Girls Baseball League located at South Bend, which served as a farm club for the All-American league.In 1954, Roy was noticed and recruited by an AAGPBL scout. She was aged 15 and still in high school, but she convinced her parents she was old enough to play in the league. Patricia was offered a contract and it was co-signed by her mother. By that time, the Fort Wayne Daisies club was short of players and gave the young girl a chance to play. Usually the AAGPBL hired older girls, but made an exception because of the shortage of talent at a difficult time.But Roy did not get much of a chance to play during the only season she was with the pennant-winning Daisies. She was used sparingly as a backup infielder for Betty Foss at first base and Katie Horstman at third, until a 16-year old teammate, Shirley Weierman, broke an ankle while sliding into second base. After Weierman's injury, the insurance company hired by the league decided it not cover any girl under age 18. Roy and Weierman were released immediately.In one season career, Roy hit .079 (3-for-38) with two RBI in 14 games. At the field, she recorded 95 putouts with two assists and turned one double plays, while committing five errors in 179 total chances for a combined .951 fielding average.Following her graduation at Harlan High School in 1956, Roy enrolled at Ball State University and earned a bachelor's and master's degrees in physical education in 1960. She began her career as a physical education teacher at Chesterton High School in 1960, and served as head of the Department of Girls Physical Education at East Gary from 1964 through 1971. In between, she threw fastpitch softball for the Valparaiso Queens team and travelled all over the Midwest.Afterwards, Roy became a pioneer for girls athletics in Indiana when she was hired by the Indiana High School Athletic Association in 1972. Her first role in the IHSAA was as director of the girls' athletics department, a position that did not exist before her arrival. As a result, Roy established the guidelines for the tournament series for all sports for girls in Indiana and guided the IHSAA girls basketball team to its first championship. She lasted 27½ years at the IHSSA, the longest tenure for an executive in the organization's history.In 1988, Roy received further recognition when she became part of Women in Baseball, a permanent display based at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, which was unveiled to honor the entire All-American Girls Professional Baseball League rather than any individual figure.She garnered numerous honors, starting with the Indiana Hall of Fame Pioneer of the Game Award and the St. Vincent Silver Medal Award in 2002 for her significant role in the implementation into the IHSAA program. In addition, she was recognized nationally by the Women's Sports Foundation and the U.S. Olympic Committee, received the first Marian Archer Award and ICGSA Service Award from the Indiana Coaches of Girls Sports Association, commissioned a Kentucky Colonel in 1993, and was named a Sagamore of the Wabash by the Governor of Indiana Evan Bayh in 1994. She gained inductions in the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, the Indiana Softball Hall of Fame, the Indiana Volleyball Hall o Fame, the Lake Station Hall of Fame, and the Indiana Coaches of Sports Association. Besides, the Patricia L Roy Mental Attitude Award is given annually to one senior player in each class of the Indiana State Girls High School Basketball Championship who best exemplifies a positive attitude, scholarship and leadership skills.After retiring, Patricia Roy moved to Ave Maria, Florida, where she died on May 23, 2017, at the age of 78.

Doris Jones (born 1924) was a member of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). She was born in Sellersburg, Indiana. In 1945, she played for the South Bend Blue Sox, in South Bend, Indiana. Doris only played for one season and was simultaneously enrolled at Georgetown College, majoring in Art. Her ambition was to become a professional cartoonist.

Anna L. "Pee Wee" Meyer (later Petrovic; born November 17, 1928) is a former female shortstop who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during the 1944 season. Born in Aurora, Indiana, she was one of the youngest players to sign a contract with the league at age 15.

Kathryn E. Vonderau (born September 26, 1927 - August 10, 2022) was an American catcher who played from 1946 through 1953 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m), 155 lb., she batted and threw right-handed.Kathryn Vonderau was an integral part of multiple playoff teams with her leadership. More important than her offensive numbers, Vonderau was a fine receiver with a quick throwing arm and a fine glove during her eight seasons in the league. After retiring from baseball, she had a successful career as an educator for thirty-one years.Born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Vonderau caught and played at first base for a fast-pitch softball champion team sponsored by Harold Greiner, owner of the Bob-Inn Restaurant in Fort Wayne. The team won state championship titles in 1944 and 1945, while Greiner, who scouted for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, recommended Vonderau for the league's tryouts. She joined the league in 1946, following her high school graduation at Elmhurst High School, and was assigned to her hometown team, the Fort Wayne Daisies. But then the league started shuffling her around to fill in where she was needed.For the next three seasons, Vonderau divided her playing time with the Muskegon Lassies (1947), Chicago Colleens (1948) and Peoria Redwings (1948–1949). She suffered a knee injury in 1948 while playing for Peoria, which somewhat limited her playing time for the rest of her career.Vonderau returned to the Daisies in 1950, playing for them through 1952, when she helped Fort Wayne win the pennant. She was then sent to the Muskegon Belles in 1953, her last year in the circuit. Her most productive season came in 1951, when she posted career numbers with a .221 batting average, 32 runs batted in and 24 runs scored. She also gained a spot in the 1953 All-Star Team.Following her baseball career, Vondearau had a teaching career at all academic levels from elementary through university as a Health, Physical Education and Recreation educator. Her academic honors include bachelor's and master's degrees from Indiana University and a doctorate from University of Iowa. She retired from the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater in 1988.She is included in Women in Baseball, a permanent display based at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, which was unveiled to honor the entire All-American Girls Professional Baseball League rather than individual baseball personalities. She also gained induction into the Wisconsin–Whitewater Hall of Fame in 1996.Vonderau died on August 10, 2022.

Naomi Meier [″Sally″] (November 17, 1926 – July 15, 1989) was an outfielder who played from 1946 through 1953 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5 ft 5 in (1.65 m), 115 lb., Meier batted and threw right-handed. She was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana.Well-traveled Naomi Meier moved around for a while, as the AAGPBL shifted players as needed to help teams stay afloat. Basically a line drive hitter and speedy base runner, she collected over 25 stolen bases in five of her eight seasons in the league. An instinctive player with good hands and a strong throwing arm, she also was capable of playing well all three outfield positions. But her best attribute may have been able to adapt and perform well for nine teams and thirteen different rosters in a span of eight years.Meier entered the league in 1946 with the Rockford Peaches, playing for them one and a half years before joining the Fort Wayne Daisies (1947). Then she found herself on the move again, this time to the Peoria Redwings (1948) and Chicago Colleens (1948), and then the Muskegon Lassies (1949), Racine Belles (1949), Kalamazoo Lassies (1950), followed by a new trip to Fort Wayne (1950–1952). She later was part of the Battle Creek Belles (1952) and played her last season for the Muskegon Belles (1953).In her rookie year, Meier appeared in 103 games and hit a .249 batting average with a career-high 49 runs batted in while scoring 44 times. Her most productive season came in 1948, when she posted career numbers in hits (100), at-bats (450), runs scored (54), stolen bases (55) and games played (127), adding a .222 average and 47 RBI. She raised her average to a career-high .261 in 1950, while collecting a second-best 34 stolen bases in 99 games.In 1951, Meier suffered a season-ending compound fracture of her right ankle while sliding into second base. Used sparingly in 1952, she hit .229 and stole 25 bases in 111 games during the 1953 season, her last in the league.A .258 career hitter, she reached the postseason with the Peaches (1946), Lassies (1949) and Daisies, collecting a .208 average (21-for-201) with one double, seven runs, seven RBI and six stolen bases in 27 games. In 690 games at outfield, she committed only 73 errors in 1226 chances for a .941 fielding average.In 1988 she became part of Women in Baseball, a permanent display based at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, which was unveiled to honor the entire All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. It was not really a well known fact until filmmaker Penny Marshall premiered her 1992 film A League of Their Own, which was a fictionalized account of activities in the AAGPBL. Starring Geena Davis, Tom Hanks, Madonna, Lori Petty and Rosie O'Donnell, this film brought many of the real AAGPBL former players a rebirth of celebrity.
Naomi Meier died in Fort Wayne, Indiana, at the age of 62.

Elaine Roth [E] (January 17, 1929 – May 25, 2007) was a female pitcher and outfielder who played from 1948 through 1954 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. She batted and threw right-handed.A native of Michigan City, Indiana, Elaine Roth joined the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League with her twin sister Eilaine in 1948, and they played together for three seasons as the dynamic duo (E and I).Roth spent her career as a pitcher, playing for the Peoria Redwings for two years, before joining the South Bend Blue Sox (1950) and Kalamazoo Lassies (1951–1954). A spot starter and dependable reliever, she posted a career record of 45–69 and was a member of the Champion Team during what turned out to be the league's final 1954 season.In the first round of the playoffs, fourth-place Kalamazoo surprised second-place South Bend in three games. Pitcher Gloria Cordes hurled and lost the opener, but Nancy Warren and Roth won games two and three, respectively. In the final series, the inspired Lassies defeated the favored Fort Wayne Daisies in five games. Roth was a key contributor in Game 2, pitching 8⅔ innings of relief.Roth died in Springfield, Michigan, at the age of 78.