Girls of Summer: The Real Story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League

Janet Money is Sports Editor of the Woodstock Daily Sentinel-Review.

The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, hatched by Chicago
baseball and gum czar Philip Wrigley as a substitute for professional
baseball during World War II, became popular in its own right in
small-town America during the nine years of its existence. Lois Browne,
who suggested that the Canadian TV program W5 cover a league reunion,
went on to write about the league and its contribution to baseball
history. Combining history, analysis, and anecdotes, she has produced a
readable and informative book.

The league’s downfall, she shows, was largely a result of the
owners’ refusing to let it enjoy its own success. Constant tinkering
with the rules, team locations, and rosters made it difficult, for
players as well as fans, to follow the organization and the people
within it. As well, short-sightedness led to neglect in the training and
development of younger players; no “farm system” emerged to feed the
league with new players.

The so-called glamor loop required league players, many of whom were
closeted lesbians, to attend charm school in the evenings after playing
and traveling all day. Each team had a chaperon. The point, Browne
suggests, was to ensure that no hint of lesbianism was exposed to the
ticket-buying public; players were released or traded if found to be
involved with one another; many, however, found ways to circumvent the
rules. Faye Dancer, though not a lesbian, emerges as one of the book’s
most colorful characters. Her determination to have a good time didn’t
detract from her talent in the outfield. She collected glass eyes and
was known to keep late hours in the company of questionable characters.

The league earned fan loyalty in places like Rockford, Illinois, and
Fort Wayne, Indiana, filling little stadiums and generating community
spirit. Larger centres like Chicago and Milwaukee were less interested,
and attempts to place teams there failed miserably. A successful
small-city circuit wasn’t good enough for owners and league
executives, and the league folded in 1954.

Most of the players, many of them Canadians, are still alive and
communicate through newsletters and reunions; the league has now been
recognized in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and a major 1992 movie, A
League of Their Own, featured the AAGPBL. Browne has provided an
entertaining and valuable documentary of an important piece of baseball
history.