AAGPBL

The AAGPBL is the acronymn for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Formed by dedicated group of Midwest business men with the financial backing of Phillip K. Wrigley in 1943. The league was formed mainly due to by the fall of 1942, many minor league teams were disbanned and many young men 18 and over were drafted due to WWII. Major League Baseball parks were in danger of collapse. Mr. Wrigley, along with other members of a special commitee, came up with the idea to start a women's softball league that would use the major league parks to attract crowds.

Midway in the first season of play, the board of trustees changed the League's name to All-American Girls Baseball League (AAGBBL) to make it distinctive from the existing softball leagues and because the rules of play were those of Major League Baseball. However, the retention of shorter infield distances and underhand pitching caused some controversy in the media about "Baseball" in the League name. Thus, at the end of the 1943 season, the official League name was again changed to the more descriptive All-American Girls Professional Ball League (AAGPBL).

This title was retained until the end of the 1945 season when All-American Girls Baseball League (AAGBBL) was again adopted and retained through 1950. It was during this time period that overhand pitching and smaller ball sizes were adopted. When independent team owners purchased the League at the end of the 1950 season, the official League name was changed to the American Girls Baseball League (AGBL), but popularly it continued to be identified as the All-American League or the All-American Girls Baseball League (AAGBBL). Through the organization of the Players' Association in 1986, and through their efforts to gain recognition by the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988, the league has now come to be recognized as what it was in actuality: the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL).

In 1992, the movie A League of Their Own was made in honor of these women of baseball. While the movie is true to form, the only fiction in the movie is the names of the players, managers and who played in the AAGPBL Championship series - In the movie it was as the Racine Belles vs Rockford Peaches but in fact, it was Kenosha Comets vs Racine Belles - Belles won 3-0 (5 game series, not 7 as portrayed in the movie).

The ArmchairGM AAGPBL page can be found here.

Note: I (Demonboy), dedicate all writings on ArmchairGM about the AAGPBL to Patricia I. Brown. During the late 1980's - early 1990's, I was on a bowling league with Mrs. Brown in Winthrop, MA - by the way, she played on the AAGPBL (position: Pitcher) during the 1950 & 1951 seasons on the Kenosha Comets, Chicago Colleens and Battle Creek Belles teams.