The South Bend Blue Sox was a women's professional baseball team who played from 1943 through 1954 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League . A founding member, the team represented South Bend, Indiana , and played their home games at Bendix Field (1943–1945) and Playland Park (1946–1954).
16-509: The Blue Sox were one of two teams to play in every AAGPBL season without relocating, the other being the Rockford Peaches . Often a second-division team, they appeared in six playoff series and won two league titles. In the 1943 inaugural season , The Blue Sox finished in third place with a 51–40 mark, only .001 percentage point behind second place Kenosha Comets . Together, pitchers Margaret Berger and Doris Barr threw 79 of
32-697: A peach colored dress featuring the Rockford city seal centered on the chest, along with red socks and cap. In later years, the Peaches wore a white home uniform with black socks and cap. One of the more successful teams in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League , the Dollys won the league championship in 1945 , 1948 , 1949 , and 1950 and had its share of star players. Dyes were hard to come by towards
48-633: A span of three years. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League operated from 1943 through 1954 and started with four teams: the Racine Belles and the Kenosha Comets , both from Wisconsin ; the Rockford Peaches from Illinois , and the South Bend Blue Sox from Indiana . League play officially began on May 30, 1943 with the teams Kenosha Comets, Racine Belles, Rockford Peaches and South Bend Blue Sox. Each team
64-631: The 1943 and 1946 seasons. Listed at 5' 5", 130 lb., Davis batted and threw right handed. She was born in Toronto , Ontario . Terrie Davis was one of the 68 players born in Canada to join the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in its twelve years history. She was among the top players in the early years of the circuit, winning the first batting champion title in 1943, being selected to
80-623: The Milwaukee Chicks and the Minneapolis Millerettes . Davis divided her playing time between Rockford and Milwaukee, hitting a combined .246 average with 42 runs and 34 RBI in 80 games. The Chicks then went on to win the Championship Title, beating Kenosha in the best-of-seven series behind a strong pitching effort by Connie Wisniewski , who went 4–1 with a 0.40 ERA in five complete games, while Davis led
96-475: The 91 games played by the Sox. Berger was credited with 25 wins and Barr with 15, while Berger posted her greatest triumph in a 13–inning match, which she won 1–0. The next three years, South Bend finished 64–55 (1944), 49–60 (1945), 70–42 (1946), 57–54 (1947) and 57–59 (1948). After falling in their playoff intents, in the 1949 season the team posted the best record in with a 75–36 mark. That year they were swept in
112-535: The Peaches won their first title in 1945. The formation of the AAGPBL and the Rockford Peaches are also centered in the 2022 TV series A League of Their Own . Gladys Davis (baseball) Gladys Victoria "Terrie" Davis Smith ( née Anthony ; September 1, 1919 – October 26, 1991) was a Canadian shortstop and outfielder who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League between
128-544: The end of the war and the team chose to dye their white uniforms a light shade of peach, which inspired the team nickname. Olive Little threw the first no-hitter in team and league history, on June 10, 1943. Peaches players who were named to the All-Star teams from 1946 to 1954 included Dorothy Kamenshek , Lois Florreich , Dorothy Harrell , Carolyn Morris , Alice Pollitt , Ruth Richard , Rose Gacioch , Eleanor Callow , and Joan Berger . Pitcher Olive Little hurled
144-535: The first no-hitter both in team and league history. In addition, Florreich was the pitching champion in 1949 during the league's overhand era, and Gladys Davis won the league batting crown in the 1943 inaugural season , while Kamenshek earned the honors in the 1946 and 1947 seasons. When former player Eileen Burmeister was asked why The Peaches supposedly favored theatricality over technical skill, she replied, "If God meant for us to play baseball, He would've made us any good at it." . The last living player of
160-414: The first All-Star Game, and as a member of the champion team in 1944. Noted for her enthusiastic and great knowledge of the game, she excelled defensively at shortstop , second base and all three outfield positions. Basically a line-drive hitter, she had a compact swing and tremendous plate discipline, collecting a significant .336 on-base percentage and a 2.05 walk-to-strikeout ratio (113-to-55) in
176-408: The first Peaches roster in AAGPBL, pitcher Mary Pratt , died on May 6, 2020, at the age of 101. The Rockford Peaches feature in the 1992 film A League of Their Own by Penny Marshall . However, all of the characters in the film are fictitious. The team did not play in the 1943 league championship, as depicted in the film. In real life, the Racine Belles faced the Kenosha Comets in 1943;
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#1732776855019192-469: The midseason took effect the first All-Star Game of the league, which coincidentally became the first night game ever played at Wrigley Field (July 1, 1943). The contest was played under temporary lights between two teams composed of Belles and Comets players against Blue Sox and Peaches players. At the end of the season, she was selected to the All-Star Team . By 1944 the AAGPBL added two teams,
208-532: The only girl to play through the 12 years of existence of the circuit. Rockford Peaches The Rockford Peaches were a women's professional baseball team who played from 1943 - 1954 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League . A founding member, the team represented Rockford, Illinois . The Peaches were one of 2 teams to play in every AAGPBL season, the other being the South Bend Blue Sox . They played their home games at Beyer Stadium on 15th Avenue in Rockford. The team's uniform consisted of
224-683: The playoffs, 4–to–0, by Rockford, after getting a first-round bye along with them. The South Bend club went on to win their next four playoffs in claiming back-to-back championship titles in 1951 and 1952 . After that, the Blue Sox finished in last place both in the 1953 and 1954 seasons. Apart from the aforementioned Barr and Berger, the South Bend included talented players as Mary Baker ( C ), Jean Faut ( P ) Betsy Jochum ( OF / 1B ), Elizabeth Mahon (OF), Betty Whiting ( IF ), and Dottie Schroeder ( SS ), who played with four teams to become
240-649: The team with a .333 average (9-for-27), three runs, three RBI, and eight stolen bases . Davis was married and had a child before joining the league. She missed the 1945 season and returned with the expansion Muskegon Lassies during the 1946 midseason. She dropped to .202 in 58 games, driving in 31 runs while scoring 22 times, during what turned out to be her AAGPBL final season. After retiring, Davis focused on her family and interior designing business in Toronto. She died in Fort Erie, Ontario on October 26, 1991, at
256-471: Was made up of fifteen girls. Davis joined the Rockford team to become one of the sixty original founding members of the league. Her hitting was good enough to win the batting title win a .331 average in 102 games. She also led the league in total bases (155), finished second in hits (116), four behind South Bend's Betsy Jochum , and ranked third in home runs (4), runs batted in (58) and runs scored (78), while tying for second in triples (10). During
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