Women in Baseball [Hardcover]

Gai Ingham Berlage (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1994

In 1974, when the Supreme Court forced Little League to change its charter and permit girls to play baseball on boys' teams, feminists cheered, heralding the decision as a significant victory. How short their memories were! Had investigators only looked to baseball history, they would have learned, much to their surprise, that women had been avidly playing baseball for over a hundred years--as far back as 1866. In 1928, one female Indiana player helped lead her team to the state championship and on to the national tournament in American League Junior Baseball. And during World War II, Wrigley started the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. In fact, not until 1952 was there a rule barring women from being professional players. Women in Baseball offers the details of this compelling, largely overlooked aspect of baseball history, introducing the reader to a whole new cast of little-known stars on men's teams: Lizzie Arlington, a pitcher in 1898; Alta Weiss, a pitcher for 15 years in the early 20th century; Lizzie Murphy, who played first base for the American All-Stars against the Boston Red Sox; Jackie Mitchell, who became a media sensation in 1931 when she struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. The author also reveals the stories of women's professional and amateur teams--Josie Caruso and her Eight Men, the Chicago Bloomer Girls, and the all-black Dolly Vardens of Philadelphia--and introduces women who distinguished themselves as players, umpires, and team owners. Women in Baseball explores the history of women in baseball from a socio-cultural perspective, analyzing how it was "forgotten" in the light of residual Victorian values that governed women's lives for so many decades.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The reader of this book quickly realizes that the history of women in baseball has been little written about because there hasn't been much. Baseball became a sport at women's colleges almost simultaneously with the development of professional men's baseball. But 19th-century college authorities initially discouraged and then prohibited intercollegiate games, so baseball never became a major campus sport. There was also pressure on women to play softball instead of hardball. Then, between 1943 and 1954 the short-lived All American Girls Baseball League in the Chicago area played an amalgam of softball and hardball. Berlage, a sociology professor at Iona College in New York, has done prodigious research to uncover the few women who played semi-pro ball, but the results, especially given his pedestrian writing, hardly justify his efforts. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Berlage (sociology, Iona Coll.) has written a scholarly counterpart to Barbara Gregorich's more popular Women at Play ( LJ 5/1/93), covering the same time period (1866-1992) and many of the same personalities. Drawing on newspaper articles, Cooperstown resources, contemporary accounts, letters, and interviews, this copiously footnoted history considers class, gender, and racial issues as it asks why women's participation in baseball has been so effectively erased from American memory. Originating in Ivy League women's colleges, the sport enjoyed its greatest female participation during the Victorian era and World War II. In 1974, it took a Supreme Court order to integrate Little League, which reacted by forming softball divisions. Thirty photos, an index (not seen), and an appendix listing special collections complete the book. For academic libraries.
- Kathy Ruffle, Coll. of New Caledonia Lib., Prince George, B.C.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Praeger Trade (1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0275947351
• ISBN-13: 978-0275947354
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #983,536 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Scholarly Research, November 21, 2011

By 

Ohioan - See all my reviews

This review is from: Women in Baseball (Hardcover)

This book on the history of women who have played baseball in the US, starting with college "nines" at Vassar, is well footnoted and documented, with an index. At the same time, the book is a bit dry, the writing more scholarly than popular. Still, for anybody interested in the history of women who have played baseball, this book is worth reading.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Amazing History of Women in Baseball, August 27, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Women in Baseball (Hardcover)

All little girls that want to play little league will be inspired by this fabulous writing on the History of Women in Baseball! It is a must read!

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Amazing History of Women in Baseball, August 27, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Women in Baseball (Hardcover)

All little girls that want to play little league will be inspired by this fabulous writing on the History of Women in Baseball! It is a must read!