Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball [Paperback]

Barbara Gregorich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1993

A comprehensive history of women in baseball chronicles the role of women in the sport from the game's inception in 1869 to the present. By the author of She's on First. 12,500 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Women's baseball did not begin--and certainly didn't end--with the 1940s short-skirted stars featured in the rousing film story A League of Their Own. Women were playing baseball at Vassar as early as the 1880s, and Ed Barrow, who would later bring Babe Ruth to New York, signed a woman pitcher named Lizzie Arlington to a minor-league contract in the late 1890s. Indeed, as presented here, the history of women in baseball is a long and colorful one; the exploits of Alta Weiss, Lizzie Murphy, and Jackie Mitchell, who struck out Ruth and Lou Gehrig back-to-back in a 1931 exhibition deserve to be remembered. Women at Play remembers well.

From Library Journal

The 12-year existence of the All-American Girls Baseball League, as depicted in last summer's hit movie A League of Their Own , is only the culmination of a long history of women being paid for playing baseball (not softball). Did you know that hundreds of "bloomer teams" barnstormed the East and Midwest from the 1890s to 1935, playing against men's teams? Or that a few women played American Legion and minor league ball until the organizations officially banned women? Or that in a 1931 exhibition game, Jackie Mitchell, age 17, struck out Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth? Gregorich, author of the woman-plays-pro-ball novel She's on First ( LJ 1/5/87), here focuses on personalities and teams, relying on newspaper accounts and teammates' reminiscences. Women loving baseball and struggling to leap men's roadblocks are the themes of this attractive and unique book. Recommended for popular collections.
- Kathy Ruffle, Coll. of New Caledonia Lib., Prince George, B. C.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 214 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt; 1st edition (March 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156982978
• ISBN-13: 978-0156982979
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,210,036 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Barbara Gregorich is the author of Waltur Buys a Pig in a Poke and Waltur Paints Himself into a Corner (Houghton Mifflin), early readers featuring Waltur, a bear who learns folk wisdom as expressed in idioms and proverbs -- but only after humorous results. She is the author of numerous early readers and workbooks published by School Zone Publishing, as well as the author of Workman's Brain Quest Workbook Grade 4.

Her adult fiction includes She's on First, a well-received mainstream novel about a woman major league baseball player, and Dirty Proof, a mystery featuring Frank Dragovic, Chicago Croatian private detective. Her nonfiction work, Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball (Harcourt Brace), won the SABR-Macmillan award for best baseball research of the year.

Visit her Facebook Page at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Barbara-Gregorich/277960097025?ref=ts

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Fills an enormous gap in baseball historical scholarship, December 9, 2010

By 

William H. Johnson "Bill Johnson" (Chesapeake, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball (Paperback)

In researching a different area of baseball history, I was led to this outstanding volume as one of the most reliable and succinct sources on the larger-than-life Maud Nelson. But that was just the beginning...most historians are aware of Nelson and Alta Weiss, but this volume educates the reader on an absolutely fascinating perspective on the national pasttime. Highly readable and impeccably documented, Women At Play is a must-have for any baseball historian.

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Beginnings, June 24, 2010

By 

Jean Hastings Ardell - See all my reviews

This review is from: Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball (Paperback)

When "Girls At Play" appeared in 1993, very few women were involved with baseball research. Author Barbara Gregorich set the bar high -- solid research, engaging stories, and a literate, baseball-loving style. And, in the years since, the book has held up....Jean Hastings Ardell

4.0 out of 5 stars A pioneer work, May 27, 2010

By 

Deb Shattuck "Bloomer Girls" (Rapid City, SD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball (Paperback)

Gregorich was a pioneer in scholarship on women's relationship to our National Pastime. Her book was the first to capture the scope of women's involvement in baseball. Other books had mentioned women players and umpires, but Gregorich was the first to provide a full-length treatment of the subject. The book provides brief highlights of over a dozen players, three female umpires and several teams spanning a period from the late nineteenth century through the 1990s. The book is aimed at general readers. It has an index but no footnotes or bibliography. It's an enjoyable read and will appeal to young and old alike.