Women's+Baseball+League

media type="google" key="2759570940922602489&hl=en&fs=true" width="400" height="326" __Women’s Baseball League__ By Erica Men are not the only ones that can play baseball. Although men thought that women did not belong in this athletic sport, during World War 2 men were needed, and a rewrite was needed badly. Someone proposed to add beauty to a thrilling game. So, in 1943, a league was established for young women with athletic ability and a feminine appeal. In softball the base paths had a shorter distance between them, the balls were smaller, there was underhand pitching, and stealing was not allowed. In Women’s Baseball League, they finally allowed stealing, but it was essentially softball. After a while, the base paths got longer and the size of the typical baseball got smaller. The typical uniform was meant to make the players look like ladies.They had to wear skirts and short bloomers (bloomers were invented by Amelia Bloomer). These loose-fitting Turkish trousers made it more practical for women to play the sport. The uniforms weighed 30 pounds and included long-sleeved high-necked blouses and buttoned shoes. Their uniforms caused many “strawberries” when sliding. “Strawberries” are now known as “raspberries” (a painful, but not severe injury that happened a lot because of lack of padding). Now there is padding that protects you from various injuries. Feminine appearance was important, so the teams wanted the players to walk, sit, dress, and talk like ladies. They even made them attend charm school. They were required to have beauty kits that included cleansing cream, lipstick, rogue, deodorant, face powder, lotion, and hair products. Some people believe that women played better than the men. They obviously played different than men, but one reason why people thought women were better is because they made more steals. Although, I do not believe that this is an accurate fact because women were pitching; if men were pitching there might have been less stealing. Even young children could play ball. They were able to participate in the junior league, but had to be at least 12 years old to play. If you were in the juniors you had to be ready to play every Tuesday and Saturday. The Junior Teams were the first step into the majors. When the War ended, men were playing ball, and because of the TV there was a big audience. This was bad for the Women’s Baseball League because they did not have as big as an audience to continue the Women’s League. Shortstop, Eleanor Engle, signed Minor League contract AA Harrisburg Senators. George Trautman, head of minor voided the contract two days later and declared “such travesties will not be tolerated” He said this June 23rd, 1952, and organized baseball to ban women.

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