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All-American
Girls Baseball League
Reported by Erik
Smith
Web produced by Christiana
Ciolac
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Mary Moore is a Hall of Famer!
[ Video]
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Baseball in Detroit, what a history! Think of the Hall of
Famers, Gehriger, Greenberg, and the game is often called
America's national pastime. For Mary Moore, the game has always
been much more. It is still a very personal passion.
She
loved the game and played it well as a youngster. Now, six
decades into her life, she is still out there playing.
Thrilled
by the crack of the bat and the special camaraderie born only
in competition on the field.
When
it comes to the ball diamond, Mary Moore is very much in a
league of her own. Yes, Mary was in the movie A League
of Their Own. If you missed it, it's about baseball, women
in baseball.
You
are the first members of the All American Girls Baseball League.
"A
handful of sports pioneers who made history in the 1940s and
early 1950s playing big league, professional baseball,"
Moore said.
You
made how much a game?
"Well,
on the touring team it was $25 a week and meal money. Then
after we got picked up by one of the home teams, your rookie
pay started at $55 a week," Moore explained.
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Baseball, America's favorite pastime
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They
called it the All-American
Girls Baseball League, made up of teams with names like "The
Springfield Sally's" and "The Battle Creek Bells."
No, they didn't make much money but they had a lot of fun
and even played in some places like Yankee stadium.
"Joe
DiMaggio was there. Billy Martin. Bill Rezuto, Whitey Ford,"
Moore said.
Mary
led the way her first year, led the way in hits, total bases,
RBI's and home runs. Sadly, her career ended at home.
"I
don't exactly remember if I got a hit or a walk but anyway,
I was on base and running towards second. I slid in and twisted
my ankle, probably caught my cleats because we wore metal
spikes back then, and Jimmie Fox and my manager, Joe Cooper,
carried me off the field," Mary Moore remembered.
The
All-American Girls Baseball League did not survive the 1950s,
but the history it made sure did. In fact, Mary Moore's name
can now be found in Cooperstown, New York, in the baseball
Hall of Fame.
"All
of these great ball players and everything and here we are
as a league, going to be inducted into it, and be there with
our own display and it was just too much for words,"
she said.
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Moore's baseball card
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She
has worked 35 years for what used to be Michigan Bell Telephone
and even has her own baseball card. She is a genuine Hall
of Famer, not bad for a kid from Lincoln Park who can still
throw a pretty good fast ball under those lights.
Do
you miss it? "Yeah, yeah I do. It was a lot of fun. It
was good years," Moore said.
[More
From the Heart stories]
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R O M T H E H E A R T
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