The death of an 84-year old woman is not normally something which would merit mention on a baseball site like this. But the sad news over the weekend, of the passing of Dorothy “Dottie” Kamenshek, certainly deserves note. For Kamenshek was one of the stars in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, immortalized in the film A League of Their Own.
Women’s Pro Baseball Legend Dorothy Kamenshek Dies
She won its batting title twice, appeared on seven all-star teams during her decade in the league, and was listed by Sports Illustrated as one of the 100 Greatest Female Athletes of the 20th Century. Wally Pipp, the New York Yankee who played first-base before Lou Gehrig, called Ms. Kamenshek “The fanciest fielding first baseman I’ve ever seen, man or woman.” She also had only 81 K’s in 3,737 career at-bats.
It’s hard to overstate just how radical the league was for its time - this was an era before integration, but with so many men in the armed forces, women stepped up to fill the breach in many ways. Backed by chewing gum mogul Phillip Wrigley, the league had ten franchises across the Midwest at its peak, drawing almost one million fans, and the players had one creed: “Look like women. Play like men.” [You can read the league’s “charm guide” here]
After the league folded in 1954, in the face of TV baseball and other competition, it was largely forgotten until a 1988 exhibition at Cooperstown, and Penny Marshall’s film further enhanced its renown in 1992. While many of the characters were largely fictitious, Dottie Hinson, played by Geena Davis, is generally considered a composite of a number of players, including Kamenshek.
Given the news of her passing, it’s probably right for there to be crying in baseball - just for a while...
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