Allen County, Indiana Genealogy

Fort Wayne Daisies Baseball Team

Fort Wayne Daisies 1945-1954

June 3, 2023 post by the Fort Wayne TinCaps on Facebook:

Today, we were proud to stand alongside City of Fort Wayne Government, Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation and the All American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association in celebrating the Fort Wayne Daisies with a new monument at Memorial Park!

See TinCaps.

The About the Fort Wayne Daisies page at the All American Girls Professional Baseball League webpage has team photos of each year with photos, names, and biographies of each player that year.

June 3, 2023 post by Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation on Facebook:

June 3, 2023 is proclaimed as Fort Wayne Daisies Day at a ceremony at Memorial Park with City of Fort Wayne Government, Fort Wayne TinCaps and All American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association

See TinCaps.

Former FW Daisies Player Appearance - July 10, 2021 posted Jul 12, 2021 by Fort Wayne TinCaps on YouTube
Katie Horstman, who played for the Fort Wayne Daisies in the All American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) from 1951-1954 threw out a first pitched and joined the broadcast on July 10, 2021. Was posted on TinCaps Calling on Fans’ Help for Daisies Throwback Night Share History from the Fort Wayne Daisies of the AAGPBL at MILB.com.

Women's professional baseball team was one of two teams in Indiana, the other was in South Bend. Their home games were played at North Side High School (1945-1946) and Memorial Park (1946-1954).

See our sections on Baseball, Camp Allen Park, League Park, Kekionga Ball Grounds, Fort Wayne Kekionga Baseball Team, Parkview Field, Fort Wayne TinCaps, and Fort Wayne Wizards.

All-American Girls Professional Baseball Spring Training in Alexandria, Virginia Circa 1940 posted June 20, 2013 by Rogers Photo Archive on YouTube
In this awesome footage, the girls all american baseball league is highlighted as they go through spring training in Alexandria, Virginia. The Fort Wayne Daisies and the Racine Bells are getting ready for the upcoming season. Dottie Schroeder, one of the most famous players from that era, is highlighted in the vintage footage.

May 24, 2020 post by Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook:

On May 24, 1945, the Fort Wayne Daisies won the first game of their inaugural season in the All-American Girls Baseball League. The league was established during World War II to help keep baseball in the public eye while men were drafted in the U.S. Armed Services. The Daisies were league champions from 1952 to 1954.

Learn more about the Fort Wayne Daisies here: Megan's Mystery Monday - Fort Wayne Daisies

The image below shows the Fort Wayne Daisies team, courtesy of the History Center of Fort Wayne.
April 20, 2023 post by Fort Wayne Sports History on Faceook:

April 21

In 1952, Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx begins managing the Daisies.

After completing his playing career with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1945, Foxx had totals of 2,646 hits and 534 home runs, but what he didn't have was a job or much money, thanks to a divorce. The next season he briefly tried working in the Red Sox radio booth, but then he bounced around minor league coaching jobs before coming to Fort Wayne the year after he was inducted into Cooperstown.

Foxx did a pretty good job, leading the Daisies to the playoffs where they lost in the first round 2-1 to the Rockford Peaches. Though the players generally liked playing for him, he did not return the next season.

Supposedly, Tom Hanks role in ``A League of Their Own'' was loosely based on Foxx and Hack Wilson. Unlike Hanks' character, the Daisies all remember Foxx as being involved with the team and easy-going to work with.

Also, in 1991, Lonnie Loach cements the Komets' comeback season with a Game 7 overtime goal against Indianapolis.

Loach slipped the puck through the pads of the Indianapolis Ice's Jimmy Waite at 18:29 of overtime in Game 7 of the International Hockey League playoff series. Loach quieted the sellout Fairgrounds Coliseum crowd with perhaps the most important Komets goal of the last 40 years.

Besides beating the defending Turner Cup champs, the goal sparked the Komets' rebirth after the original franchise moved to Albany, N.Y., the summer before. The Frankes then bought the defunct Flint franchise and moved them to Fort Wayne as the new Komets.

In the sometimes brutal and always exhausting 1991 game, Loach took a pass from Robin Bawa to get deep into the Indianapolis zone and somehow shovel the puck between the pads of Ice goaltender Waite before defenseman Cam Russell could get across the crease to bury him. Instead, Loach and the Komets buried the Ice.

``I was just trying to get something away before he got me to the point where I couldn't shoot," Loach said. ``He didn't get enough of me. I just tried to get it on net. I didn't see it go in, but I heard everybody start screaming."

The goal ended an epic series that saw five of the seven games decided by one goal, including the last three that were played on successive nights with the road team winning each time.;
Screenshot of team photos on ABOUT THE FORT WAYNE DAISIES webpage
at the ALL-AMERICAN GIRLS PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL LEAGUE

ABOUT THE FORT WAYNE DAISIES at the ALL-AMERICAN GIRLS PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL LEAGUE has team photos, information for each year the Daisies played from 1945 - 1954, and a page with photo, information, and statistics for each player.

The About page states: The Daisies were warmly received in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Unlike the failed attempts to establish teams in Milwaukee and Minneapolis, Fort Wayne was eager to bring a team to their city. Wrigley was determined to move teams into larger cities and Fort Wayne, being the second largest city in Indiana, was one step closer to bringing a team to Chicago and filling the bleachers in Wrigley Field. Even though Wrigley was no longer personally involved in the administration of the league, he continued to support the league and his superior advertising campaign was increasing the crowds in the smaller cities by nearly 50% and yeilding a profit for the cities.

Arthur Meyerhoff began his career as Wrigley's top advertising agent in 1932. Wrigley had many businesses to run and decided to sell the League to Meyerhoff after the first season. Meyerhoff managed the development of the League and its expansion. He took over full administartive duties for the league in 1944 and began enthusiastically to move the league in the direction of baseball to create an identity for the League as baseball a separate the game from softball. Upon successfully starting a sixth team, Meyerhoff started off the 1945 season by changing the League's name to All American Girls Baseball League (AAGBBL).
April 19, 2023 post by the Genealogy Center on Facebook:

It's Wayback Wednesday! Check out these then and now photos of Memorial Park, courtesy of our Daniel A. Baker Collection. The first photo shows the Fort Wayne Daisies at the Memorial Park ball diamond in 1953, while the second photo shows the location in 2017. What is your favorite memory of Memorial Park?

View these photos and thousands more in our Community Album: http://contentdm.acpl.lib.in.us/
Daisies, Diamonds & Dugouts: The Fort Wayne Daisies Story by Don F. Graham who spent 10 years sneaking into Fort Wayne Daisies games or peeking between the tarps covering the outfield fence as a child growing up in Fort Wayne. It's the first book detailing the exploits of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League franchise that played in the city from 1945 to 1954. Copied from Daisies: Book of their own Local author gives 1st detailed history of iconic city team by Blake Sebring published May 23, 2021 in The Journal Gazette newspaper. Don self published the book in 2021 and copies are available by emailing fwdaisies4554@aol.com. The book was also featured in A League of our Own Vintage Softball League Facebook group May 6, 2021.
Parkview Field shows movie based on All-American Girls Professional Baseball League by: Britt Salay posted: Sep 11, 2020, updated: Sep 12, 2020 on CBS WANE-TV NewsChannel 15.
The 1945 Fort Wayne Daisies was the new expansion team for the AAGPBL. The Daisies would finish 2nd overall with a 62-47 record and faced the Peaches in the Championship Series, but lost 4 games in the best of 5 series. Copied from a December 3, 2020 post with photo of Vivian Kellogg, Arleene Johnson, Penny O'Brian, Yolande Teillet, & Irene Ruhnke by All American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association on Facebook.
November 17, 2022 post by

Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana on Facebook:

Naomi "Sally" Meier was born in Fort Wayne November 17, 1926 and died July 15, 1989. She was an outfielder who batted and threw right-handed when she played with the Fort Wayne Daisies for four years and several other ALL-AMERICAN GIRLS PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL LEAGUE teams from 1946-1953. Photos and information were supplied by our current ACGSI Recording Secretary Cindy Meier whose father, Morton L Meier, was Sally's first cousin.

See Naomi Meier on our People page: https://www.acgsi.org/.../m-surnames-of-allen-county...

See her AAGPBL page: https://www.aagpbl.org/profiles/naomi-meier-sally/175

See her Find A Grave page: Naomi Laverne-meier

Naomi Sally Meier photos May 24, 2020.
Cuban pitcher found home as Daisy When women's league ended, 'Lefty' Alvarez, 84, never left the city by Dylan Sinn published May 30, 2018 in The Journal Gazette newspaper. The southpaw was born in Havana, Cuba and was pushed to play baseball by her mother, who enjoyed listening to Cuban baseball games on her radio. Cuban pitcher found home as Daisy When women's league ended, 'Lefty' Alvarez, 84, never left the city on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
The June 4, 1945 Life magazine had a story on Girl's Baseball A femine Midwest league opens its third professional season with photos including a two page photo with 15 Fort Wayne players. Google has back issues of Life magazine from 1972 backward.
Google has a lot of photos.
1951 photo of Katie Horstman, Jo Weaver, her sister Jean Weaver and Pat Scott at Memorial Park was posted in THIS DAY IN HISTORY: August 1 in photos by Dan Vance posted August 1, 2018 in The News-Sentinel newspaper.
Baseball in Fort Wayne by Chad Gramling discusses the Daisies.
March 16, 2017 post by Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook:

"There's no CRYING in baseball!" But, you might shed a tear knowing that these athletes do not have an Indiana historical marker! Indiana had two teams in the All American Girls Professional Baseball League: the Fort Wayne Daisies and the South Bend Blue Sox.

What better way to celebrate Women's History Month than to apply for a marker celebrating these pioneering athletes?

Learn more about the All American Girls Professional Baseball League

here: AAGPBL LEAGUE HISTORY
Photo and discussion March 29, 2017 and August 9, 2017 and November 25, 2017 on You are positively from Fort Wayne, if you remember... Archived group only visible to existing members on Facebook.
Photo of the 1945 Fort Wayne Daisies with names on the Official Website of the AAGPBL was then shown a better photo and discussion March 4, 2014 on the original Great Memories and History of Fort Wayne, Indiana page on Facebook.
The same sepia tone photo shown with “Wamby was a gentleman:” An interview with the AAGPBL’s Audrey Haine Daniels, Part 1 by Susan Petrone published December 26, 2012 on ispronouncedlajaway.com.
Fort Wayne Daisies on Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
A home video from the 1940s with less than a minute of the Fort Wayne Daisies was posted April 14, 2019 on You are positively from Fort Wayne, if you remember... Archived group only visible to existing members on Facebook.
The Fort Wayne Daisies: Women in Baseball Fiercely Competitive Ladies of Baseball on Fort Wayne Public History.
Friday, August 24, Isabel Alvarez and Dottie Collins stopped by The Waynedale News for a short visit. It was great talking to both of these two all-stars from the past. ... Both women gained a lot of recognition after the 1992 movie, A League of Their Own. While the film is a fictionalized account of the 1943 season, mainly it accurately represents life in the league. Copied from A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN September 5, 2007 published in the The Waynedale News.com.
November 23, 2021 post by the All American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association on Facebook:

Today we celebrate Jean Havlish's 86th birthday! Happy Birthday Grasshopper!!!
She was a member of the Ft. Wayne Daisies.
Jean related that she started playing baseball in an empty cornfield near her home in St. Paul, Minnesota with all the neighborhood boys. She graduated from there to playing organized softball in the playground leagues.
She said there were too many exciting things to remember about her time in the league, but the greatest was to be playing with and against the best women baseball players in the world--the competition was the best and that was the most fun.
Jean was an outstanding rookie with the Daisies. She was a slick fielding shortstop and she was also a talented ice skater. After her career was over she became a professional bowler and was inducted into the Bowling Hall of Fame.
Jean Havlish
By Anne Aronson 
 As a child growing up in the 1940s on Rice Street in St. Paul, Jean Ann Havlish played football at the local playground, tucking her pigtails into her helmet so no one would know she was a girl. When an opposing team found out, she was banned from playing football. Later, Havlish distinguished herself in another non-traditional sport for women: baseball. She was one of only a small handful of women from Minnesota to play in the All-American Girls Base Ball League (AAGBBL), now known as the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL), the subject of the well-known film, A League of Their Own. Havlish was the starting shortstop on the 1953 and 1954 Fort Wayne Daisies, helping her team win the regular-season pennant both years.    When the league folded after the 1954 season, Havlish went on to play elite fast-pitch softball and then to compete on a national level as a bowler. Her success in bowling landed her in the Women's  International Bowling Congress Hall of Fame in 1987. She is also the only bowler in the Minnesota Sports Hall of Fame.   Jean Ann Havlish was born in St. Paul on November 23, 1935, to Howard and Mary Havlish. Her father worked for the Great Northern Railroad, while her mother took care of the family and worked part-time for the Internal Revenue Service. One of five children, Havlish attended St. Bernard’s grade school and then Washington High School in St. Paul. She was a multi-talented athlete growing up, playing hockey, baseball, football and basketball and competing as a speed skater. “The only thing I couldn’t play was tennis,” she acknowledged.   As a small girl, she enjoyed the rich baseball life of St. Paul’sRice Street, spending her free time fielding balls on the Rice-Lawson playground. “All my life, I can’t ever remember not playing baseball.”   Her dad encouraged her to play. “When I was 11 or 12 years old, my dad’s golfing buddies would sometimes come over. He used to bet them a quarter that they couldn’t throw a ball past me in the driveway. He always won.” When she was a little older, she practiced with the boys’ American Legion team in her North End neighborhood. She played with some of Rice Street’s baseball legends, including Jerry Kindall, who played in the majors from 1956-65, and Jim Rantz, who became minor-league director for the Twins. Jean asserted, “If you lived on Rice St. you either watched baseball or played it.”   Havlish also played softball with the neighborhood girls. She remembers how she used to grab her glove and ride her bike to the playground to watch the older girls play. “One day, one of their players got hurt. So they asked me if I’d play shortstop. A left-handed batter hit a shot to me and I caught it in my stomach.” After that, she was on the team, and her career as a shortstop began.   In 1950, Havlish and her father saw an article in Parade Magazine about the AAGPBL and decided that she should try out. The two of them took a train to Chicago, home of league founder Philip Wrigley, in the hopes that she could snag a spot on a team. Havlish remembers how she and her father, who was holding three jobs at the time, stayed in a cheap hotel room over a bar. When they made their way to the Wrigley Building the next day, they quickly found out there was no team in Chicago. Later that year, Havlish tried again, rushing out of her grade-school graduation ceremony to hop a bus with her father to Racine to try out for the Racine Belles. This time Havlish had the opportunity to do a little infield practice with the team. She must have made an impression on the manager, Norm “Nummy” Derringer, because he invited her to a full-scale audition the next year, when he was managing the Kalamazoo Lassies. She went to Kalamazoo in the summer of 1951, but she never heard back from the team.   Undaunted, Havlish made yet another attempt, traveling to Indiana in the summer of 1952 to try out for the Fort Wayne Daisies, a team that originated as the Minneapolis Millerettes in 1944. After another anxious wait, she came home one day from school to find a special delivery airmail envelope; it was an invitation to play for the Daisies. “There was no happier girl in the world than me. I can remember coming home from the movies on Saturday afternoons and I’d be fielding imaginary ground balls all the way.”   In his letter on behalf of the Fort Wayne organization, Ernie Berg, Business Manager, explained the circumstances of the call-up: “It might be of interest to you to know that we have traded Dottie Schroeder and that the shortstop post is now wide open. So—get in shape and be your best when you come.” Dottie Schroeder, it turns out, was one of the great players in AAGPBL history. Schroeder played in all 12 seasons of the league. She was a three-time all-star and, when the league folded in 1954, she held records for games played, at-bats, runs batted in (RBIs), and walks. She ranked second in hits and third in home runs. “That was my claim to fame—Dottie Schroeder was traded for me.” The Fort Wayne newspapers at the time expressed some distress about the trade, but acknowledged that Havlish was “a great prospect.” The trade was made for financial reasons, but it was also the result of a new AAGPBL policy that required the top teams in the league to have at least two rookies on the starting squad. This was intended to even the playing field while encouraging the development of young players.   Havlish played a few games in 1952 for Fort Wayne, finishing high school by correspondence. That year the team was managed by Jimmie Foxx (Tom Hanks’ character in A League of Their Own was roughly based on Foxx), and she regrets that she never got the slugger’s autograph. The next year she was the starting shortstop for the Daisies, now managed by Bill Allington. Havlish soon found herself on a team that dominated the league. The Daisies won the regular season pennant in 1952, 1953, and 1954, the first time in AAGPBL history that one team led the league three years in a row.   Fort Wayne was particularly potent on offense. In 1953. For example, the Daisies outscored their nearest rival by over 100 runs. The team’s offensive success could be attributed to the fact that it boasted some of the best batters in league history. Two of the most accomplished were the Weaver sisters, Betty Weaver Foss and Joanne Weaver. In 1952, Foss led the league in runs, hits, doubles, triples, and RBIs, was second in batting average, and earned the title Player of Year. Her sister, Joanne Weaver, was on three All-Star Teams, won the batting title in 1952 at the age of 16, and was Player of the Year in 1954. When she won the batting title again in 1954, she hit .429. Her nearest professional batting average rival was Nap Lajoi who batted .4265 in 1901.   As a rookie in 1953, the right-handed batting and throwing Havlish struggled at the plate, hitting just .189. “All my life I never wanted to hit, I wanted to go out and play in the field.” Her batting improved considerably in 1954, when she hit .254 in 276 at bats. During one game that year, she went 4-for-4. “The older players, Betty Foss, Jo Weaver, they’d go down to the sporting goods store, they’d pick out bats and charge them to the club. When I went 4-for-4 that time, I went down the next day to the sporting goods store and bought a bat and charged it to the club. I think it was just the fun of doing it. Nobody tried to stop me. I got away with it.”   Havlish also made waves when she hit a home run in three consecutive games. Her sudden outburst of power was largely due to the fact that the league had changed from a 10-inch to a 9-inch ball. Havlish recalls how manager Allington responded to her power surge: “Bill says, ‘That’s it, when Havlish starts hitting home runs, we move the fences back.’ We went out of town, we came back, the fences were moved back. That was the last home run I hit.”   While Havlish struggled at times with her hitting, she excelled in the field. The two Fort Wayne newspapers, the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel and Journal-Gazette, consistently praised her fielding. Article after article notes her fielding prowess, with phrases like “flashy in the field,” “nifty catches,” “spectacular fielding play,” “brilliant plays,” “leaping one-handed stab.”   One highlight of her fielding experience was a triple play she started in 1954. “I caught a shoestring line drive. They had runners on first and second. It happened so fast. You catch a shot, throw to second, there’s a throw to first, bingo!”   Havlish, whose playing size was 5’6 ½ ” and 128 lbs, earned the nickname “Grasshopper” from Betty Foss, the great Daisies hitter. One day, Foss said to Havlish: “Little one, when you get down to field a ball, you look just like a grasshopper.” Havlish attributed the metaphor to Foss’s experience growing up in farm country in southern Illinois.   From 1953 to 1954, Havlish’s offensive and defensive statistics improved markedly. Although she had 67 fewer at-bats and played in 14 fewer games in 1954 due to injury, she had three times as many doubles, 11 more walks, 24 fewer strikeouts (in 1954 she struck out only 16 times in 276 at-bats), 18 fewer errors, and participated in 14 more double plays. This dramatic improvement after her rookie year suggests that Havlish may have really come into her own if the league had continued: “I think I’d have been pretty good.”   One of the best AAGPBL experiences for Havlish was working with Bill Allington. Unlike Jimmie Foxx, Allington wasn’t a major-league star—he played minor league ball in the West Coast League for over 20 years—but he was regarded with profound respect for his knowledge of the game. It was once said of Allington that if his head was broken open, baseballs would roll out. As an AAGPBL manager, Allington had the best win-loss record in the history of the league, and he was known among the players as a consummate teacher and mentor. Havlish says of Allington, “We called him the gray fox. He knew baseball inside and outside—he lived baseball. He was very strict. When you went out and practiced, you really practiced. There were chalk talks all the time. You had to be able to read off the infield fly rule in your sleep.” Havlish was honored when Allington invited her to play on his all-star touring team after the league folded. He wrote her a letter saying that she was his number one pick for shortstop. Havlish turned down Allington’s offer because she was afraid she would lose her job back in St. Paul if she went on tour.   Despite her forced retirement from baseball, Havlish’s athletic life was far from over. She was quickly recruited by the elite Minneapolis Comets amateur fast-pitch softball team. As shortstop for the Comets, she traveled twice to the world championships in Connecticut. She remembers her team being the victim of a no-hitter tossed by Joan Joyce of the Raybestos Brakettes, a team that emerged in the late 1950s to dominate women’s softball for over two decades (Joyce ended up pitching 105 no-hitters in her illustrious career). Havlish didn’t continue to play softball, however, because she felt that the game was too slow and put too much emphasis on pitching.   Instead, she turned to another sport entirely—bowling. Havlish started to bowl recreationally in a company league that met in the upstairs of a St. Paul bar owned by Jake Mauer, grandfather of the Twins’ Joe Mauer. Improving rapidly, she was eventually invited to bowl in an all-star league. “When I worked at 3M I’d go over to the bowling alley in the Sunray Shopping Center. I’d spend my lunch hour bowling. After work I spent a couple hours bowling. Once you’ve got something you can excel at, it’s a motivator. Anything you go into, you want to go up against the best.”   Eventually, Havlish went up against the very best women bowlers in the country. She participated in numerous state and national amateur competitions, winning the State 600 Tournament four times. She won the singles and all-events titles in the WIBC Championship Tournament in 1964, the first Minnesotan to do so. Havlish led the WIBC in 20-year averagefor many years, and was successful on the pro bowling tour, winning titles in Indianapolis, Kansas City, and Fort Smith, Arkansas. She made the Bowlers Journal first All-American Team in 1969. She’s had several high games of 299 and sixteen 700s in her career. Sportswriter Jay Weiner wrote that Havlish was “perhaps the finest bowler in Minnesota history.”   In 1999, as century and millennium retrospectives abounded in magazines and newspapers, the Minneapolis StarTribune named Havlish one of the top Minnesota athletes of the millennium. Sports Illustrated ranked her 36th among the 50 top Minnesota athletes of the 20th century.   As of 2008, Havlish lives in Rockville, Minnesota, where she is housekeeper for a priest. She continues to drive into St. Paul once a week to participate in the St. Paul Ladies’ All-Star League. As recently as 2003 she bowled a 298 game, and her average in 2007-2008 was 192.   Although Havlish did not see A League of Their Own, she believes that the film has had a huge impact: “I was driving one night in Melrose, Minnesota, and here’s the one little theater in town, and on the marquis it says, “A League of Their Own.” My insides nearly exploded. It was really a good feeling.”   One of the highlights of Havlish’s baseball career was throwing out the first pitch, along with Kay Heim McDaniel and Nancy Mudge Cato (two other women living in Minnesota who played in the AAGPBL), at a Twins-Angels game in 1992.   Havlish doesn’t take the field to play baseball anymore, but she kept the glove she used at shortstop for the Daisies in her car for many years. “My gas station attendant liked to play catch. And if there was nobody at the pumps he’d say, ‘Have you got your glove, Jean?’” Now the gas station attendant has to find someone else to play catch with because Jean’s glove was accepted as AAGPBL memorabilia by the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York in 2009.   Havlish attends AAGPBL reunions when they’re within driving distance, and she answers numerous requests for signed cards from AAGPBL fans. She is grateful for the time she spent playing professional ball. “I thank God for the ability and the opportunity to play with and against the best women baseball players in the world.”
December 29, 2021 post by the All American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association on Facebook:

Joyce Hill Westerman would have turned 96 today, December 29th. Joyce played 8 years in the league starting in 1945 with Gr. Rapids. In 1946 she split the season with Ft. Wayne and South Bend. She spent 1947 and 1948 in Peoria, 1949 in Racine before returning to Peoria in 1950-51. Joyce closed out her career in South Bend in 1952. Joyce was a catcher, first baseman and outfielder during her career.

She entered the league with a reputation as a softball pitcher and shortstop for the Nash Company team in Kenosha. Along the line, however, she was converted into a catcher, and she became a full-time worker in that department for the Redwings. Joyce eventually landed with Racine and became a force behind the plate and at the plate with her ability to hit the long ball. Joyce continue to work for the Nash Company during the off-season. She had a hobby of collecting clippings from her games and putting them in scrape books.

Book Review:

The Wisconsin Historical Society Press's newest book for young readers is out and ready for review! Here is our press release: "Joyce Westerman: Baseball Hero" (Paperback: $12.95, ISBN: 978-0-87020-486-9) tells the story of a young girl who grew up on a farm in Pleasant Prairie, Wis. As a kid, Joyce cleaned the barn, picked vegetables and helped her father cut down trees. But what she really loved to do was play baseball. She played at recess and with friends whenever she could, and she even joined her aunt's softball team when she was just 12 years old. When Joyce graduated from high school, she went to work at a factory in Kenosha. But then World War II broke out, and chewing-gum tycoon P.K. Wrigley started a women's baseball league to replace men's baseball while players were away fighting the war. Women from all over the country tried out for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Only a few were good enough to make the cut, and Joyce was one of them. For eight years, she traveled around the country playing ball, even winning the league championship in her last season. This new title in the Badger Biographies series for young readers tells the story of a woman who lived her dream of becoming a professional athlete. In a time when women had few opportunities for careers, and next to none in professional sports, Joyce and her teammates proved to the world that women have what it takes.

Joyce Hill was raised on a farm in Kenosha, Wisconsin. She attended local schools and graduated from Mary D. Bradford High School in 1943. Joyce married Raymond Arnold Westerman on December 2nd, 1950 and built their first home together before starting their family in Kenosha. She received great joy from her two children, Janet and Judy, and her many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was active as a 4-H leader for 14 years, president of the 4-H leadership council for two years, active in Home and Community Education (HCE) since 1956 and President of the Executive Board for HCE.

Following her professional baseball career, she continued her love of the game by playing in the local city and county softball leagues. She also worked for the United States Postal Service and American Motors.

Awards and honors bestowed upon Joyce included being inducted into the Old Timers Baseball Association of Chicago in 2000, the Grand Rapids Sports Hall of Fame in 2003 and the Milwaukee Brewer's Wall of Fame. In 2011, Bob Kahn wrote and published a biography about Joyce's life called, "Baseball Hero: Joyce Westerman". In addition, Joyce was the assistant coach of Women's Softball at Carthage College for four years, coached softball in Milwaukee for six years and was a strong supporter of all high school and college athletics.

If you would like to listen to Joyce in her own words, then click on the link below!
Westerman, Joyce (Interview outline and video), 2010
April 11, 2022 post by the All American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association on Facebook:

The only player to play all 12 seasons, Dottie Schroeder, would have turned 94 today, April 11th. In 1943-45 she played shortstop for South Bend and then during the 1945 season she was traded to Kenosha where Dottie played till 1947. In 1947 she was moved to Fort Wayne till 1952 and she finished her career in Kalamazoo in 1954 with a Championship.

Dottie with her inimitable pig-tails was undoubtedly one of the flashiest fielders operating in the AAGPBL and one of the leagues favorite players. Her smoothness and grace in fielding ground balls was overshadowed only by her powerful throwing arm. Cubs' manager Charlie Grimm described Dottie as a $50,000 player if she were a boy.

Although league statistics show that her batting average a little lower than the average player, Dottie did a wealth of good at the plate with her long fly balls. Her RBI totals very often were near the top of the league. Schroeder spent the majority of her time with the Daisies while holding down this key shortstop position. She was a mere 14 yrs. old when she started playing in the league.

The following written by: Jim Sargent When the All-American League, as it was usually called, folded following the 1954 season, Dottie became a regular on manager Bill Allington's touring team of 11 All-Americans. When the lack of finances caused the tour to end after four summers, Schroeder had played a record 15 seasons of professional baseball, a mark no woman will ever equal.

"Dottie was a mainstay of our league," commented Jean Faut Eastman, the two-time Player of the Year (1951, 1953), who pitched for the South Bend Blue Sox from 1946 through 1953. "She had such good hands and such smooth moves, and she could make all the plays at shortstop."

In addition to playing 12 AAGPBL seasons, Schroeder holds all-time records for most games played (1,249) and most at-bats (4,129). She also produced the most RBIs in league history, 431, making her one of only five players to collect over 400 RBIs. A 5'8" 150-pound blonde who wore her hair in two braids, she was pretty, talented, and friendly toward everyone.

Blessed with a genial personality, a positive attitude, excellent hand-eye coordination, and a strong throwing arm, Dottie batted .211 lifetime. A right-handed hitter, her average was respectable, considering that the league used a "dead ball" until mid-1949.

Not a strong hitter in the early years, Schroeder became a good hitter with power after 1948. From 1949 through 1954, she hit .242 (509-for-2095), reaching career highs in `54 with her .304 mark, 17 home runs, and 65 RBI. She connected for 42 lifetime homers, but she hit 38 in her last six seasons.

Still, Dottie made the greatest contributions with her smooth glove work and her friendly personality.

Doris Sams, another two-time Player of the Year (1947, 1949) and a teammate of Schroeder's at Kalamazoo, remembered Dottie as an outstanding fielder. "She always played shortstop on her team. She was like a vacuum cleaner with those ground balls, and she could really hit that ball, too.

"Everybody liked Dottie. She was a real pleasure to have as a teammate. She was a lady and a standout ballplayer, through and through.”

"There wasn't a person who played in the league who didn't like Dottie Schroeder," observed Dottie Wiltse Collins, Fort Wayne ace right-hander and now treasurer of the Players Association. "She was very friendly, and very witty, just everybody's All-American. She was an idol to a lot of us."

Dottie became the league's youngest player at age fifteen. She grew up with two brothers on the family's farm near Sadorus, Illinois.

Schroeder's career included numerous highlights. For example, in 1950 her fielding and hitting, including five homers and 58 RBI, helped lead Fort Wayne to second place during the regular season with a 62-43 record. In the end, the Rockford Peaches won the Championship in the Shaughnessy Playoffs.

Replying to a 1993 questionnaire for the AAGPBL Archives at the Northern Indiana Center for History, Schroeder listed her favorite memories: "Winning playoffs in 1954--South and Central American Tour in 1949--spring training in Havana, Cuba [1947]--just simply playing ball in each and every game."

She added, "Played all 12 years--played three years after league disbanded on touring team in 1955, `56, and 1957--started playing when I was 15 ... Loved the game and still do. When does spring training start?!"

"It never occurred to me that I wouldn't get picked," Schroeder later remarked. "I was so young, the thought never crossed my mind. All I wanted to do was play ball."

Play ball Dottie did--always with graceful style.
Parade magazine August 22, 1948 had Dottie Schroeder on the cover.'Parade' Celebrates the World Series With Our Favorite Baseball Covers of All Time Talk a walk down memory lane as we prepare for the 118th World Series. by Peter Moore posted Oct 7, 2022 on Parade.com. Page 6 of Baseball Memories Parade October 9, 2022 is Parade 100922 published October 7, 2022 entire issue on ISSUU.com.
April 13, 2022 post by All American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association on Facebook:

Today April 13 would have been Betty Carveth Dunn's 97th birthday. Betty played one season,1945, for Fort Wayne and Rockford as a pitcher.

Betty was a Canadian pitcher who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during the 1945 season. She batted and threw right handed.

She was born in Edmonton, Alberta, and was one of the 57 players born in Canada to join the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

In her only season Carveth posted a combined 4–11 record and a 2.28 earned run average in 21 games for the Rockford Peaches (1945) and the Fort Wayne Daisies. During the best-of-five playoff series, she lost an 11-inning pitching duel with Racine Belles' Doris Barr.

In 1998, she garnered honorary induction in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. She also is part of Women in Baseball, a permanent display based at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, which was unveiled in 1988 to honor the entire All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

Betty spent the latter part of her life in Edmonton and continued to be involved by awarding an annual $2000 scholarship which is named in her honour and shared with Millie Warwick McAuley, another Canadian who played in the AAGPBL. The scholarship is awarded in Alberta to a young female baseball player who combines excellence on the diamond, in the classroom and in the community. Betty and Millie also were Special Ambassadors during the first-ever World Cup of Women's Baseball held at Edmonton in 2004 and again in 2012. In 2017, at the age of 91, Dunn was the oldest person at the time to be inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame.
April 14, 2022 post by All American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association on Facebook:

Happy 87th birthday to our Katie “Horsey” Horstman!!!!

Katie started her career with the Kenosha Comets in 1951 but later that season found her home in Fort Wayne, 1951-54.

A dependable and versatile utility player, Horstman excelled as a pitcher and catcher in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. She was also able to play at third base and all outfield positions. As a pitcher, she was the dream of every manager, being a long reliever one day, volunteering to make an emergency start the next, and saving a game out the day after that. Katie was also a good defensive catcher, with a good throwing arm and the ability to get most out of a pitching staff. But she was a superb defender at third base, demonstrating good range and throwing from any angle with remarkable accuracy. As a hitter, she ranks in the AAGPBL all-time list with a career .286 average (6th) and 23 home runs (11th), despite playing just four of the league's twelve seasons. Horsey was named to the All-Star team the year the Daisies won the pennant.

A native of Minster, Ohio, Horstman was the youngest girl in a home of six children. Whenever they played baseball she did it. She started to play on the Catholic Youth Organization softball team in Minster since the fifth grade. At 16, she was invited to tryouts for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, and signed a contract for $250 a month to play with the Kenosha Comets before the 1951 season.

When the league was unable to continue in 1955, Horstman joined several other players selected by former Daisies manager Bill Allington to play on a touring team known as the All-Americans All-Stars. The team played 100 games, each booked in a different town, against male teams, while traveling over 10,000 miles in the manager's station wagon and a Ford Country Sedan.

After her baseball career ended, Katie graduated from Medical Record Librarian School in the early 1960’s.. She later joined the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart religious order for five years, to become the first nun in the United States to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in physical education. For the next decade, she taught physical education in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio before returning to her hometown of Minster, where she initiated girls sports programs, including volleyball, gymnastics, basketball, track and field, cross country and softball. By 1980, she focused her coaching on track and cross country. For the next five years, her girls teams never lost a track meet. After being runner-up State Champions in 1975, the inaugural year of girls track and field, her track team won five consecutive state championships (eight overall). She also guided her cross-country running squad to two state championships. She has coached 29 individual state high school track meet champions.

Katie was named Midwest Athletic Conference League Coach in all sports numerous times. She gained induction in the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame, and also is the first woman honored in the Ohio Track Hall of Fame and the first woman elected into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame.

Retired, but very active, Horstman went on to play second base for the Ohio Cardinals, a senior slow-pitch team since 1992. She helped the team win two gold medals and two bronze medals in the Senior Olympic Games. She also participated in the Sports Educators Baseball Club in the Los Angeles area and raises funds for charities in California. In her spare time, she was a coordinator for Elderhostel in Palm Springs.

Hear about Katie's experience in her own words through the Grand Valley State Oral history project. https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/document/29713

Additional photos posted: April 13, 2021 by All American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association on Facebook.
May 9, 2022 - TinCaps Jersey Auction to Help Fund Daisies Monument at MILB.com. Fort Wayne TinCaps and City of Fort Wayne partner on Fort Wayne Daisies Player Monument. Newsrelease started with: FORT WAYNE, Ind. — The Fort Wayne TinCaps, in partnership with the City of Fort Wayne Parks & Recreation Department, are raising funds to renovate and improve the Fort Wayne Daisies monument at the historic site of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) team’s home field, located at Fort Wayne’s Memorial Park. “Fort Wayne has a rich baseball history and the Daisies are front and center as trailblazers for the sport in this city,” said Michael Limmer, TinCaps Vice President of Marketing. “While Memorial Park has long had a marker to designate it as the former home field of the Fort Wayne Daisies, we felt each individual Daisies player deserved to be recognized as well. This new monument will highlight each of the 144 former players and managers associated with the Daisies during the team’s existence from 1945 through 1954.” The enhanced monument was designed and created as a partnership with the City of Fort Wayne’s Parks and Recreation Department. Memorial Park is located approximately two miles east of Parkview Field, where the TinCaps play.
May 9, 2022 post by WANE 15 on Facebook:

A monument for the Fort Wayne Daisies? The TinCaps and Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation are teaming up to raise funds for a display at Memorial Park - the site of the team's home field - to honor the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League team that suited up in the Summit City from 1945-54.

TinCaps, Parks & Rec leading way for Fort Wayne Daisies monument May 9, 2022 WANE 15 News on YouTube
TinCaps, Parks & Rec leading way for Fort Wayne Daisies monument
TinCaps, Parks & Rec leading way for FW Daisies monument Glenn Marini May 9, 2022 on CBS WANE-TV NewsChannel 15
May 22, 2022 post by All American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association on Facebook:

A special thank you to the Fort Wayne TinCaps for hosting five AAGPBL players Saturday night as they honored the Fort Wayne Daisies. Three former Daisies, Isabel “Lefty” Alvarez, Katie Horstman and Dolly Vanderlip Ozburn were in attendance, along with Jeneane Lesko and Mary Moore. TinCaps players wore throwback jerseys featuring graphics replicating the Daisies uniform. The AAGPBL players signed autographs well beyond the designated time as hundreds of fans showed up to show their appreciation and to have a moment with these special women. Thanks so much TinCaps!

Shared May 23, 2022 on

True Fort Wayne Indiana History on Facebook.

West Michigan 1 TinCaps 0 TinCaps lose on night women's league honored by Victoria Jacobsen published May 22, 2022 in

The Journal Gazette newspaper had additional information now on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
March 3, 2023 post by Irish Hills, Michigan on Facebook:

March is Women's History Month and we are proud to honor our very own, Vivian Kellogg.

Vivian played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and rated as one of the best first basemen of all time with also the best batting average on her team, the Fort Wayne Daisies. We are grateful to honor Kellogg and appreciate her time devoted to the Irish Hills.

To read more about Vivian and her story, please visit: https://aagpbl.org/profiles/vivian-kellogg-kelly/108

#IrishHills #WomensHistoryMonth #March #VivianKellogg #AAGPBL #IrishHillsHistory
March 7, 2023 post by Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook:

The Fort Wayne Daisies were a professional women’s baseball team in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League from 1945-1954, and one of two teams from Indiana, the other being the South Bend Blue Sox. Chicago Cubs’ owner Philip K. Wrigley founded the League in 1943 during WWII to contribute to the war effort by boosting morale through family entertainment. Scouted from across North America, the players constantly balanced their outstanding athleticism with league standards of femininity. The league morphed from a hybrid softball/baseball game to full-on baseball within the first couple of years of its existence. Wrigley was interested in placing teams in mid-sized industrial Midwestern cities, and Fort Wayne fit the bill perfectly. The city welcomed the former Minneapolis Millerettes women’s team with open arms as they became the newly minted Fort Wayne Daisies. The Daisies won their debut game on May 24, 1945 and made the playoffs their first year in the league as well as every year from 1948 until the league folded. The Daisies were league champions from 1952-1954 but failed to ever win the elusive playoff championship.

[Source: aagpbl.org and the Indiana Historical Bureau, https://www.aagpbl.org/teams/fort-wayne-daisies]

Learn about more women who have made Indiana history through the Indiana Commission for Women’s “Writing Her Story” project: https://www.in.gov/icw/initiatives/writing-her-story/
March 8, 2023 post by Fort Wayne TinCaps on Facebook:

Daisies Callout

The TinCaps are once again hosting a Fort Wayne Daisies Night at Parkview Field! 🌼

We are looking for children or grandchildren of Daisies to be recognized during the game.

If that's you, or you can help in our search, contact Brenda Feasby at feasby@tincaps.com or call 260-407-2809 to provide any information!
Linda Likes It: Daughter of a Daisy April 17, 2023 by ABC21 WPTA on YouTube
Linda Likes It: Daughter of a Daisy article April 14, 2023 on 21AliveNews.com.
April 10, 2023 post with photos on Facebook.
May 24, 2023 post by Indiana Historical Bureau on Facebook:

On May 24, 1945, the Fort Wayne Daisies won the first game of their inaugural season in the All-American Girls Baseball League. The Daisies were one of two teams from Indiana, the other being the South Bend Blue Sox. Chicago Cubs’ owner Philip K. Wrigley founded the League in 1943 during WWII to contribute to the war effort by boosting morale through family entertainment. The Daisies were league champions from 1952 to 1954, but never won the playoff championship.

IHB helped dedicate a state marker commemorating the Blue Sox in 2021. We would welcome an application to commemorate the Daisies in Allen County if anyone is interested in applying. Learn more about the application process at: https://www.in.gov/.../state.../apply-for-a-marker/.

Learn more about the Fort Wayne Daisies here: https://bit.ly/2X7LERF

The image below shows the Fort Wayne Daisies team in 1945, courtesy of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association and is accessible at: https://www.aagpbl.org/teams/fort-wayne-daisies
September 6, 2023 post by the All American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association on Facebook:

We learned last night that we lost an All American, Wilma Briggs, on September 4th.

Wilma played for Fort Wayne and South Bend from 1948-1954. Willie was a fine, fleet-footed ,right handed outfielder, who was always chattering. She was also a very good hitter who showed power. In 1953 she hit for the circuit nine times. In the off-season she would return home to work on the family dairy farm.

Wilma was born in East Greenwich and grew up on a farm. Her father, Fred, was a semi pro baseball player and coach. When she was a young girl you could find her with brothers and father playing baseball after farm chores. At 13 years old her skills had improved so much that her father had her playing local men’s team, that her father managed. While in high school she became the first girl to play on the East Greenwich High School team.

After high school, Wilma was invited to try out for the AAGPBL While at try outs she impressed the management so much that Wilma was given a contract

She led the league in home runs during the 1953 season, ranks second in the all-time home runs list (43) behind Eleanor Calllow (55) and over Dottie Schroeder(42) and Jean Geissinger (41), and was one of only 14 players to collect 300 or more career RBI’s. Briggsie was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 2013.

Wilma entered the league in 1948 with the Fort Wayne Daisies, playing for them six years before joining the South Bend Blue Sox in 1954. She started at right field for the Daisies during her rookie season. Briggs was moved to left field due to a teammate’s injury for the rest of her career.

Briggs only hit hit two home runs during her first two seasons, but then hit a league-leading nine HR’s in 1953. In 1954 she was traded to South Bend where she hit 25 homers which was second in the league. In 1951 she was voted the best defensive outfielder with a .987 fielding average. Wilma helped Fort Wayne win pennants in both 1952 and 1953.

After her playing days she went to college and received a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Barrington College. She taught until she retired in 1992.

In 1990 Briggs became the first woman inducted into East Greenwich's Athletic Hall of Fame and was elected to the first AAGPBL Players Association Board of Directors. In 1991, she received the first annual Game of Legends Award for her 38 years of contributing to women's softball in Rhode Island. On November 20, 2021, Briggs was inducted into the Rhode Island Slow Pitch Hall of Fame. In 2013 Wilma was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame.

Listen Wilma in her own words, in the video below:

Wilma Briggs reminisces about her baseball career March 12, 2012 The Providence Journal on YouTube
11.23.2011: Wilma Briggs, an East Greenwich native, played 6 years with the Fort Wayne Daisies and a season with the South Bend Blue Sox in the All American Girls Professional Baseball League from 1948-1954. She played outfield and first base, batted left and threw right. In 1953 she led the AAGPBL in home runs and her career home run total of 43 was the second best in the league which was featured in the 1992 movie A League of Their Own. Providence Journal video by Kathy Borchers

A League of Their Own - documentary and movie

A League of Their Own - The Documentary by Kelly Candaele posted Apr 16, 2020 on YouTube
The documentary A League of Their Own that led to the Columbia Pictures film staring Tom Hanks, Madonna and Geena Davis.

Sunday, November 13, Fort Wayne Currents hosted a screening of A League of Their Own with a special prerecorded appearance by Kelly Candaele, producer of the documentary A League of Their Own which inspired the film. His mother and aunt – the Callaghan sisters – both played for the Fort Wayne Daisies. His brother Casey played in the major leagues and is currently the manager of the minor league Buffalo Bisons. Casey and his mother Helen were the only mother/son to play professional baseball. Join us at the Allen County Public Library’s downtown auditorium for the event which begins at 1 p.m. Copied from Special 30th Anniversary Screening of A League of Their Own at ACPL November 13 posted October 25, 2022 by Fort Wayne Currents which Fort Wayne Currents shared November 13, 2022 on Facebook.
Learn about Fort Wayne ties to ‘A League of Their Own’ at film’s 30th anniversary showing by Lydia Reuille posted November 13, 2022 then shared November 13, 2022 on Facebook by CBS WANE-TV NewsChannel 15.
A League of Their Own (1992) Starring Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Madonna, Lori Petty, John Lovitz | Inspired by the Rockford Peaches and the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (1943-1954) at History vs. Hollywood.
A League of Their Own Documentary Director Penny Marshall saw this AAGPBL documentary and was inspired to make a movie version of the story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The documentary was directed by Mary Wilson and produced by Kim Wilson and Kelly Candaele. Kelly's mother, Helen, and his Aunt Margaret both played in the Girls Professional Baseball League and are featured in the documentary. Kelly and Kim are also credited with creating the story for the A League of Their Own movie starring Geena Davis, Lori Petty, Tom Hanks, Rosie O'Donnell and Madonna. at History vs. Hollywood.
Women who inspired ‘A League of Their Own’ recently reunited The former athletes who inspired the hit movie "A League of Their Own" recently gathered in Sarasota for a reunion. by wthr.com published October 29, 2016, updated November 3, 2016.
A League of Their Own 1992, and A League of Their Own TV Series 2022 at imdb.com.
The former Fort Wayne Daisies star played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League for the final four years of its existence. The league, celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, would later serve as the inspiration for the iconic film A League of Their Own. The original players will be participating in interviews, events, appearances at the MLB All-Star FanFest, and throwing out first pitches, all leading up to a league reunion in September. Horstman and Betsy "Sockum" Jochum of the South Bend Blue Sox shared their memories in recent interviews with UPI. Copied from Real-life 'A League of Their Own' players celebrate 75th anniversary By Alex Butler published June 5, 2018 on upi.com.
Tom Centlivre image
August 18, 2022 a photo of the Centlivre Beer Luzerne Anthracite ad on the wall of the baseball park from the A League of Their Own Season 1, Episode 6. Stealing Home was posted by Tom Centlivre on True Fort Wayne Indiana History on Facebook. A similar photo was posted August 17, 2022 by Peaches75 on Twitter.
The real women who inspired ‘A League of Their Own’ by Christina De Nicola July 1, 2022 at MLB.com.
A League Of Their Own Didn't Start Its Life As A Feature Film by Christian Gainey posted July 8, 2022 at SlashFilm.com.
The True Stories That Inspired The League Of Their Own Series by Anya Stanley posted August 16, 2022 at SlashFilm.com.