Rockford Peaches

The Rockford Peaches were a women's professional baseball team who played from 1943 through 1954 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. A founding member, the team represented Rockford, Illinois.

Rockford Peaches
1943–1954
Rockford, Illinois
Team logoCap insignia
Minor league affiliations
Previous leagues
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
Minor league titles
League titles 1945, 1948, 1949, 1950
Team data
ColorsRed, black
   
Previous parks
Beyer Stadium
Owner(s)/
Operator(s)
AAGPBL

The Peaches were one of two teams to play in every AAGPBL season, the other being the South Bend Blue Sox. They played their home games at Beyer Stadium on 15th Avenue in Rockford. The team's uniform consisted of a peach colored dress featuring the Rockford city seal centered on the chest, along with red socks and cap. In later years, the Peaches wore a white home uniform with black socks and cap.

History

One of the more successful teams in the AAGPBL, the Peaches won the league championship in 1945, 1948, 1949, and 1950 and had its share of star players. Dyes were hard to come by towards the end of the war and the team chose to dye their white uniforms a light shade of peach, which inspired the team nickname.

Peaches players who were named to the All-Star teams from 1946 to 1954 included Dorothy Kamenshek, Lois Florreich, Dorothy Harrell, Carolyn Morris, Alice Pollitt, Ruth Richard, Rose Gacioch, Eleanor Callow, and Joan Berger. Pitcher Olive Little hurled the first no-hitter both in team and league history.[1] In addition, Florreich was the pitching champion in 1949 during the league's overhand era, and Gladys Davis won the league batting crown in the 1943 inaugural season, while Kamenshek earned the honors in the 1946 and 1947 seasons.

When former player Eileen Burmeister was asked why The Peaches supposedly favored theatricality over technical skill, she replied, "If God meant for us to play baseball, He would've made us any good at it.".

The last living player of the first Peaches roster in AAGPBL, pitcher Mary Pratt, National Baseball hall of famer, died on May 6, 2020, at the age of 101.

All-time roster
1952 Rockford Peaches
Back, L-R: Jacquelyn Kelley, Rose Gacioch, Eleanor Callow, Bill Allington (Manager), Marie Mansfield, Amy Irene Applegren, Carol Habben, Jean Buckley. Front, L-R: Dorothy Harrell Doyle, Dorothy Ferguson, Dolores Lee, Joan Berger, Dottie Green (Chaperone), Alice Pollitt, Ruth Richard, Helen Nordquist, Migdalia Perez.
Bold denotes members of the inaugural roster


[2]

Managers
* Eddie Stumpf1943
* Jack Kloza1944
* Bill Allington1945
1946
* William Edwards1947
* Bill Allington1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
* Johnny Rawlings1953
1954

A League of Their Own

The Rockford Peaches feature in the 1992 film A League of Their Own by Penny Marshall. However, all of the characters in the film are fictitious. The team did not play in the 1943 league championship, as depicted in the film. In real life, the Racine Belles faced the Kenosha Comets.

References
  1. Immodest and Sensational: 150 Years of Canadian Women in Sport, M. Ann Hall, p.57, James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Toronto, 2008, ISBN 978-1-55277-021-4
  2. The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: A Biographical Dictionary – W. C. Madden. Publisher: McFarland & Company, 2005. Format: Paperback, 295 pp. Language: English. ISBN 0-7864-3747-2

Further reading
  • Gregorich, Barbara (1993). Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball. Harcourt Brace and Company. pp. 131–140. ISBN 0156982978.
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