Springfield Sallies
The Springfield Sallies were a women's professional baseball team who joined the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in the 1948 season.
The team represented Springfield, Illinois, and played their games at Fitzgerald Memorial Stadium.
The helpless Sallies were the worst in the league, getting roughed up as a last-place expansion club with a 41-84 record, ending 35 and a half games behind the Racine Belles in the Western Division.
The club was managed by former bigleaguer Carson Bigbee, but had no All-Stars, and the only players to have a significant year were second sacker Evelyn Wawryshyn, who tied for sixth place with a .266 batting average, and pitcher Doris Barr, who posted a 2.68 ERA with a career-high 116 strikeouts despite her 7-19 record.
From 1949 through 1951 the Sallies joined the Chicago Colleens as touring player development teams. Their tours included exhibition contests at Griffith Stadium and Yankee Stadium, then dissolved entirely by 1951.
AAGPBL executive Mitch Skupien, who later managed in the league, served as the general manager for both touring teams.
All-time roster
|
Managers
* Carson Bigbee | 1948 |
* Len Zintac | 1949 |
Manager–Chaperone
* Barbara Liebrich | 1950 |
Chaperone
* Mary Rudis | 1948 1949 |
Sources
- All-American Girls Professional Baseball League history
- All-American Girls Professional Baseball League official website – Springfield Sallies seasons
- All-American Girls Professional Baseball League official website – Manager/Player profile search results
- All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Record Book – W. C. Madden. Publisher: McFarland & Company, 2000. Format: Hardcover, 294pp. Language: English. ISBN 0-7864-0597-X
- The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: A Biographical Dictionary – W. C. Madden. Publisher: McFarland & Company, 2005. Format: Softcover, 295 pp. Language: English. ISBN 978-0-7864-2263-0
- Golden Age Era Sports