Jun 21, 2021
Most baseball fans are familiar
with the World War II-era All-American Girls Professional Baseball
League from the hit 1992 movie "A League of Their Own" -
but most do not know that there was another pro women's circuit
that played only in the greater Chicago area at around the same
time.
Documentary filmmaker Adam Chu
("Their Turn At Bat") joins the
pod to discuss the fascinating story of the National Girls Baseball
League (1944-54) - formed out of the city's amateur softball
talent-loaded Metropolitan League in 1944 - from which the AAGPBL
had recruited many of its initial players a year earlier.
Co-founded by area roofing
company owner Emery Parichy, Chicago Cardinals NFL football team
owner Charles Bidwell and city politician/softball enthusiast Ed
Kolski, the NGBL consisted of six heavily sponsored teams
(originally the Bloomer Girls, Bluebirds, Chicks, Queens,
Cardinals, and Music Maids) - playing in neighborhood baseball
parks across Chicago and its nearby suburbs, including Parichy's
purpose-built showcase Memorial Stadium in Forest Park.
and even featured football
legend Red Grange as its commissioner for its first three
seasons.
Although the NGBL and AAGPBL
never directly competed against each other on the diamond, they did
battle fiercely for players - ultimately leading to a pact between
the two to not raid each other's talent - and even a truce of sorts
when players from both circuits joined together in the four–team
International Girls Baseball League (IGBL) in Miami during the
winter of 1952–53.