Professional Baseball Player. She was a left handed pitcher in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) who recorded three no-hitters. Raised in Rockford, Illinois, she tried out for the hometown Rockford Peaches in 1945; making the squad in 1947, she won 19 games as a rookie. Cione played for four teams over her career, and in 1952 made the All-Star team while helping the Kenosha Comets to the league title. She attended college in the off-season, earning an undergraduate degree from Eastern Michigan University (EMU) and a master's from the University of Illinois. Retiring after the 1954 season with a record of 76 wins and 65 losses and a 2.33 E.R.A., she then taught high school physical education for 10 years before taking up a professorship of sports medicine at EMU which she held for 30 years. Cione became the school's first women's athletic director and retired to Bozeman, Montana, in 1992. She was to live out her days there, keeping busy with golf, reading, and following the Chicago Cubs. Cione was part of the 1988 mass induction of the AAGPBL and its 600 players into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, and was named to the Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in 2007. She died after an extended illness.
Professional Baseball Player. She was a left handed pitcher in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) who recorded three no-hitters. Raised in Rockford, Illinois, she tried out for the hometown Rockford Peaches in 1945; making the squad in 1947, she won 19 games as a rookie. Cione played for four teams over her career, and in 1952 made the All-Star team while helping the Kenosha Comets to the league title. She attended college in the off-season, earning an undergraduate degree from Eastern Michigan University (EMU) and a master's from the University of Illinois. Retiring after the 1954 season with a record of 76 wins and 65 losses and a 2.33 E.R.A., she then taught high school physical education for 10 years before taking up a professorship of sports medicine at EMU which she held for 30 years. Cione became the school's first women's athletic director and retired to Bozeman, Montana, in 1992. She was to live out her days there, keeping busy with golf, reading, and following the Chicago Cubs. Cione was part of the 1988 mass induction of the AAGPBL and its 600 players into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, and was named to the Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in 2007. She died after an extended illness.
Bio by: Bob Hufford
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