Professional Baseball Player. An switch hitting infielder and outfielder, she is remembered as a superstar during the final years of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Raised in Downstate Illinois as part of a noted athletic family, she played top level men's softball in her teens and at one point was even offered a contract with the Chicago White Sox. In 1950 Betty joined the Ft. Wayne Daisies of the AAGPBL and made an immediate impact, winning the batting crown with a .346 average and earning Rookie of the Year honors. The next year she took another batting title by hitting .368 while 1952 saw her named Player of the Year and receive the first of her two All-Star selections. In five years at Ft. Wayne she and her sisters Jean and Joanne were to help their team to the playoffs every year though the squad always came up short of the league crown. Over her career Betty hit .342, second only to Joanne, while collecting 32 home runs and 294 stolen bases; she holds the single season records for hits, doubles, and triples. After the circuit folded in 1954 she played for a girls' barnstorming team as well as in men's softball leagues. She was to spend many years working in a Ft. Wayne pump factory before her 1994 return home where she died of Lou Gehrig's Disease, ironically the same condition that was to claim Joanne. Betty was part of the 1988 mass induction of the AAGPBL and its players into the Baseball Hall of Fame; the league's story is told in 1992's film feature "A League of Their Own".
Professional Baseball Player. An switch hitting infielder and outfielder, she is remembered as a superstar during the final years of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Raised in Downstate Illinois as part of a noted athletic family, she played top level men's softball in her teens and at one point was even offered a contract with the Chicago White Sox. In 1950 Betty joined the Ft. Wayne Daisies of the AAGPBL and made an immediate impact, winning the batting crown with a .346 average and earning Rookie of the Year honors. The next year she took another batting title by hitting .368 while 1952 saw her named Player of the Year and receive the first of her two All-Star selections. In five years at Ft. Wayne she and her sisters Jean and Joanne were to help their team to the playoffs every year though the squad always came up short of the league crown. Over her career Betty hit .342, second only to Joanne, while collecting 32 home runs and 294 stolen bases; she holds the single season records for hits, doubles, and triples. After the circuit folded in 1954 she played for a girls' barnstorming team as well as in men's softball leagues. She was to spend many years working in a Ft. Wayne pump factory before her 1994 return home where she died of Lou Gehrig's Disease, ironically the same condition that was to claim Joanne. Betty was part of the 1988 mass induction of the AAGPBL and its players into the Baseball Hall of Fame; the league's story is told in 1992's film feature "A League of Their Own".
Bio by: Bob Hufford
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