"A League of Their Own" original: Metro Detroit woman looks back at historic career
(CBS DETROIT) - There were two major rules if you were going to play with the big girls: No dirt on the skirt and no crying in baseball.
Almost 80 years ago, women from across the country grabbed their bats and ball, and made their play for the diamond, as members of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.
"Of course, I got all kinds of stories along the way," said former player Mary Moore.
At 91 years old, Moore has a lot of stories, but she has some favorites.
"It was like a girl on first and second no-outs and a hit to the outfield. Well, the girl on second, of course. She hands to third to go home. They got the ball in got her run down. The girl that was on first, of course, she's rounded second heading for third. And ball comes in the girl that hit the ball. Of course, she rounds first heading for second, but the girl that was heading for third. She stops. She's going back to second," says Moore.
"Well, me, I play. I'm playing second base. So I'm guarding second base ... They're both coming towards second and as they come in, I just took my glove and won't pop down as they were trying to put their foot on the bases and both of them were out and we already tagged the other girl out. So it was a triple play."
The Lincoln Park native was an all-around athlete
At a time when it was more common for the girls to sit out, Moore kept playing baseball with the boys anyway. At 17 years old, she went pro, being selected for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League,
"I never heard of this league because all the teams were in smaller cities. The large cities didn't allow the teams in because they were afraid they'd take, you know, away from them ... My high school English teacher put me in touch with another girl that had already graduated and played in this league. And so that's how I found out about it, and then like in Detroit, they would go down to the Cronk Recreation Center in practice all winter," Moore says.
"It was like two weeks of spring training and then I was sent on to Chicago for two more weeks of training because ... I did play on teams. But it was like regular softball, you know, church league and a recreation team or something ... but not any really structured teams, you know, big teams. I was actually fortunate enough to and blessed enough to be able to get on to one of the teams there in Chicago."
The opportunity to play took Moore all over the country before two major back-to-back injuries prompted Moore to call it quits.
The league dissolved a year later in 1954. Today, at nine years shy of being a century, Moore still plays in the yearly reunion baseball games, along with other sports.