Product Code Database
Joanne Emily Winter (November 24, 1924 – September 22, 1996) was an American pitcher who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Listed at , 138 lb., she batted and threw right-handed.
Winter dropped out of Proviso Township High School at 15 to play softball for the Parichy Roofing Company, well known as a Bloomer Girls team, and later joined the Admiral Music Maids of the National Women's Softball League. She later moved with her family to Phoenix, Arizona, where she played for the Arizona Ramblers. At 18, she heard about Philip K. Wrigley and his remarkable experiment in creating a women's professional baseball league. Biographical Dictionary of American Sports The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: A Biographical Dictionary - W. C. Madden. Publisher: McFarland & Company, 2005. Format: Paperback, 295pp. Language: English.
Since the only organized ball for women in the country was softball, the league created a hybrid game which included both softball and baseball. Wrigley had scouts all over the United States, Canada and even Cuba signing girls for tryouts. About 500 girls attended the call. Of these, only 280 were invited to the final try-outs in Chicago where 60 were chosen to become the first women to ever play professional baseball. The league started with the four teams aforementioned, and each team was made up of fifteen girls. Winter survived the final cut and was assigned to the Racine Belles, where she played for the next eight seasons.
But each year the field dimension changed as the league came closer to emulating the game played by the men's major leagues. The pitching mound was raised, the pitching distance was lengthened, the ball shrank from season to season, the basepaths were extended and two new teams were added, until sidearm pitching was allowed in 1946. Winter had a hard time dealing with the changes as she struggled to keep mentally focused, recording a 22–45 mark between 1944 and 1945. Then she learned from a Mexican people hurler how to pitch a sidearm sling-shot delivery. Biographical Dictionary of American Sports The rising pitch baffled hitters and transformed her in one of the best pitchers of the league, most notably, when the league expanded from six to eight teams.
In 1946, Winter earned 33 victories for only nine losses while pitching 17 with 183 in 46 games pitched. Winter's 33 wins tied her with Connie Wisniewski for most victories in a regular season. She also set all-time records of 63 consecutive scoreless innings and six consecutive shutouts; was selected an All-Star, and led Racine capture another pennant and championship. The Belles finished in first place with a league-best 74–38 record, won the semifinal round of playoffs by defeating the South Bend Blue Sox in four games, and clinched the title after beating the 1945 AAGPBL champions Rockford Peaches, four games to two.
Throughout the playoffs Sophie Kurys was the biggest Belles star. She led all players in average, , and runs scored. On the other hand, Winter collected four wins in all series, including three against Rockford, despite allowing 19 baserunning in a 1–0 shutout victory over the Peaches in decisive Game Six. The winning run was scored by Kurys on an RBI-single by Betty Trezza. The Belles also showed a great defense, notably by left fielder Edythe Perlick, right fielder Eleanor Dapkus, first base Margaret Danhauser, shortstop Trezza, and Maddy English at third base. Baseball Historian – 1946 Racine Belles When Women Played Hardball – Susan Johnson. Publisher: Seal Press, 1994. Format: Paperback, 320pp. Language: Language: English.
Winter went 22–13 with 121 strikeouts in 1947, leading her team again to the playoffs. Racine defeated the Muskegon Lassies, three games to one, but lost to the Grand Rapids Chicks in the final Series four games to three.
Winter was able to make the adjustment to overhand pitching before the 1948 season, when Leo Murphy, former Pittsburgh Pirates catcher and Belles manager, helped her convert to a three-quarters delivery during spring training. She responded by leading the league with 256 strikeouts and 329 innings while tying in victories (25) with Alice Haylett, joining the All-Star team for a third time and helping Racine garner another pennant. The Belles lost the semifinal playoff to the Peaches, the eventually winners of the Championship Title. Biographical Dictionary of American Sports
A durable and consistent pitcher, Winter fell victim to the new rules. She had a shoulder that could not take the new pitching motion and also developed back problems, compiling a 20–25 record in her last two seasons. At the end of 1950 the Belles lacked the financial resources to keep the club playing in Racine and opted to move to Battle Creek, Michigan for the 1951 season. Winter, along with original Belles Dapkus, English, Kurys and Perlick, were disappointment and decided not to make the move. During eight years, the Belles were a close-knit team, always like a family away from home. Winter and teammates thought that all would be different, like a new team, maybe a new manager and, specially, a new location. A League Of My Own: Memoir of a Pitcher for the All-American Girls – Patricia I. Brown. Publisher: Macfarland & Company, 2003. Format: Paperback, 216pp. Language: English. Winter moved back to Arizona in the late 1960s and Sophie Kurys lived across the street from her home in Scottsdale, Arizona, until after Winter's death in 1996.
| 1.0324 |
|
|
