Bloomer Girls by Debra A Shattuck

Author:Debra A Shattuck
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Illinois Press

FIGURE 11. Earliest known image of Maud Nelson in uniform. Courtesy Joann Kline.

The year 1898 marked a milestone for Arlington (and women baseball players) as she became the first woman paid to play baseball for professional men's teams. NL and minor league teams were struggling financially owing to the Spanish-American War and unseasonably bad weather.59 The twenty-two-year-old Arlington was at the peak of her game, and newspapers frequently lauded her play. Her talents attracted the attention of sporting and theatrical promoter Captain William J. Conner, who convinced Arlington to sign a contract with him. He promised to arrange exhibitions for her to pitch for men's teams and to pay her $100 per week—a tremendous sum at the time.60 Conner negotiated with Edward G. Barrow, president of the Atlantic League (and future general manager of the New York Yankees), to hire Arlington to pitch for Atlantic League teams. He also hoped to convince Barrow's counterparts in the New York State League and Western League to feature Arlington in games.

Atlantic League president Ed Barrow was a showman at heart who knew how to fill seats at league ballparks. In 1897 and 1898, Barrow periodically featured professional boxers James J. Corbett and John L. Sullivan in league ball games as a way to boost attendance.61 While other teams struggled during the war, Barrow's Atlantic League held its own. Barrow believed that a talented female pitcher would keep turnstiles spinning, so he signed Conner's female pitching star to a minor league contract to pitch for different teams in the circuit that season. On July 1, the Philadelphia Press broke the news that Arlington would debut with Atlantic League teams the following week and that she would play for the New York State and Western leagues after that.62 The latter games never materialized, but Arlington did appear in numerous games with Atlantic League and nonleague men's teams that summer, including a game on June 25 in which she pitched for Norristown against Pottstown.63

On July 5, 1898, Lizzie Arlington became the first woman to play for a professional men's team in organized baseball when she pitched the ninth inning for the Reading Coal Heavers, who defeated the league rival Allentown Peanuts 5–0. Arlington gave up two hits, but no runs. She had an assist in the field but did not get to bat.64 Arlington went on to pitch in scores of other games for men's teams, but she lost the opportunity to play in official Atlantic League games because the Hartford Cooperatives’ managers balked at Barrow's money-making scheme for fear that the female pitcher might cause his team to lose an official league game.65 Barrow and team managers compromised by featuring Arlington in exhibition games instead.

At some point in 1898, Arlington began wearing a distinctive uniform that marked her status as a woman and as a baseball player (fig. 12).66 Contemporary newspaper articles about Arlington repeatedly referred to her as the only female professional baseball player in the country. This was incorrect. She was the only

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