Out at the Plate by Lynn Ames

Author:Lynn Ames
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Published: 2024-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

The fallout from the debacle of 1946 was swift and far-reaching. Larry Walker of the Queens was so incensed that he pulled them out of the Amateur Softball Association altogether and created a rival organization, the National Softball Congress (NSC).

To entice other teams to join his new league, Walker offered them a percentage of the gate, along with travel allowances and expenses for the players. He also ruled that professional players like those in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and the National Girls Baseball League based in Chicago, could join an NSC team without penalty. To emphasize the point, Walker convinced pitcher Carolyn Morris and slugger Merle Keagle to forsake the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and return to the Queens to join the rest of his stable of stars.

Former Ramblers pitching ace Louise Curtis organized a new Phoenix team to challenge the Queens in the NSC. She called them the Maids, and she brought over former Rambler teammates Mildred Dixon and Jean Dalmolin to join her, along with a bevy of ex-Queens players, to round out her roster.

The ASA retaliated by informing its participating teams, including the Ramblers, that they would lose their amateur standing and be disqualified if they so much as scheduled a game with a “professional” team (i.e., like those belonging to the NSC).

Of course, the ASA’s stance meant that the crosstown rivalry between the Ramblers and the Queens, an entertaining show that brought thousands of fans through the turnstiles for every game, was on ice. Every entreaty the Ramblers made to the ASA fell on deaf ears.

“So, the Queens and Ramblers spent the 1947 season resentfully eyeing one another from a distance because the ASA and NSC weren’t on speaking terms.”

For Dot personally, the consequences of all this tumult were earth-shaking. Before the start of the 1947 season, Ford sent a letter to Ralph Peterson, president of Peterson-Brooke-Steiner-Wist, informing him that he would be stepping away from the Ramblers for the 1947 season:

Please be informed that effective as of this date [January 15, 1947], personal affairs will prevent my assisting with the PBSW Ramblers during the 1947 season in any capacity. With illness both of my wife and infant daughter requiring a major portion of my time, and my business taking the remainder, I do not feel inclined toward affording time for outside activities.

Dot Wilkinson, who has served as your team manager for the past several years during my absence for military service, is adequately qualified and should be able to continue the team very successfully. Veteran players on the team can readily handle coaching problems.

Even today, Dot scoffed at Ford’s explanation and affirmed that his decision to step back had everything to do with the 1946 kerfuffle and nothing to do with “personal affairs.” She proudly informed me that Ford and Peggy’s baby, Dorothy Louise Hoffman, born on November 25, 1946, was a healthy baby girl Ford and Peggy named after Dot and Louise Curtis. Dot also was quick to point out that she still worked in the real estate office with Ford every day.

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