Sportraits

By TOMMY DILLARD
Sports Writer
At a time when America desperately needed a diversion, they provided it.
Combining surprising athleticism with graceful femininity, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League took the Midwest by storm and filled a void in society while many of the national pasttime’s top male stars were fighting in World War II.
You likely know them from the popular movie A League of Their Own. But the two-hour film barely scrapes the surface of the true-life experience of Dolly Niemiec Konwinski.
Konwinski is doing her part to preserve the league’s unique history by traveling throughout the country speaking in schools, parks and community centers. She made a stop in western Kentucky Tuesday night and addressed a crowd of around 75 people at H.H. Lovett Park in Benton.
Topics ranged from a childhood spent playing baseball with the boys to attending charm school under a league mandate to encouraging parents and community members to take care of their children’s ballfields.
Of course one of Konwinski’s main talking points was A League of Their Own, which she claims is about 80 percent accurate. The movie is a fictionalized account of the league, but Konwinski said she and her former teammates believed the film faithfully captured the spirit of the women who left their homes to become celebrated ballplayers.
Not everything was true, however.
“We never had a manager use our toitie (toilet),” she recalled. “Managers never came in until we had our uniforms on.”
Many of the scenes in the movie were taken from actual conversations that took place amongst players or coaches, Konwinski said.
“When we heard it was going to be a comedy starring Madonna, we were worried,” she said. “But we loved it. Anything Madonna might have done before or after that movie is discounted in our eyes.”
The film has almost singlehandedly kept the long-defunct league well within the collective consciousness of Americans.
As for Konwinski herself, it never mattered much that girls growing up in the 1940s weren’t supposed to be baseball players. She spent her long summer days playing alongside the boys in the sandlots of her hometown of Chicago.
There was no organization, just kids being kids.
The bases were often pieces of cardboard. If no cardboard was available, the search was on for large, flat rocks.
Sometimes they’d have to use a sickle to cut down weeds growing in the lots.
And then there was the crotchety old woman who didn’t want the ball coming anywhere near her house.
“This one lady across the street, boy if we hit a ball in her yard, she’d come out there and she’d yell across the street, ‘Mrs. Niemiec, Mrs. Niemiec, when is your daughter gonna start being a girl and stop playing with these boys,’” she remembered. “I said, ‘Mama, never.’”
Konwinski’s father taught her how to hit, field and run the bases and also prompted her to try out for the AAGPBL at the age of 16. She made it and was assigned to the South Bend Blue Sox before soon being traded to the Grand Rapids Chicks, where she played third base for the remainder of her career.
Not only did she fall in love with the town of Grand Rapids, but also with Bob Konwinski. The two married in 1955, raised four children in Grand Rapids and reside there still today.
Though she didn’t join the league until six years after its beginnings, she says the movie accurately portrays the AAGPBL’s early years. In one scene, manager Jimmy Dugan, played by Tom Hanks, urges his team, “Let’s go girls. Dozens of people are waiting for the game to start.”
“The reception wasn’t good,” Konwinski said. “They said, ‘Girls can’t play baseball.’ But then they warmed up to us and it became a family thing. Families could walk to the ballpark and dad would say to mother in the morning, ‘Have the kids get their homework done and have an early dinner, we’re going to see the Chicks.’”
The league was formed by Philip Wrigley, who had inherited the Chicago Cubs from his father. With young men being drafted into the armed services, Wrigley feared that if the war continued, Major League Baseball was in danger of shutting down. Most minor league clubs had already suspended play due to a lack of quality talent.
Wrigley gathered a committee to examine the problem, which was particularly foreboding to Major League owners and their pocketbooks. The solution, they determined, was to organize a girls’ softball league capable of playing in Major League ballparks should the situation become dire.
There were several challenges facing the owners, however. Exactly what game would be played, baseball or softball? Where would they find enough talented women to fill rosters? Would the nation embrace the idea of women playing professional baseball?
To answer the first question, organizers created a game that meshed qualities of both baseball and softball. The ball was a softball and pitches were thrown underhand, but the basepaths and mound-to-plate distance were extended beyond traditional softball. Also unlike softball, base stealing was allowed.
The second issue was solved through an already-established Major League scouting network. Though fans first came for the novelty, Konwinski estimated that what kept people coming back was the talent of the players, which exceeded the expectations of many.
Wrigley attempted to solve the third problem through marketing the women as not only athletes, but also proper ladies. Players were required to attend charm school, where they learned to put on makeup and carry themselves. When in public, they were required to wear a dress or skirt at all times.
The league continued to evolve from the time of its formation to its disbanding in 1954. Major League Baseball never shut down, and though the AAGPBL attempted to forge its way into major markets, it found most of its success in medium-sized towns such as Grand Rapids.
The league reached its height during the 1948 season when the 10 teams attracted 910,000 paid fans.
The time period was a revolutionary one for women, and the AAGPBL helped extend that progressive thinking into the sporting arena.
“I think we paved the way for young ladies to do whatever they want,” Konwinski said. “If they want to play basketball, we’ve got the WNBA. We’ve got the Olympic team. The Olympians told us, ‘Because of you ladies, we now have the chance.’ We’re called pioneers.”
Though her baseball-playing days eventually ended, Konwinski never gave up sports. Bob was an esteemed bowler and took Dolly under his wing. She eventually bowled professionally.
After coaching her two boys in Little League baseball, she served 15 years as an umpire for high schools and colleges. Now, she acts as a cheerleader for her grandchildren.
While her years with the AAGPBL gave her some of her fondest memories, it wasn’t all fun and games for Konwinski and her teammates. Unlike today’s major leaguers, who generally play six games per week, the women usually played eight.
“It was seven days a week with doubleheaders on Sunday,” she remembers. “And you think we didn’t do rain dances.”
But if there is anything A League of Their Own taught Konwinski, it’s that worthwhile endeavors are not usually easy.
“My favorite part in the movie is when Dottie is leaving and she says, ‘It’s just too hard,’” she said. “Jimmy says, ‘It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard ... is what makes it great.’”