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Women baseball players pay tribute to "A League of Their Own"

 
Members of the New England Red Sox gather before taking the field against the East Coast Yankees in Tampa. The Red Sox won 10-7.
Members of the New England Red Sox gather before taking the field against the East Coast Yankees in Tampa. The Red Sox won 10-7.
Published June 25, 2017

TAMPA — In 1948, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League drew more than 900,000 spectators.

Within a decade, it was almost entirely forgotten.

"When we went back to our home towns, they didn't know anything about the league," Jeneane Lesko said. "It was not publicized at all, except in the cities that had the teams. We were never on a national news story of any kind, so when we went back and tried to tell people about it, nobody knew what we were talking about. Everybody just went back to their old lives and raised families.

"If you mentioned it, people thought you meant softball because that was more popular. They'd say, 'You mean softball,' and we'd say, 'No, we mean baseball.' Those of us that got married never told our spouses. We never told anybody."

Lesko was a starting pitcher for the Grand Rapids Chicks from 1953-54, the two final years of the league. Saturday, she was in attendance as the East Coast Yankees and the New England Red Sox — two independent women's baseball teams — faced off at George M. Steinbrenner Field. The game, which the Red Sox won 10-7, was held to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the movie that brought the AAGPBL back into the public consciousness: A League of Their Own.

Yankees manager Adrian Adler said the film was a landmark for any women's baseball player.

"I think it was an eye-opener for so many people," Adler said. "I personally was in my early 20s at the time and was a ballplayer who played mostly with boys and men, and I didn't realize there were all these girls out there playing, let alone knowing that women played professionally. It lit that fire in me again and it did that for so many women."

Yankees catcher AJ Hamilton, who went 3-for-3 with three doubles, said the movie was an excellent representation of her sport.

"I think that movie really displays women's baseball and how it came about perfectly," Hamilton said. "Obviously things look different now, we're not wearing the skirts, but the level has just gotten better and that movie just opened the doors for our community."

"The movie made us all famous," Lesko said. "We love all the publicity we've had and all the excitement that we've had. It's changed my life."