A League Of Their Own: True Story Inspiration Explained
10th Anniversary of A League of Their Own at Cooperstown
| "Jane Moffet told the story of how she actually became a player on accident. She attended the tryout camp with a friend who eagerly wanted to play, and after helping one of the coaches running the camp, he asked her why she was not playing. She confessed she had not intended to even be there, but was doing it as a favor for a friend. When he asked her to try out, she did, and she made the team. The friend, however, did not. She enjoyed four years as a catcher, first basemen, and outfielder." - from The Women of Cooperstown |
| "If ever there was a meaningful subject for today's classroom, the story of women in baseball is it," said Jane Moffet, an AAGPBL veteran and later a public school teacher and principal in New Jersey. "This story involves organization, goals, objectives, procedures and conclusions, which are all components of a good lesson plan." - from the National Baseball Hall of Fame |
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League · 1949 Springfield Sallies Rookie Touring Team
(Click photos to enlarge.)
Back Row: Migdallia "Mickey" Perez, Mirtha Marrero, Charlene Pryer,
Beverly Hatzell, Coronado, Margaret Murray, Dastrode, Helen Waddell
Front Row: Jane Moffet, Betty Degner, Kay Lionikas, Barbara Liebrich, Shirley Burkovich
Left to Right: Anne Georges, Eileen Gascon, Doris Cook, Migdalia "Mickey" Perez,
Lillian Shadic, Mirtha Marrero, Renae Youngberg, Mary "Wimp" Baumgartner,
Sue Kidd, Kay Lionikas, Gertrude "Gert" Alderfer, Barbara Payne, Barbara Liebrich,
Betty Degner, Norene Arnold, Jane Moffet
Jane Moffet
Newcastle News - Newcastle, PA
August 25, 1949
(Click photos to enlarge.)
1952 Battle Creek Belles
Jane Moffet, Middle Row, third from left
Springfield Sallies
Jane Moffet, first on left
Springfield Sallies
Jane Moffet, kneeling in front
THE GIRLS OF SUMMER
The Trentonian News, Posted: 08/20/01, 12:01 AM EDT | Updated: on 08/20/2001
By LINDA LISANTI
It was like a scene straight out of the movie, A League of Their Own. Two white-haired women swinging bats and throwing balls, while reminiscing about their years spent playing in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.
In front of Mercer County Waterfront Park yesterday morning, baseball pioneers Jane Moffet and Ernestine "Teeny" Petras shared their fondest memories as part of Women's Equality Day, sponsored by the New Jersey Division of Women.
"It was an opportunity for girls, the only opportunity back then," recalled Moffet, who played catcher and outfielder for the Kalamazoo (Mich.) Lassies from 1949 to 1952.
At the tender age of 17, Moffet abandoned her studies at East Stroudsburg University and headed to Allentown, Pa. to try out for the girls baseball league, which was created six years earlier when males were joining the armed forces for World War II.
The Pitman native had never held a bat before, let alone thrown a ball, before competing against 110 girls for the spots on four national teams.
Moffet played college field hockey and basketball, and was only accompanying a fellow player, who didn't want to try out alone.
When she arrived at the field, she said only one scout was on hand to evaluate all the girls, so she volunteered to help him.
"He asked me 'where's your spikes and glove,' and I told him I didn't have any. Then he gave me a bat and three weeks later I had a contract," said the 71-year-old, who now lives in Toms River.
While getting into the league was a challenge for Moffet, she said telling her parents was an even bigger hurdle.
Calling from a pay phone outside her university dormitory, the girl explained the situation to her father, who was very supportive. She then left it up to him to tell her stubborn mother.
"They didn't even know I was trying out. I told my father and then I said 'I'm running out of change. You'll have to tell mom'," Moffet said.
It was the same story for Petras, who made the league after trying out in Newark in 1944.
"At first, I wanted to be a kindergarten teacher, but while hanging around the playgrounds, I got hooked on softball and eventually baseball," said the 79-year-old Haskill resident. "My mother didn't like it. She said I should concentrate on getting married."
Although Petras never found herself a rich husband, the woman said she did find a group of girls that became a second family to her.
For eight years, she played shortstop for the Grand Rapids/Milwau-kee Chicks and formed bonds in baseball that still remain strong today.
"It was very close-knit. We played together, ate together, went out together. We lived the exact same lives. Many of those girls were like my sisters," said Petras, who was nicknamed Teeny in the league because she was only 5-foot-and-a-half-inch tall.
Although the character May, played by Madonna, in a League of Their Own wasn't modeled specifically after Petras, her stories seem to fit the part.
The spunky shortstop said she had the shortest uniform in the league and frequently got fined $15, which was a lot of money in those days.
And yesterday, when she met Thunder shortstop Freddy Sanchez, she shook his hand and then gave him a big smack on the lips.
"Isn't he cute. All of the good-looking people are shortstops," said Petras with a smile.
While the girls baseball league ended in 1952, Moffet and Petras have kept those times alive by traveling the country together promoting the league and the advancement of women.
"This league brought a lot of attention around the country that women could do more. We were the first to play professional baseball and we did it quite well. But even today, there's still much more we can do," said Moffet.
At the park yesterday, the former players signed autographs, answered questions and even threw out the first pitch of the Thunder game against the New Haven Ravens.
As they waited for their moment in the dugout, the women warmed up their arms with a few swings of the bat and tosses of the ball.
"Fifty years ago, I could swing this thing pretty well," said Moffet.
"I just hope I can reach the plate from the mound," replied Petras.
Toms River woman a baseball legend
Published in the Asbury Park Press 9/05/02
By KAREN F. RILEY
CORRESPONDENT
TOMS RIVER -- "This used to be my playground, this used to be my childhood dream," Madonna sang during the closing credits of the movie, "A League of Their Own."
For the 600-plus members of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, it was a dream come true. The movie documented the league's place in our country's history.
The long-defunct league gave women the unique opportunity to play professional baseball from 1943 until 1954, paving the way for women to break through in other sports. It was established because many of the nation's male baseball players were away serving in the military during World War II.
Women from all over the country, Canada and Cuba played for the league's teams. There were about 13 players from New Jersey, according to Jane Moffet, a member of the league who is currently serving on the league alumnae's board of directors.
Moffet -- along with fellow ballplayer Ernestine "Teeny" Petras of Hazlet and state Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Susan Bass Levin -- was honored Aug. 25 by Gov. McGreevey prior to a Trenton Thunder minor-league baseball game at Mercer County Waterfront Park.
After the ceremony, Moffet threw out the ceremonial first ball.
The second annual event, which commemorated Women's Equality Day the next day, was hosted by the Department of Community Affairs' Division on Women and the state Advisory Commission on the Status of Women. The day, as designated by President Carter, honors the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which gave women the right to vote.
Moffet was a freshman at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania in 1949 when a classmate saw a newspaper ad announcing tryouts for women's baseball. She asked Moffet to accompany her to Allentown, Pa., so she wouldn't have to go alone.
More than 100 young women showed up. Moffet offered her assistance to league scout Lenny Zintak by fielding balls and helping in any way she could. Zintak asked her why she wasn't trying out, then told her to grab a bat and demonstrate her skill.
She left that day with a contract in her hand.
Moffet continued her college education, but left for Michigan at the end of each semester to play ball. At the end of four years, she quit the league because her mother was terminally ill, and she remained in New Jersey.
Moffet later became the guidance counselor at the school that Levin, the former mayor of Cherry Hill, attended. Eventually, Moffet became principal, retiring in 1994.
"It's funny," Moffet said. "I worked in education for 42 years, but people remember me best for baseball."
Moffet said her role on the league's alumnae board is to continue to promote the memory of the league and to let people know that there are more sports opportunities for girls and young women today than there were when she and her baseball teammates were growing up.
Moffet said she is pleased by the changes in women's school athletics brought about by Title IX of the federal educational amendments of 1972, which set standards for gender equity in spending on scholastic sports. But at times, she said, gains for females have had a negative impact on male sports.
"The original goals and objectives are very sound," she said. "Unfortunately, some men are getting pushed out and, of course, this was never the intention of Title IX."
She added, "You need to establish goals -- accept and overcome challenges. It's a lot of work at times, but I enjoy it. Athletics open a lot of doors for young people."
Moffet knows there is no crying in baseball
Publication: News of Cumberland County, The (Bridgeton, NJ)
Date: August 14, 2010
Author: Eric Schwartz
BRIDGETON - Jane Moffet vividly recalls her reaction when one of her close friends asked her to come try out for a team in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in the late 1940s.
"She said she wanted to go try out for baseball and I told her 'Are you crazy?’“ said Moffet.
Moffet went to the tryout in support of her friend, and decided to stay in the background. But the coaches talked her in to trying out.
It turned out to be a wise decision. Moffet was signed, her friend was not, and Moffet immediately began her journey as a professional baseball player.
"I had never played an organized sport in my life, so I was embarrassed," said Moffet, who was a guest at the Bridgeton Invitational Baseball Tournament on Wednesday. "Basically, I went to a tryout in Allentown and the next thing I knew I had a contract to go to West Virginia.
"I was never away from home before so I thought I was going around the world."
The AAGPBL emerged in 1943 as a way to keep baseball alive in cities where minor league teams had been disbanded due to so many young men being drafted into the armed services. By 1949, many of the women who had started the league moved on to other things. So the league sent two teams out to travel around the country to introduce the league and hold tryouts.
"The women who started the league were getting old, so they got the teams to hold tryouts and that's where I was introduced to them," said Moffet.
Moffett, who resides in Pitman, played in the league with the Kalamazoo Lassies for four seasons from 1949-1952, playing catcher, first base and outfield.
Little information was known about the AAGPBL until the 1992 movie titled "League of Their Own" hit the big screen. With the likes of Tom Hanks and Gina Davis as leads in the cast, the movie was a smash hit and got people wondering about what really took place in the game during that era.
"Until the movie came out, people didn't even know we existed," Moffet said. "I would say the movie is about 85 percent accurate, but you know when you have a movie you have to have the Hollywood flair."
Much of that flair came from an actress that had many of the former players scratching their heads.
"When we first found out Madonna was going to be in it, we laughed till we died," said Moffet. "She's the last person we ever picked to be in a baseball movie, but most of the people who worked with her in the movie at the time said she was one of the most professional individuals you would ever want to see. If she had a job to do, she was there on time to do it."
One of the scenes in the movie revolved around a "Charm School" that players had to attend to be more lady-like. As farfetched as the concept came off, Moffet said it was all too real.
"I came in late so I didn't have to be a part of it, but I talked to many women who could tell you stories that you will never believe," she said.
Moffet and her former teammates still meet to talk about the league and the movie from time to time. There was a reunion in Detroit, Mich. this year and there will be another one in California next year.
The reunions used to take place once every five years, but just this year 15 members of the league passed away, taking with them a great piece of sporting history.
Moffet said the players never thought they would be remembered so fondly. For them it was just about getting by during a difficult era for America.
"Nobody ever thought about it at that point that it would be part of history," she said. "It was just something you enjoyed doing and that's what you did for a living. To me, I was picking up enough money to buy a few books at college."
Moffet still keeps a close eye on sports, and women's sports in particular. She has spoken at conventions around the country on the issue of Title IX.
"Title IX made a big change for female athletics," she said. "In doing so, sometimes the men suffered in some of the smaller sports. I've had people come up to me and say that their sport got canceled because of the rule and that was not the intent of it at all.
"I think that made a (positive) difference (for female sports), and I think the movie helped as well."
Click card back to enlarge. 
No one who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) will deny the importance of A League of Their Own. Penny Marshall's film "provided us with national recognition," says catcher Jane Moffet, "and it gave people an awareness of the historical significance of the league." Since the movie premiered in July 1992, AAGPBL players have had ballparks named after them, been inducted into state and local halls of fame, and become frequent guests at baseball card shows, softball dinners, and school assemblies. - from the National Baseball Hall of Fame
Miss Jane Moffet makes two appearances in the CBS Sunday Morning piece below.
At around 1:48 you will find her in the back row wearing a navy blue windbreaker & glasses.
At around 5:22 you will find her in the same windbreaker & wearing sunglasses. 😎👍⚾️
All American Girls Professional Baseball League YouTube Videos
The AAGPBL Logo © is protected under copyright laws and any use, in whole or in part, without the expressed written consent
of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League Player's Association Inc. or Major League Baseball is strictly prohibited.
The AAGPBL Logo is used with the expressed verbal consent of Jane Moffet, Past President, Former Director - Board of Directors of the AAGPBL Player's Association.
Our Miss Moffet told me in person that I did not need to request consent in writing. :)