Girls of Summer: In Their Own League (26 page)

The League champion or pennant winner was the team that topped the standings at the end of the regular season. The play-off champion was the team that won the post season play-offs.

Hi. I hope you have enjoyed
Girls of Summer
and that you have a sense that you met the women who played professional baseball in the American Midwest for more than a decade. Many of those who appear in the book have now passed on. Because of the renewed recognition that came to them late in life, you can find more information about them on the Internet. You can also visit my
Girls of Summer
page at
intheirownleague.wordpress.com
and sign up for my blog
. I'm dipping into the research I did on the League and sharing what I find.

You can also connect with me online at:

Twitter
: 
http://twitter.com/loislmb

Goodreads:
 
http://www.goodreads.com/loislmb

Facebook:  
http://www.facebook.com/loislmb

When I first heard about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, I was a researcher at CTV’s public affairs program,
W5
. At my suggestion, the program covered a reunion that former League players were holding in Saskatchewan.

V
iewers loved it, and it was from my work as researcher on that piece that I had the chance to write this book. Since then, everyone I’ve spoken to about the League has been encouraging and interested in the book’s progress.

I would like to thank:
  my friends and colleagues at CTV’s
W5
, particularly Pam Bertrand, for the great job she did producing the segment on the All-American League reunion; Stan and Nancy Colbert of HarperCollins Canada who saw the
W5
piece and liked it enough to suggest I write a book; to the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League who made time for me, with special thanks to Arleene Johnson Noga in Regina, Fran Janssen in South Bend, Indiana, Dorothy Ferguson Key in Rockford, Illinois, Marilyn Jenkins and Earlene “Beans” Risinger in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Helen Nicol Fox in Phoenix, Arizona; and to all the others who were helpful: Lou Arnold, Mary Baker, Arnold Bauer, Marge Callaghan, Faye Dancer, Judy Dusanko, Thelma “Tiby” Eisen, Madeline English, Merrie Fidler, Don Key, Harold Greiner, Dorothy Harrell Doyle, Irene Hickson, Dorothy Hunter, Lillian Jackson, Christine Jewett Beckett, Betsy Jochum, Daisy and Dave Junor, Dorothy Kamenshek, Sohie Kurys, Fred Leo, Mildred Lundahl, Elizabeth Mahon, Ruby Knezovich Martz, Lucille Moore, Carl Orwant, Lavone “Pepper” Davis, Janet Perkins, Mary Rountree, Doris Satterfield, Yolands, Schick, Dorothy Schroeder, Ken Sells, Mary Shastal, Twila Shively, Betty Tucker, Alice Udall (daughter of Bill Allington), Sue Waddell, Joanne Winter, Connie Wisniewski, Alma “Gabby” Ziegler and Jethro Kyle, curator of the Sports Research Department, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana; and to my friends who encouraged me, with special thanks to Johanna Brand and Lin Gibson whose support and good advice were invaluable to me.