Betty Tucker
| Betty Tucker | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| All-American Girls Professional Baseball League | |
| Pitcher | |
| Born: January 28, 1924 Detroit, Michigan |
|
| Batted: right | Threw: right |
| Professional debut | |
| 1946 | |
| Last professional appearance | |
| 1949 | |
| Teams | |
|
|
| Career highlights and awards | |
| Member of the American | |
 Baseball Hall of Fame |
|
| Inducted | 1988 Entire AAGPBL Induction |
Elizabeth Tucker [Betty] (born January 28, 1924) is a former female pitcher who played from 1946 through 1949 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5' 4", 123 lb., she batted and threw right-handed.[1]
A native of Detroit, Michigan, Tucker received an invitation in 1946 to participate in the AAGPBL spring training held at Pascagoula, Mississippi. After making the league tryout, she was allocated to the Peoria Redwings.[2][3]
A hard-thrower underhand pitcher, Tucker struggled through the many stages of the league, including shifting from underhand (1946) to sidearm (1947) to overhand (1948) pitching, although she hurled on awful expansion teams that did not give her much run support. After a year in Peoria, she opened 1947 with the Fort Wayne Daisies and then found herself on the move again, this time to the Rockford Peaches and then the Grand Rapids Chicks. The next year she joined the Chicago Colleens, and returned to the Redwings in 1949, her last AAGPBL season. After that, she pitched in 1950 for the Rockola Chicks of the rival National Girls Baseball League, which was based in Chicago, and remained underhand pitching through 1953. At the time, many AAGPBL players also joined the NGBL because of better salaries and in some cases for not being on the road as much was also important.[2][4][5]
The AAGPBL folded in 1954, but there is now a permanent display at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at Cooperstown, New York since November 5, 1988 that honors those who were part of this unique experience. Betty Tucker and the rest of the girls finally received the recognition they deserved, when the entire AAGPBL is now enshrined in the Hall rather than any individual player.
Tucker currently lives in Tucson, Arizona.[6]
[edit] Sources
- ^ AAGPBL – Player Page
- ^ a b "All-American Girls Professional Baseball League History". http://www.aagpbl.org/league/history.cfm.
- ^ All-American Girls Professional Baseball League – All-Time Players Roster
- ^ AAGPBL Rules of Play
- ^ Extinct Sports Leagues
- ^ The Ultimate Celebrity Address & Phone Book: Autograph Collecting & Media Guide – Cord G. Coslor. Publisher: Lulu Press, 2004. Format: Paperback, 400pp. Language: English. ISBN 1411617533
|
|||||
