The 1951 All-American Girls Professional Baseball League season marked the ninth season of the circuit. The teams Battle Creek Belles,

Fort Wayne Daisies The Fort Wayne Daisies were a women's professional baseball team based in Fort Wayne, Indiana that played from through as members of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. History The Daisies represented Fort Wayne, Indiana, and ...

Grand Rapids Chicks The Grand Rapids Chicks were a women's professional baseball team based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League from 1945 to 1954, winning championships in 1947 and 1953. History The franchise ...

Kalamazoo Lassies The Kalamazoo Lassies were a team who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The team represented Kalamazoo, Michigan. Home games were initially played at Lindstrom Field, but later games were played at the ...

Kenosha Comets Based in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the Kenosha Comets were a women's professional baseball team that played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The team played their home games at List of defunct amusement parks#Wisc ...

Peoria Redwings The Peoria Redwings was a women's professional baseball team who joined the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in the 1946 season and remained in the league through 1951. The team represented Peoria, Illinois, playing home games a ...

Rockford Peaches The Rockford Peaches were a women's professional baseball team who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. A founding member, the team represented Rockford, Illinois. The Peaches were one of two teams to pla ...

and

South Bend Blue Sox The South Bend Blue Sox was a women's professional baseball team who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. A founding member, the team represented South Bend, Indiana, and played their home games at Bendix Fi ...

competed through a 112-game schedule, while the Shaugnessy playoffs featured the top four teams from each half of the regular season. In 1951, many things changed in relation to the previous season, when attendance began to decline dramatically. The

Racine Belles The Racine Belles were one of the original teams of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League playing from through out of Racine, Wisconsin. The Belles won the league's first championship. The team played its home games at Horlick Fi ...

franchise was moved to

Battle Creek, Michigan Battle Creek is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan, in northwest Calhoun County, Michigan, Calhoun County, at the confluence of the Kalamazoo River, Kalamazoo and Battle Creek River, Battle Creek rivers. It is the principal city of the Battle C ...

, while the

Chicago Colleens The Chicago Colleens were a women's professional baseball team who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League from 1948 to 1951, evolving into a development team. The team was based Chicago, Illinois and played their home gam ...

and

Springfield Sallies The Springfield Sallies were a women's professional baseball team who were members of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in the 1948 season and became a development team. The Sallies were based in Springfield, Illinois and played ...

traveling teams were disbanded.

Betty Foss Betty "Fossey" Weaver-Foss (May 10, 1929 – February 8, 1998) was an infielder and outfielder who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at , 180 lb., she was a switch-hitter and threw right-hand ...

of Fort Wayne led all hitters for the second year in a row with a .368

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

, breaking her own single-season record of .346 set in her rookie season. Foss also topped the league with 34 doubles, setting an all-time single-season record that would never be surpassed. Nine

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

s recorded an

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

below 2.00, while

Rose Gacioch Rose M. Gacioch (; August 31, 1915 – September 9, 2004) was a right fielder and pitcher who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.Player of the Year Award Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year (POY) . In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is h ...

was given to South Bend pitcher

Jean Faut Jean Anna Faut insch/Eastman(born November 17, 1925) is an American retired starting pitcher who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at , 137 lb., she batted and threw right-handed. Jean F ...

, who posted a 15–7 record with a 1.33 ERA and a league-leading 135

strikeout In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is deno ...

s, including a

perfect game Perfect game may refer to: Sports * Perfect game (baseball), a complete-game win by a pitcher allowing no baserunners * Perfect game (bowling), a 300 game, 12 consecutive strikes in the same game * Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League, New York ...

against Rockford on July 21 of that season. During the best-of-three series, first-place South Bend defeated third-place Fort Wayne, two games to one, while second-place Grand Rapids swept fourth-place Rockford in two games. South Bend pitching star

drove in a run and held Fort Wayne to a run in Game 1, and later struck out nine batters and allowed one run in Game 3 to advance to the finals. In the other series, Rockford's

Helen Nicol Helen Nicol (later Fox; May 9, 1920 – July 25, 2021) was a Canadian-American baseball pitcher who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Listed at , , Nicol batted and threw right-handed. She was ...

gave up six hits and shut out Grand Rapids in the first contest, while

Marie Mansfield Marie Mansfield

elley Elley may refer to: Geography *German exonym for the village Eleja, Latvia People * Chris Elley (born 1977), founder and current Director of Texas-based film production company Electro-Fish Media LLC * Derek Elley, film critic *Elley Duhé (born ...

(born November 4, 1931) is a former pitcher who played from 1950 in baseball, 1950 through 1954 in baseball, 1954 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at , 140 lb., she batted and threw right ...

hurled a 7–6, 11-inning victory to defeat the Chicks.''All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Record Book'' The final series took all five games to decide the champion team. Rockford held a 2–0 advantage in the series and looked to take it all, but South Bend rebounded and won the last three games to clinch the title. In Game 3, Faut stopped the Peaches in their tracks, pitching a six-hit, 3–2 victory, and picked up the win in a seven-inning

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

effort in Game 5 to continue her winning ways. South Bend batted a collective .275 average in the finals, with

Jane Stoll Jane Stoll ("Jeep") (August 8, 1928 – May 27, 2000) was an outfielder who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5' 2", 135 lb., she batted and threw right-handed. An All-Star and veteran of ...

leading the offense with a .333 average (6-for-18) and six RBI, while Senaida Wirth batted .412 (7-for-17) and scored four runs, and

Betty Wagoner Betty Ann Wagoner (July 15, 1930 – May 9, 2006) was an American baseball player. She was a right fielder and pitcher who played from 1948 through 1954 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at , 110 lb., she bat ...

hit .389 (7-for-18) with five runs. In 1951, the AAGPBL attendance declined for the third straight year. As revenues fell, individual teams' funds were limited to advertise nationally as a way of recruiting scattered baseball talent. With no centralized control of publicity, promotion, rookie training teams, and equalization of player talent, the League began to break down. The Kenosha and Peoria franchises withdrew at the end of the year, leaving the league with six teams for the next season.All-American Girls Professional Baseball League history
/ref>

Standings

First half

Second half

Overall

Postseason

Batting statistics

Pitching statistics

All-Star Game

Sources

External links

AAGPBL Official WebsiteAAGPBL RecordsBaseball Historian filesSABR Projects – Jim Sargent articlesYouTube videos
{{All-American Girls Professional Baseball League All-American Girls Professional Baseball League seasons 1950s in women's baseball All-American Girls Professional Baseball League season All-American Girls Professional Baseball League season