Anna Mae O'Dowd (April 26, 1929 – December 26, 2018) was an American baseball player in the

All-American Girls Professional Baseball League The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) was a professional women's baseball league founded by Philip K. Wrigley, which existed from 1943 to 1954. The AAGPBL is the forerunner of women's professional league sports in the Uni ...

from 1949 to 1951. She both batted and threw

right-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to and causing it to be stronger, faster or more Fine motor skill, dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dext ...

Baseball career

Between 1949 and 1951, Anna played professional baseball for five teams: the

Kenosha Comets The Kenosha Comets were a women's professional baseball team based in Kenosha, Wisconsin that played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The team played their home games at Kenosha's Lake Front Stadium, but l ...

(in 1949), 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 ...

(also in 1949), the

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 ...

and 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 F ...

(in 1950), and a year later, in 1951, for the Battle Creek Belles. According to fellow player Lois Balchunas (Bellman), "Anna Mae O'Dowd was a catcher and was she good." What was great for Anna about her professional baseball career—apart from participating in the game—was the travel. She had never left the Chicago area and was delighted to be able to travel so much. During her three years as a catcher for the league, she visited 27 different states. Once she left the league, later on in life, she played fast pitch

softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...

with the Bloomer Girls of the

National Girls Baseball League The National Girls Baseball League (NGBL) was a professional women's baseball league which existed from 1944 to 1954, with teams based in Chicago, Illinois. The National Girls Baseball League started a year after the All-American Girls Professio ...

in Chicago. They would play at night, which meant she could still work during the day.

Personal life and death

Anna Mae O'Dowd was born in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, on April 26, 1929. In 1992, once she had retired, Anna played

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

and

pickleball Pickleball is a racket or paddle sport in which two or four players use a smooth-faced paddle to hit a perforated, hollow plastic ball over a net until one side is unable to return the ball or commits a rule infraction. Pickleball is played i ...

. She still had the travel bug and visited many parts of the country. One of these trips was in 2006 when she went to

Cooperstown Cooperstown is a village in and the county seat of Otsego County, New York, United States. Most of the village lies within the town of Otsego, but some of the eastern part is in the town of Middlefield. Located at the foot of Otsego Lake in ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, where she attended the unveiling of the

AAGPBL The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) was a professional women's baseball league founded by Philip K. Wrigley, which existed from 1943 to 1954. The AAGPBL is the forerunner of women's professional league sports in the Un ...

batter commemorative statue, in honour of the League. O'Dowd died on December 26, 2018, at the age of 89.

Career statistics

Sources

1. AAGPBL 2. Daily Herald

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:ODowd, Anna Mae 1929 births 2018 deaths All-American Girls Professional Baseball League players National Girls Baseball League players 21st-century American women American women baseball players