Catherine Bennett (born September 4, 1920) was a Canadian pitcher who played from through 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 ...

. Listed at 5' 5", 120 lb., she batted and threw right-handed. A native of Regina, Saskatchewan Bennett was one of the original players to join the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League for its inaugural season. During World War II, Wrigley was in charge both of the Wrigley Company and the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...

Major League Baseball club. Wrigley decided to found the league as a promotional sideline to maintain interest in baseball as the military draft was depleting Major League rosters of first-line players. Wrigley had scouts all over the United States, Canada and even Cuba signing girls for tryouts. About 500 girls attended the call. Of these, only 280 were invited to the final tryouts at Wrigley Field in Chicago, where 60 were chosen to become the first women to ever play professional baseball. The league started in 1943 with four teams: the Kenosha Comets,

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 ...

, Rockford Peaches 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 ...

. Each team was made up of fifteen girls. Bennett survived the final cut and was assigned to Kenosha. In her first season, Bennett divided her playing time between Kenosha and South Bend, recording ten consecutive losses to set a league mark. The next year, she improved to a 14–9 record with the Blue Sox. The league folded in . It was a neglected chapter of sports history, at least until , when a permanent display was inaugurated at the

Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-re ...

Cooperstown, New York Cooperstown is a village in and 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 the C ...

, which is dedicated to the entire league rather than any individual figure. After that, filmmaker Penny Marshall premiered her

1992 film Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since the ...

'' A League of Their Own'', a

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...

al history centered on the first season of the AAGPBL. Starring Geena Davis, Tom Hanks,

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

, Lori Petty and Rosie O'Donnell, this film brought a rejuvenated interest to the extinct league. Bennett and 63 other girls who represented Canada in the AAGPBL form part of the aforementioned display at Cooperstown. They also gained induction into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in .Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
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Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bennett, Catherine 1920 births All-American Girls Professional Baseball League players Baseball people from Saskatchewan Baseball pitchers Canadian expatriate baseball players in the United States Kenosha Comets players Possibly living people South Bend Blue Sox players Sportspeople from Regina, Saskatchewan