Claire Joan Schillace (March 29, 1921 – January 17, 1999) was a center fielder who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5' 3", 128 lb., she batted

right-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjecti ...

and threw

left-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subject ...

AAGPBL career

A native of

Melrose Park, Illinois Melrose Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is a suburb of Chicago. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 24,796. Melrose Park had long been home to a large Italian-American population. The suburb was the home o ...

, Schillace attended

Northern Illinois University Northern Illinois University (NIU) is a public research university in DeKalb, Illinois. It was founded as Northern Illinois State Normal School on May 22, 1895, by Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld as part of an expansion of the state's system ...

. She played softball in a Chicago league and was a member of the

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

state and Chicago city championship teams. She impressed the AAGPBL

scouts Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement employing the Scout method, a program of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activities, including camping, woodcraft, aquatics, hiking, backpack ...

with her speedy baserunning and fielding skills. After receiving a tryout invitation, she became one of the first four players signed by the league for its inaugural season, joining

Ann Harnett Ann S. Harnett ( Solowey, August 10, 1920 – 1974) was a female utility player who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5' 6", 139 lb., Harnett batted and threw right-handed. She was born in ...

Shirley Jameson Shirley Jameson (March 29, 1918 – December 29, 1993) was an American center fielder who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 4' 10¾" (1.49 m), 104 lb. (47 k), Jameson batted right-handed a ...

and

Edythe Perlick Edythe Perlick '' die' (December 12, 1922 – February 27, 2003) was a left fielder who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at , 128 lb., she batted and threw right-handed. Overview profile P ...

. Schillace spent four years in the league, all with 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 ...

. She had an outstanding rookie season, hitting a career-high .251

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

, being selected to the All-Star Team, and as member of the 1943 Belles Championship Team. During her career, she posted a .202 average and stole 153 bases. Following her baseball career, Schillace completed her studies and earned a master's degree in education. After being married, she changed her name to Claire Schillace Donahoe. She and her husband had four children, three boys and a girl. For many years she worked as an educator in Maryland.''Encyclopedia of Women and Baseball'' - Leslie A. Heaphy, Mel Anthony May. Publisher: McFarland & Company, 2006. Format: Paperback, 438 pp. Language: English. Claire served as a consultant for ''

A League of Their Own ''A League of Their Own'' is a 1992 American sports comedy-drama film directed by Penny Marshall that tells a fictionalized account of the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). The film stars Tom Hanks, Geena ...

'', the 1992 film about the AAGPBL starring

Geena Davis Virginia Elizabeth "Geena" Davis (born January 21, 1956) is an American actor

and Madonna, both of whom were novices to the sport. At one point, director

Penny Marshall Carole Penny MarshallBorn Carole Penny Marshall in 1943, as per ''My Mother Was Nuts, a Memoir'', p. 10; . Copyright 2012 (October 15, 1943 – December 17, 2018) was an American actress, director and producer. She is known for her role as ...

told Claire to teach Madonna "everything you know about baseball in a half an hour".

Milestones

In November 1988, Claire, along with her current teammates and opponents were dedicated in the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York with a permanent display to the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. Claire died in

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in ...

at the age of 77, following complications from a

blood clot A thrombus (plural thrombi), colloquially called a blood clot, is the final product of the blood coagulation step in hemostasis. There are two components to a thrombus: aggregated platelets and red blood cells that form a plug, and a mesh of ...

References

External links

AAGPBL Player Page1943 Racine Belles
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schillace, Claire All-American Girls Professional Baseball League players Baseball players from Illinois Northern Illinois University alumni Sportspeople from Illinois 1921 births 1999 deaths People from Melrose Park, Illinois Racine Belles (1943–1950) players 20th-century American women 20th-century American people