Clara Ruth Cook �Babe״(June 19, 1921 – July 23, 1996) was a

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 ...

who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at , 130 lb., she batted and threw left-handed. A

fastpitch Fastpitch softball, also known as fastpitch or fastball, is a form of softball played by both women and men. While the teams are most often segregated by sex, coed fast-pitch leagues also exist. Fast pitch is considered the most competitive for ...

left hander, Clara Cook was one of the sixty founding members of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League for its inaugural season in

1943 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Soviet Union announces that 22 German divisions have been encircled at Stalingrad, with 175,000 killed and 137,650 captured. * January 4 ...

. Cook spent two seasons in the AAGPBL with three different teams, including the championship team in

1944 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 2 – WWII: ** Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command French Army B, part of the Sixth United States Army Group in Nor ...

. Born in

Pine City, New York Pine City is a hamlet located in Chemung County, New York, United States. The population was 5,220 at the 2000 census. There is a post office there. History Mount Saviour Monastery was added to the National Register of Historic Places ...

, Clara was the youngest of eleven children into the family of John H. and Clara B. Cook. This is why she was called "Babe" most of the time. She spent her schooling days at Pine City School, but after school she accustomed to play baseball with her brothers. She later moved with her family to Elmira, New York. In the early thirties, a

Remington Rand Remington Rand was an early American business machine manufacturer, originally a typewriter manufacturer and in a later incarnation the manufacturer of the UNIVAC line of mainframe computers. Formed in 1927 following a merger, Remington Rand w ...

employee named Riley saw Clara while playing

sandlot ball Sandlot ball or sandlot baseball is a competitive and athletic sports game that follows the basic rules and procedures of baseball. It is often less organized and structured, as the name alludes to a makeshift field or an empty lot. History and ...

with her brothers and some friends. He found out who she was and went to her home and asked her parents if she could play on the Rand baseball team. At first, her parents asked her if she would like to play baseball for an organized team, and she replied affirmatively. Clara was excited, as she had a great love for playing ball, and only being 13 years old, she knew this was a great opportunity. Then her parents gave her full permission to play ball, and Mr. Riley accordingly brought her to and from the games. After graduating from Southside High School, Cook went to work at the Remington Rand plant, where she also helped organize friends to play ball for the company. She was spotted by an AAGPBL scout in one of those friendly matches. He invited her to join the new league, and after a tryout, she signed her official contract to play in the inaugural season of the league. Cook entered the league in

with the

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 ...

, playing for them in part of the season before joining 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 Kenosha's Lake Front Stadium, but l ...

. But she did not have much success on the

pitching mound A baseball field, also called a ball field or baseball diamond, is the field upon which the game of baseball is played. The term can also be used as a metonym for a baseball park. The term sandlot is sometimes used, although this usually refer ...

. She posted a composite record of 6–17 in 30 games, allowing more runs (177, 100 earned) than any other pitcher to finish with a 4.42

ERA An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

. A hard worker, she pitched 203 innings for the ninth-best mark in the league. Cook opened 1944 with Kenosha, but was traded to the

Milwaukee Chicks The Milwaukee Chicks were a women's professional baseball team which played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during the season. They were managed by Max Carey, former star player for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Brooklyn Robi ...

during the midseason. That year she was converted into a

reliever In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed because of fatigue, ineffectiveness, injury, or ejection, or for other strategic reasons, such as inclement weather ...

and pitched better, going 2–2 with a 3.40 ERA in 45 innings of work. She was ready to help the Chicks in the playoffs. Milwaukee defeated the

in the best-of-seven series, and it took all seven games for the Chicks to be declared the champion team. Cook gave up an unearned run over one inning and did not have a decision.1944 Milwaukee Chicks
Retrieved 2019-03-28.''All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Record Book'' At the end of the season, Cook returned to Elmira and to Remington Rand. She worked in there until 1955, when

Sperry Corporation Sperry Corporation was a major American equipment and electronics company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the 20th century. Sperry ceased to exist in 1986 following a prolonged hostile takeover bid engineered by Burroug ...

acquired the Elmira's plant and renamed itself

Sperry Rand Sperry Corporation was a major American equipment and electronics company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the 20th century. Sperry ceased to exist in 1986 following a prolonged hostile takeover bid engineered by Burroug ...

. She then moved to

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

and worked at an aircraft company until she retired. After returning home, Cook continued to encourage and organize teams in Elmira. She also helped by

coaching Coaching is a form of development in which an experienced person, called a ''coach'', supports a learner or client in achieving a specific personal or professional goal by providing training and guidance. The learner is sometimes called a ''coa ...

young women interested in pitching. In 1975, Cook was inducted into the Metro-Elmira Sports Hall of Fame. She is also part of ''Women in Baseball'', a permanent display based at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, which was unveiled in 1988 to honor the entire All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Clara Cook died in Elmira, New York, at the age of 75. She was buried in the Webb Mills Cemetery, along with her parents.

Career statistics

Pitching Batting Fielding

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cook, Clara All-American Girls Professional Baseball League players Rockford Peaches players Kenosha Comets players Grand Rapids Chicks players Baseball players from New York (state) 1921 births 1996 deaths Sportspeople from Elmira, New York People from Chemung County, New York 20th-century American women 20th-century American people