Dorothy Wiltse "Dottie" Collins (September 23, 1923 – August 12, 2008) was an American professional baseball pitcher for 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 1944 to 1948 and 1950. Collins played her rookie season (1944) for the

Minneapolis Millerettes The Minneapolis Millerettes were an expansion All-American Girls Professional Baseball League team that played for one season in 1944 based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Millerettes played home games at Nicollet Park, home of the men's minor lea ...

and spent the rest of her career with the

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 ...

. Known as the "Strikeout Queen," she set multiple

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 Uni ...

records throughout her career and led the league with her

winning percentage In sports, a winning percentage is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. The statistic is commonly used in standings or rankings to compare teams or individuals. It is defined as wins divided by the total number of match ...

fielding percentage In baseball statistics, fielding percentage, also known as fielding average, is a measure that reflects the percentage of times a defensive player properly handles a batted or thrown ball. It is calculated by the sum of putouts and assists, div ...

, and

strikeouts 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 ...

. Collins helped form the All-American Girls Professional Baseball league Players Association in 1987 and held many different positions during her tenure with the association. The

(AAGPBL) had over 500 women's baseball players from the years 1943 to 1954. With only a few exceptions, baseball games were played extremely similarly compared to the games

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB) players would play in.

Philip Wrigley Philip Knight Wrigley (December 5, 1894 – April 12, 1977), often called P. K. Wrigley, was an American chewing gum manufacturer and a Major League Baseball executive, inheriting both of those roles as the quiet son of his much more flamboyant fa ...

, owner of 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 ...

, started the League in 1943 because he thought fans would forget about

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

because of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The League's seasons would go from May to about mid-September. The players were paid between $55 and $150 per week for a 125-game season, where they would play almost every day with many doubleheaders on the weekends.

Early years

Wiltse Collins, born September 23, 1923 in

Inglewood, California Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 107,762. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. The city is in the South Bay ...

, was the only child of Daniel Emerson Wiltse and Eleanor Camille Runswick. Her father was a

Standard Oil Company Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-f ...

welder and former semipro baseball player in the

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

area and her mother was of an English-German-Italian background. On her father's side, Collins had a couple of distant relatives who played professional baseball in the MLB. Starting at a very young age, Collins's love of baseball was always reinforced with positivity. Collins's father was her biggest role model in her baseball career. Every day once she got home from school, she would wait for her dad to get home from work so they could play catch in the

backyard A backyard, or back yard (known in the United Kingdom as a back garden or just garden), is a yard at the back of a house, common in suburban developments in the Western world. In Australia, until the mid-20th century, the back yard of a pro ...

. Her father built a backstop in their backyard where they would practice a lot, but sometimes they would go to the school's

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

field to provide more of a challenge for Collins. Along with practicing with her father and playing on softball teams, Collins was able to participate on a co-ed baseball team throughout

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

. Collins's sports career really started at the age of 9 when she became a bat girl for the Mark C. Bloome softball team, part of the Los Angeles' parks department softball league. While working as a bat girl during a bad game in 1935, the manager of the Mark C. Bloome softball team pulled Collins away from her bat girl job and placed her on the

pitcher's 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 refers ...

in front of thousands of fans at

Wrigley Field (Los Angeles) Wrigley Field was a ballpark in Los Angeles, California. It hosted minor league baseball teams in the region for more than 30 years. It was the home park for the minor league Los Angeles Angels during their run in the Pacific Coast League, as we ...

. Collins was able to pitch the team to a victory at 11 years old. As she got older, Collins was not able to play

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

because school related sports were not allowed for girls during this time period. But she continued to play softball for the Mark C. Bloome softball team, as well as for the Goodrich Silvertown team. Collins graduated from Inglewood High School in 1941 and started working as a

receptionist A receptionist is an employee taking an office or administrative support position. The work is usually performed in a waiting area such as a lobby or front office desk of an organization or business. The title ''receptionist'' is attributed to ...

for Payne Furnace very soon after graduating. Once the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

entered into

, they mandated blackouts across the country, so many softball games had to be canceled. When the games were cancelled, Collins worked in a local

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...

manufacturing airplane parts.

Professional baseball

In 1944,

Bill Allington William Baird Allington (October 26, 1903 – August 17, 1966) was an American minor league baseball player and manager. Listed at 5' 9" and 160 pounds, Allington batted and threw right-handed. He was born in St. Clair County, Michigan. ...

, Collins's former manager for her softball teams growing up, recommended that she try out for the

(AAGPBL). Along with choosing Collins, Allington hand-picked five other girls from

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

to try out for the AAGPBL. That spring, Collins got on a train in

and made her way to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

to try out for the League. Tryouts were very competitive, but all six of the 'California girls' ended up making it onto some of the League's teams. The fact that all six of the California girls made it into the League goes along with the idea that they were often described as having a lot of confidence and sometimes were even seen as cocky. Over the course of Collins's career, the AAGPBL switched their pitching styles form underhand, to sidearm, and eventually settled on the overhand pitch. One of Collins's softball coaches was very surprised that she could throw a

curveball In baseball and softball, the curveball is a type of pitch thrown with a characteristic grip and hand movement that imparts forward spin to the ball, causing it to dive as it approaches the plate. Varieties of curveball include the 12–6 curve ...

underhanded, because he had never seen any other pitcher do that with a

. Relying on her wicked curveball, Collins was able to

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 ...

over 200 batters her first four seasons in the League.

Minneapolis Millerettes (1944)

In their first and only season, the Millerettes only won 44 games. Halfway through the season, Minneapolis' owner decided to not disband the team, but to finish out the season by only playing away games. The team members became known as 'the Orphans' as they lived in hotels to finish out the 1944 season. Minneapolis' manager, Bill Allington, the man who recruited Collins into the AAGPBL, was described as being very intense but also very caring towards his players. One example of this is when Collins fell in the dugout and broke her

tailbone The coccyx ( : coccyges or coccyxes), commonly referred to as the tailbone, is the final segment of the vertebral column in all apes, and analogous structures in certain other mammals such as horses. In tailless primates (e.g. humans and othe ...

without knowing it. When Collins went out to pitch in pain, Allington came out to ask what was wrong and made sure that she got to the

hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emerge ...

and was taken care of. One of Collins's best games with the Millerettes was on June 17. She led the team against 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 ...

and held them hitless for 10 2/3 innings, but the Millerettes ended up losing the game after 15

innings An innings is one of the divisions of a cricket match during which one team takes its turn to bat. Innings also means the period in which an individual player bats (acts as either striker or nonstriker). Innings, in cricket, and rounders, is bot ...

. Although the team did not do well as a whole, Collins was able to pitch a 20–16 record in her rookie season. Collins had a league-high 205

s, but also set an

record for hitting 44

batter Batter or batters may refer to: Common meanings * Batter (cooking), thin dough that can be easily poured into a pan * Batter (baseball), person whose turn it is to face the pitcher * Batter (cricket), a player who is currently batting * Batter ...

s. The Minneapolis Millerettes' main problem was where they were located on the map. The team was 400 miles away from the closest League town, which was 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 ...

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

. When scheduling,

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

games were seen as a nightmare because the visiting teams would arrive to the

stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

'surly and exhausted'. Also, it was thought that the League's teams could not last longer in bigger cities, like Minneapolis. Smaller cities were thought to be better for the League. In 1945, the Minneapolis Millerettes were adopted by

Fort Wayne, Indiana Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 Censu ...

and became the Daisies.

Fort Wayne Daisies (1945–1948 and 1950)

After Minneapolis was picked up by Fort Wayne in 1945, Collins had her best season as lead

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 ...

. In the 1945 season, Collins pitched 345

total and had a record of 29–10. She also had an

single-season record of 293

s as well as 17

shutouts In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

throughout the whole season. She pitched two

no-hitter In baseball, a no-hitter is a game in which a team was not able to record a hit. Major League Baseball (MLB) officially defines a no-hitter as a completed game in which a team that batted in at least nine innings recorded no hits. A pitcher wh ...

s in 17 days and had 111 base-on-balls, also known as

walk Walking (also known as ambulation) is one of the main gaits of terrestrial locomotion among legged animals. Walking is typically slower than running and other gaits. Walking is defined by an 'inverted pendulum' gait in which the body vaults ov ...

s. Collins ended the season with a 0.83

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. Compa ...

and a 0.744

, which was tied for league best. In their first year in the League, the Daisies almost won the championship. At one point, the

were even described as being similar to the famous

Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...

because they recruited the most talented players and dominated the league. In the 1946 season, Collins, now pitching under her married name, Collins, won 22 games and struck out 294 batters, which was another record. In the 1947 season, Collins won 20 more games and led all AAGPBL pitchers with a 0.965

. At the beginning of the 1948 season, Collins announced her intention to retire at the end of the season to focus on

motherhood ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of gestati ...

, but ended up immediately retiring in mid-July. After taking the 1949 season off to raise her daughter and work, Collins returned to the League for the 1950 season. In the 1950 season, she had an ERA of 3.46 and a winning percentage of 0.619. She ended the season with a 13–8 record. At the end of the 1950 baseball season, Collins decided to permanently retire from the game of baseball.

Player's support

Many people were very big fans of Collins. Many Fort Wayne Daisy fans would ask her for

autograph An autograph is a person's own handwriting or signature. The word ''autograph'' comes from Ancient Greek (, ''autós'', "self" and , ''gráphō'', "write"), and can mean more specifically: Gove, Philip B. (ed.), 1981. ''Webster's Third New Inter ...

s and local

florists Floristry is the production, commerce, and trade in flowers. It encompasses flower care and handling, floral design and arrangement, merchandising, production, display and flower delivery. Wholesale florists sell bulk flowers and related sup ...

would even send her flowers every time she pitched a

shutout In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

. One fan even made Collins's daughter a mini pink Daisy uniform. Collins eventually donated this uniform to the Northern Indiana Historical Society in

South Bend, Indiana South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River (Lake Michigan), St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 United S ...

, which has the largest collection of

memorabilia A souvenir (), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collected or purchased and transported home by the traveler as a m ...

. After Collins had gotten married, her husband Harvey would bring carloads of friends to away games to support her. Once Collins came back to baseball after having her daughter, Patricia, her teammates, husband, and mother-in-law were all very supportive of her. Collins's mother-in-law would sit with Patty on her lap in the stands to watch her games.

Personal life

On August 28, 1945, Collins pitched and won both games of a doubleheader against the

. After watching both baseball games, Harvey Collins, who had spent four years in the

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

during

, mentioned to his friend that he wanted to meet Dottie. Harvey's friend arranged for him to deliver

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

to the apartment that she shared with five other players. Harvey asked Dottie out on a golf date for the next day, and she accepted. On March 10, 1946, Harvey Collins and Dottie got married and would be together for over 50 years. After getting married, Collins continued to pitch very well. While four-months pregnant during the 1948 season, Collins finally decided to bench herself in the middle of the first game of a doubleheader. Harvey and Dottie's first child, Patricia, was born on December 22, 1948. Harvey and Dottie's second child, Daniel, was born on March 18, 1954.

Retirement

After retiring from baseball in 1950, Collins started working for

General Electric Company The General Electric Company (GEC) was a major British industrial conglomerate involved in consumer and defence electronics, communications, and engineering. The company was founded in 1886, was Britain's largest private employer with over 250 ...

in Fort Wayne, Indiana. After her son Daniel was born in 1954, Collins started playing

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

quite often. She won the Fort Wayne All-City Golf Championship twice, and even was able to share the trophy one time with her husband Harvey. Collins was not able to stay away from sports for very long after she retired, and she soon started working part-time while also raising her family. She worked for Vim's Sporting Goods, and enjoyed helping young baseball players find the right bat for them, and then worked for The Baseball Blue Book, which is where all of the records for

were kept. Collins was also very active in her community by promoting youth sports through the Elks Club in

Fort Wayne Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 Censu ...

during the late 1950s, into the 1960s and 1970s. She organized beginning and intermediate level golf games for children and also helped coordinate a children's

bowling league A bowling league is a group event where several teams bowl against each other over the course of a season. Most bowling leagues consist of four-player teams that meet up once a week or once every other week, usually at the same day and time. Teams ...

. Although these sports that Collins helped promote and coordinate were for both boys and girls, they especially benefitted girls because there were very few sports options for girls to play during this time period.

Baseball in retirement

In the year 1982, the AAGPBL had their first reunion in over 30 years. All of the women met in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, where they had all traveled to try out for the League. In 1987, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association was formed in

. The Player's Association was formed mainly by Collins reaching out and locating former League players. Collins served as the

treasurer A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance. Government The treasury o ...

and newsletter editor for 9 years, as well as being a spokesperson for the Association. Along with helping for the Players Association, Collins also helped open the "Women in Baseball" exhibit at the

Baseball Hall of Fame 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-r ...

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 ...

, in 1988. Fittingly, Collins was able to open the curtain for the new exhibit in

Cooperstown 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 ...

. The

exhibit as well as a documentary about the

was inspiring for actress and 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 ...

. In 1992, Marshall decided to create the movie ''

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 Dav ...

'', partially inspired by Collins's life and career. Collins was able to serve as a technical director on the set and helped make sure authenticity was being kept, especially when actual

was being played. In 1999, Collins became one of the first two women to be included into the Fort Wayne Baseball Hall of Fame.

Death

Collins died on August 12, 2008 at the age of 84. Her cause of death was a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

according to her son-in-law. Collins left a lasting legacy for female athletes, especially female baseball players. She was described as being a fine ballplayer who embodied the

's ideal of

athleticism Athletics is a term encompassing the human competitive sports and games requiring physical skill, and the systems of training that prepare athletes for competition performance. Athletic sports or contests are competitions which are primarily based ...

combined with

femininity Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as socially constructed, and there is also some evidence that some behaviors considered fe ...

. Collins's star shone on and off the field during her playing career, which was shone with all of her promotion and organization over the years.

References

External links

All-American Girls Professional Baseball League official website profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, Dottie Wiltse All-American Girls Professional Baseball League players 1923 births 2008 deaths Baseball players from Inglewood, California 20th-century American women 20th-century American people 21st-century American women