Elsie "Earl" Wingrove (September 26, 1923 – July 13, 2016) was a Canadian
outfielder
An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...
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' 6", 130 lb. she batted and threw right-handed.
Born in
Saskatoon
Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...
,
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...
, Elsie Wingrove was one of the 68 players born in Canada to join the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in its twelve-year history.
While growing up on a farm, Wingrove learned to play
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 ...
with her two brothers and sister and father. ''Every Sunday the neighbors congregated at our farm; the kids played ball in the pasture, the men played horseshoes in the laneway and the ladies picked fruit from our garden'', she recalled in an interview. At age nine, she joined the girl's adult team. She later had the opportunity to play multiple sports at high school, including
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...
,
track and field
Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...
,
curling
Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding ...
and
fastpitch softball
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 ...
, while also playing five-pin bowling in a commercial league.
After high school, Wingrove was employed as a bank teller and attended Saskatoon Technical College, where she played for its softball team, the Saskatoon Pats. In 1946, during Western league fastball playoffs, she was spotted by an AAGPBL talent
scout
Scout may refer to:
Youth movement
*Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement
**Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom
**Scouts BSA, sectio ...
spring training
Spring training is the preseason in Major League Baseball (MLB), a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for Schedule (workplace), roster and position spo ...
, but was loaned out to the Fort Wayne Daisies for a few weeks during her rookie season. After returning to Grand Rapids, she became part of the championship squad in the 1947 season.The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball LeagueEncyclopedia of Women and Baseball
A light-hitting, good defensive player, Wingrove was able to fill in at all outfield positions, mainly at
center field
A center fielder, abbreviated CF, is the outfielder in baseball who plays defense in center field – the Baseball positions, baseball and softball fielding position between Left fielder, left field and Right fielder, right field. In the numberi ...
, compiling a .181 career
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, ...
in 119 games, while committing only seven errors in 147 fielding chances for a solid .952
percentage
In mathematics, a percentage (from la, per centum, "by a hundred") is a number or ratio expressed as a fraction of 100. It is often denoted using the percent sign, "%", although the abbreviations "pct.", "pct" and sometimes "pc" are also us ...
. ''I always had a desire to hit a ball over the wall at Grand Rapids. The closest I came was hitting the wall'', she explained.
״Windy״, as her teammates called her, married immigration officer Russell Earl in 1948, which spelled an end to her playing career. She raised two boys, Norman and Gary, and became a customs broker. She also helped her husband
coach
Coach may refer to:
Guidance/instruction
* Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities
* Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process
** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers
Transportation
* Co ...
Little League Baseball
Little League Baseball and Softball (officially, Little League Baseball Inc) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizationAAGPBL Players Association reunions with her spouse.
The association was largely responsible for the opening of ''Women in Baseball'', a permanent display based 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 ...
in
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 ...