Frances Vukovich (born August 30, 1930) is a former

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 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 , 140 lb., she batted and threw left-handed. She was nicknamed ″Be Bop″. Born in Smithdale, Pennsylvania, Vukovich had not played any organized ball before she attended a tryout for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in the close city of

McKeesport McKeesport is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is situated at the confluence of the Monongahela River, Monongahela and Youghiogheny River, Youghiogheny rivers and within the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The population ...

. She made the grade and was relocated to the

Chicago Colleens The Chicago Colleens were a women's professional baseball team who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League from 1948 to 1951, evolving into a development team. The team was based Chicago, Illinois and played their home gam ...

player development team in 1950, being used as a pitcher because of her good

fastball The fastball is the most common type of pitch thrown by pitchers in baseball and softball. "Power pitchers," such as former American major leaguers Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens, rely on speed to prevent the ball from being hit, and have thro ...

.The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Vukovich posted a 9–9 record in 20 pitching appearances for the Colleens while hitting an

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, ...

of .284 (19-for-67). Her numbers were pretty good and she was promoted to 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 ...

in 1951. But she did not have much of a chance to pitch and was hit hard when she did it. After her brief baseball stint, Vukovich moved to

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

and worked for the

Illinois Bell Illinois Bell Telephone Company, LLC is the Bell Operating Company serving Illinois. It is owned by AT&T through AT&T Teleholdings, formerly Ameritech. Their headquarters are at 225 West Randolph St., Chicago, IL. After the 1984 Bell System Dive ...

telephone company. She later moved to

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' ...

and worked for

Pacific Bell The Pacific Bell Telephone Company (Pacific Bell or Pac Bell) is a telephone company that provides telephone service in California. The company is owned by AT&T through AT&T Teleholdings, and, though separate, is now marketed as “AT&T”. The ...

until retirement in 1988. Following retirement, Vukovich focused much of her time and energy visiting friends and family, playing golf and traveling to reunions of the AAGPBL Players Association. Since 1988 she is part 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 ...

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 was unveiled to honor the entire All-American Girls Professional Baseball League rather than individual baseball personalities. Vukovich currently lives in

North Hollywood, California North Hollywood is a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, located in the San Fernando Valley. The neighborhood contains the NoHo Arts District, the El Portal Theatre, several art galleries, and the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences. The North H ...

.Intelius.com – Francis Vukovich report
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Pitching statistics

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vukovich, Frances 1930 births Living people People from Elizabeth Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Baseball players from Pennsylvania All-American Girls Professional Baseball League players 21st-century American women