Gertrude Ganote (later Weise; February 17, 1920 – February 17, 2006) was an

infielder An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field. Standard arrangement of positions In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns playing offensive and defensive roles. ...

and

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 , 134 lb, Ganote batted and threw left-handed. She was nicknamed "Lefty".Gertrude Weise – Biography / Obituary
''

''; retrieved 2019-04-13. Born in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

, she played softball in the local Girls Athletic Association (GAA) during her high school years. She learned her baseball skills from her father, who was a professional ballplayer. After graduating from Louisville Girls High School, Ganote worked in a printing company. In 1944, she decided to drive from Louisville to

Wrigley Field Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago Wh ...

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

to attend a tryout for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. She was joined in the trip by fellow

Anna Mae Hutchison Anna May Hutchison Hutch"(May 1, 1925 – January 29, 1998) was a female pitcher and catcher who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at , 149 lb., she batted and threw right-handed. Sometimes ...

, who also played with her for the Camera Corner Louisville championship team. Both girls made the final cut. Ganote was assigned to 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 List of defunct amusement parks#Wisc ...

, while Hutchison was allocated 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 ...

.Encyclopedia of Women and Baseball Ganote had some trouble making contact with the bat in her rookie season, as she led the league in most

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 ...

s (60). She batted a low .133

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, ...

, but collected a .229

on-base percentage In baseball statistics, on-base percentage (OBP) measures how frequently a batter reaches base. An official Major League Baseball (MLB) statistic since 1984, it is sometimes referred to as on-base average (OBA), as it is rarely presented as a ...

and stole 24 bases, while posting a pitching record of 4–6 with a solid 3.26

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 ...

. But none of that really mattered, as she committed only 10 errors in 847 fielding chances at first base for a .988

fielding average 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, divi ...

to set a league single-season record. Her record remained intact until 1949, when

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 ...

Dorothy Kamenshek Dorothy "Dottie" "Kammie" Kamenshek (December 21, 1925 – May 17, 2010) was an American All-American Girls Professional Baseball League player. She batted and threw left-handed. Early life A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Kamenshek played outfield ...

set an all-time record with a .995 mark.''All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Record Book'' Kenosha won the first half of the season and faced the second-half winning

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 ...

in the 1944 Scholarship Series. The series went to the limit of seven games and Milwaukee clinched the championship, four to three. Ganote played in all seven games and hit .241 (7-for-29) with two runs and one RBI. Ganote opened 1945 with the

South Bend Blue Sox The South Bend Blue Sox was a women's professional baseball team who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. A founding member, the team represented South Bend, Indiana, and played their home games at Bendix Fi ...

. She hit .192 in 82 games, and went 2–2 with a 4.42 ERA in 10 pitching appearances. During her two years in the AAGPBL, Ganote played excellent defense at

first base A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

and led the circuit in

at her position in 1944. As a batter, she displayed ability to get on base, ran the bases well, and consistently hit

line drive In the sports of baseball and softball, a batted ball is a pitch that has been contacted by the batter's bat. Batted balls are either fair or foul, and can be characterized as a fly ball, pop-up, line drive, or ground ball. In baseball, a fou ...

s. In addition, she served as starter and

long reliever A long reliever or long-relief pitcher is a relief pitcher in baseball who enters the game if the starting pitcher leaves the game early. Long relievers often enter in the first three innings of a game when the starting pitcher cannot continue, w ...

when not playing at first base. W. C. Madden, ''All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Record Book'', McFarland & Company, 2000;

Personal life

In 1946, Ganote remained at home to marry Edward Weise. The couple had a daughter, Linda. She managed to fit in housework while working at

Walgreens Walgreen Company, d/b/a Walgreens, is an American company that operates the second-largest pharmacy store chain in the United States behind CVS Health. It specializes in filling prescriptions, health and wellness products, health information, an ...

for 29 years. Gertrude Ganote Weise 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 in 1988 to honor the entire All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. She died in her native

on her 86th birthday.

Career statistics

;Batting ;Pitching ;Fielding

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ganote, Gertrude All-American Girls Professional Baseball League players Kenosha Comets players South Bend Blue Sox players Baseball players from Louisville, Kentucky 1920 births 2006 deaths 20th-century American women 20th-century American people 21st-century American women