Janet Jacobs (born October 31, 1928) is a former

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball or softball fielding position between second and third base, which is considered to be among the most demanding defensive positions. Historically the position was assigned to defensive specialists wh ...

and center fielder who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during its 1945 season. Listed at 5' 4", 120 lb., Jacobs was a switch hitter who threw

right handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more Fine motor skill, dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or sim ...

. She was dubbed ''Jay Jay'' by her teammates. Madden, W. C. (2005) ''The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: A Biographical Dictionary''. McFarland & Company. Born in Englewood, New Jersey, Jacobs attended

Dwight Morrow High School Dwight Morrow High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school located in Englewood, in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Englewood Public School District. The school also serves students from Engle ...

. She played on the school's varsity baseball team but was forced to quit after a few games after being told by the principal that it was not the way a young lady should act. Jacobs spent a season with 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 ...

club before going on to college. She posted a

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of .170 (17-for-100) in 38 game appearances, driving in seven runs and

scoring Score or scorer may refer to: *Test score, the result of an exam or test Business * Score Digital, now part of Bauer Radio * Score Entertainment, a former American trading card design and manufacturing company * Score Media, a former Canadian m ...

six times, while hitting two homers with eight stolen bases. Afterwards, Jacobs switched to

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

and earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and mone ...

West Lafayette, Indiana West Lafayette () is a city in Wabash Township, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, about northwest of the state capital of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette is directly across the Wabash River from its sister cit ...

. She then married and raised a family of four children. In her spare time, Janet played

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

and competed in the Senior Platform Tennis Championships in the 1980s. She later moved to

Franklin Lakes, New Jersey Franklin Lakes is a borough in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 11,079, an increase of 489 (+4.6%) from the 2010 census count of 10,590, which in turn reflected a ...

. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League folded in 1954, but there is now a permanent display at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at Cooperstown, New York since November 5, 1988 that honors those who were part of this unique experience. Janet, along with the rest of the girls and the league staff, is included at the display/exhibit.Before A League of Their Own
Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Retrieved on September 5, 2016.

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobs, Janet 1928 births Living people All-American Girls Professional Baseball League players Racine Belles (1943–1950) players Baseball players from New Jersey Dwight Morrow High School alumni People from Englewood, New Jersey People from Franklin Lakes, New Jersey Purdue University alumni Sportspeople from Bergen County, New Jersey 21st-century American women