Lillian Margaret Jean Hickey (8 September 1922 – 25 September 1965) 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 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 ...

. She batted and threw right handed. Born in 1922 in

Nelson, British Columbia Nelson is a city located in the Selkirk Mountains on the West Arm of Kootenay Lake in the Southern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. Known as "The Queen City", and acknowledged for its impressive collection of restored heritage buildings f ...

,Nelson native played big league ball
''Nelson Star News''. Lillian Hickey was one of the sixty eight girls from Canada who came to play baseball in the All-American League during its 12-year history.The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Official Website
/ref> At age 13, Lillian started playing senior

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 ...

for the Nelson Red Sox, winning the city league batting title in 1941. In between, she played

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

bowled In cricket, the term bowled has several meanings. First, is the act of propelling the ball towards the wicket defended by a batsman. Second, it is a method of dismissing a batsman, by hitting the wicket with a ball delivered by the bowler. (Th ...

for a local team that won the first inter-city ladies five pin tournament, and regularly swam across

Kootenay Lake Kootenay Lake is a lake located in British Columbia, Canada. It is part of the Kootenay River. The lake has been raised by the Corra Linn Dam and has a dike system at the southern end, which, along with industry in the 1950s–70s, has changed ...

, winning several

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 ...

competitions and diving events. Besides, Lillian worked in the Civic Centre manufacturing parts for Boeing's Catalina Bombers during

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

conflict. She then moved to

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. ...

in 1942, where she played ball for the Pacifics team during three seasons. Hickey debuted professionally in 1946 in the All-American League. She appeared in 21 games with 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 Kenosha's Lake Front Stadium, but l ...

, 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 .213 (13-for-61) with three RBI, three runs scored and one

stolen base In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a runner advances to a base to which they are not entitled and the official scorer rules that the advance should be credited to the action of the runner. The umpires determine whether the runner is safe o ...

. Madden, W. C. (2000) ''All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Record Book''. McFarland & Company. In the field, she recorded 11

putout In baseball statistics, a putout (denoted by ''PO'' or '' fly out'' when appropriate) is awarded to a defensive player who (generally while in secure possession of the ball) records an out by one of the following methods: * Tagging a runner wi ...

s with one assist and one

error An error (from the Latin ''error'', meaning "wandering") is an action which is inaccurate or incorrect. In some usages, an error is synonymous with a mistake. The etymology derives from the Latin term 'errare', meaning 'to stray'. In statistics ...

for a .857

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, di ...

. In 1947, she attended the AAGPBL spring training exhibition games held at the Gran Stadium in Havana, Cuba. Afterwards, Hickey worked at the Banff Springs Hotel in

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest T ...

and spent some years in

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

while working on a banana plantation. She returned to Nelson in the early 1950s and was active in the development of the Silver King Ski Hill, then was elected president of the Nelson ski club in 1954. Lillian Hickey died in 1965 in Nelson at the age of 43. Following her death, a ski trophy in her honour was created. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League folded in 1954, but there is a permanent display/exhibit 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 ...

, which was unveiled in 1988 to honor the girls and the league staff rather than any individual figure.Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Official Website
/ref> Then in 1998, Hickey and all Canadian AAGPBL players gained honorary induction into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hickey, Lillian 1922 births 1965 deaths All-American Girls Professional Baseball League players Kenosha Comets players 20th-century Canadian sportswomen Sportspeople from British Columbia People from Nelson, British Columbia 20th-century American sportswomen Canadian expatriates in the United States