Mary Pratt (November 30, 1918 – May 6, 2020) was a pitcher who played from 1943 through 1947 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 left-handed. Pratt turned 100 in November 2018.

Early life

Pratt was born in

Bridgeport, Connecticut Bridgeport is the List of municipalities in Connecticut, most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the List of cities by population in New England, fifth-most populous ...

, and grew up in

Quincy, Massachusetts Quincy ( ) is a coastal U.S. city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest city in the county and a part of Greater Boston, Metropolitan Boston as one of Boston's immediate southern suburbs. Its population in 2020 was 1 ...

. She attended

North Quincy High School North Quincy High School (NQHS) is a public secondary school located in the North Quincy neighborhood of Quincy, Massachusetts, United States. The school serves grades 9 through 12, and has an enrollment of over 1,200 students. It is one of t ...

. After graduation, she entered Boston University's Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and participated in various sports there, including basketball, softball, volleyball, lacrosse, field hockey, tennis, archery, and sailing. Pratt earned a degree in physical education in 1940..

AAGPBL career

In 1941, Pratt got a job teaching in Quincy. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League formed at around that time, and after the school year ended in 1943, Pratt joined the league as a member of the

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 ...

. She played in 24 games during her first season, going 5–11 on the mound and batting .235. The following season, Pratt was transferred to the Kenosha Comets team. She immediately had her best season, winning 21 games and pitching a

no-hitter In baseball, a no-hitter is a game in which a team was not able to record a hit. Major League Baseball (MLB) officially defines a no-hitter as a completed game in which a team that batted in at least nine innings recorded no hits. A pitcher wh ...

, while leading the Comets to the league championship series. During this time, Pratt "was very effective using a controlled slingshot or windmill windup to get hitters out". Pratt slumped in 1945, going just 1–16. She won just 1 more game in 1946 and 1947 before retiring from professional baseball.

Later life

Pratt continued to teach physical education classes in Quincy until 1986, and she also coached the school softball, basketball, soccer, and tennis teams. She won 10 softball championships in the state of Massachusetts. Pratt has been inducted into the

New England Sports Museum TD Garden is a multi-purpose arena in Boston, Massachusetts. It is named after its sponsor, TD Bank, a subsidiary of the Toronto-Dominion Bank of Toronto, Ontario. It opened in 1995 as a replacement for the original Boston Garden and has been k ...

, Boston University Hall of Fame, and Boston Garden Hall of Fame. Pratt died at the John Scott nursing home in Braintree, Massachusetts, on May 6, 2020, aged 101.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pratt, Mary 1918 births 2020 deaths All-American Girls Professional Baseball League players Baseball players from Connecticut Baseball players from Massachusetts Sportspeople from Bridgeport, Connecticut Sportspeople from Quincy, Massachusetts Brown University alumni American centenarians Women centenarians North Quincy High School alumni Boston University College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (Sargent College) alumni Rockford Peaches players Kenosha Comets players 21st-century American women