Rita Ann Meyer (later Moellering; February 12, 1927 – June 16, 1992) was a shortstop and pitcher who played from through for the Peoria Redwings of 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 , 145 lb., Meyer batted and threw right-handed. She was born in Florissant, Missouri. Rita Meyer was the oldest of seven children and her brother was an artist monk Mel Meyer. A good fielding shortstop and average hitter during her four seasons in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, she was one of 13 players who made the AAGPBL clubs hailed from Missouri. Meyer was nicknamed ''Slats'' after St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Marty Marion, just given the nickname of Marion because someone said she reminded them of his play – quite a common way to get a nickname in sports. In 1946 Meyer tried out for the league at

spring training Spring training is the preseason in Major League Baseball (MLB), a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for Schedule (workplace), roster and position spo ...

in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and was allocated to the Redwings expansion team based in

Peoria, Illinois Peoria ( ) is the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and the largest city on the Illinois River. As of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census, the city had a population of 113,150. It is the principal city of the Peoria ...

. She appeared regularly at shortstop and also pitched in 13 games in 1947. Meyer hurled 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 ...

in that season, but lost the game, 1–0. Her most productive season came in 1948, when she posted career-highs in batting average (.232), doubles (12),

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 or ...

s (45) and runs batted in (68). The Redwings advanced to the first round of the playoffs for the first – and only – time in team history, but were swept by 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 three straight games. Rita Meyer married Robert Moellering in 1949. She resided after that in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

, where she became an active participant in public school sports for the rest of her life. On November 5, 1988, she was honored with the rest of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during the opening of a permanent display 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 ...

. Besides this, the St. Louis Sports Commission presents the Rita "Slats" Meyer Moellering Memorial Award, named after her, to recognize the accomplishments of women in individual sports. Her many hobbies included collecting emblems, poems and

Dick Tracy ''Dick Tracy'' is an American comic strip featuring Dick Tracy (originally Plainclothes Tracy), a tough and intelligent police detective created by Chester Gould. It made its debut on Sunday, October 4, 1931, in the ''Detroit Mirror'', and it ...

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s. She died in St. Louis at the age of 65. Batting statistics Pitching statistics ''The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: A Biographical Dictionary'' – W. C. Madden. Publisher: McFarland & Company, 2005. Format: Paperback, 295 pp. Language: English.

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meyer, Rita 1927 births 1992 deaths People from Florissant, Missouri All-American Girls Professional Baseball League players Baseball players from St. Louis County, Missouri