Barbara Hoffman (born January 18, 1931) is a former

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. ...

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 5' 6" .68 m/small>, 133 lb. 0 k/small>, she batted and threw right-handed. Born in

Belleville, Illinois Belleville is a city and the county seat of St. Clair County, Illinois, coterminous with the now defunct Belleville Township. It is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Belleville and the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows. The p ...

, Barbara Hoffman began playing

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 ...

at age nine and advanced to organized softball leagues in

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

, where she was spotted by an AAGPBL

scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement **Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom **Scouts BSA, sectio ...

who offered her a contract to play for the 1951 season.The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Hoffman joined the South Bend Blue Sox and was inserted at

third base A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

. But she hurt a knee and was temporarily switched to second base because the

pivot Pivot may refer to: *Pivot, the point of rotation in a lever system *More generally, the center point of any rotational system *Pivot joint, a kind of joint between bones in the body *Pivot turn, a dance move Companies *Incitec Pivot, an Austra ...

was easier to catch. She hit .212 with 20 runs and 11 RBI in just 46 games, helping the Blue Sox win their first championship title in the league. In 1952, Hoffman was selected to the All Star Team and belted a

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

in the contest, which she considered her greatest individual thrill. Just before the regular season ended, South Bend

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

Karl Winsch Karl Edgar Winsch (February 10, 1915 – December 21, 2001) was a pitcher and manager in Minor League Baseball. Listed at , 180 lb., Winsch batted and threw right-handed. A native of Allentown, Pennsylvania, Karl Winsch spent two decades i ...

suspended the flashy

Charlene Pryer Charlene Barbara Pryer ayer(September 24, 1921 – June 3, 1999) was a female utility in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, playing mainly at second base and center field from through . Listed at , 105 lb., Pryer batted a ...

for not going in to pinch-run quickly when asked, which created an uproar after the game. That night at the team's hotel, several Blue Sox veterans talked the situation over. Then five players, including Hoffman,

Elizabeth Mahon Elizabeth B. Mahon (November 18, 1919 – September 6, 2001) was an American outfielder who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at , 135 lb., Mahon batted and threw right-handed. She was born ...

and Jane Stoll, quit the team in support of Pryer. ''I guess it was wrong for us to do it. We stood up for our principles'', Hoffman reflected. She never returned to the league. Following her baseball career, Hoffman played three years with the South Bend Hoosierettes, a women's basketball team, and

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 25 years, but never professionally. She also took a job at

Bendix Corporation Bendix Corporation is an American manufacturing and engineering company which, during various times in its existence, made automotive brake shoes and systems, vacuum tubes, aircraft brakes, aeronautical hydraulics and electric power systems, av ...

, where she worked for thirty-three years until her retirement in 1985. After that, she dedicated to selling

baseball card A baseball card is a type of trading card relating to baseball, usually printed on cardboard, silk, or plastic. In the 1950s they came with a stick of gum and a limited number of cards. These cards feature one or more baseball players, teams, sta ...

s and

antique An antique ( la, antiquus; 'old', 'ancient') is an item perceived as having value because of its aesthetic or historical significance, and often defined as at least 100 years old (or some other limit), although the term is often used loosely ...

s. Barbara Hoffman is part of ''Women in Baseball'', 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 ...

, which was unveiled in 1988 to honor the entire All-American Girls Professional Baseball League rather than individual baseball personalities. She currently lives in

New Albany, Indiana New Albany is a city in Floyd County, Indiana, United States, situated along the Ohio River, opposite Louisville, Kentucky. The population was 37,841 as of the 2020 census. The city is the county seat of Floyd County. It is bounded by I-265 t ...

.Intellius.com – Barbara A. Hoffman/IN/report
/ref>

Career statistics

Batting Collective fielding

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoffman, Barbara All-American Girls Professional Baseball League players South Bend Blue Sox players Baseball players from Illinois Sportspeople from Belleville, Illinois 1931 births Living people 21st-century American women Bendix Corporation people