In the year 1942 WWII was going on, because of this there was a high demand on men to be recruited to fight in war. This was a bad time for all Major League Baseball teams due to decrease in amount of players on the teams. Major League Baseball was said to be on hold because of the war. Philip K. Wrigley the owner of the Chicago Cubs realized that this was a problem, he began looking for ideas in 1943 to help continue the large amount of people going to Wrigley. He then saw how big softball was and how many fans it brought, then he came up with the idea of girls playing professional baseball. He not only thought this was a good idea to bring fans to Wrigley but also to keep people and soldiers entertained during the war .Women playing baseball goes …show more content…
The league lasted about twelve years and gave over 500 women a chance to play. Wrigley stated “ The need for additional recreation in towns busy with war defense work prompted the idea”. The league began as a softball league, rules quickly became modified and the league developed four Midwest teams: the South Bend Blue Sox,the Rockford Peaches, and the Kenosha Comets, the Racine Belles, at other times the league included: the Fort Wayne Daisies, Minneapolis Millerettes, Kalamazoo Lassies, Muskegon Lassies, Grand Rapid Chicks, Peoria Redwings, Milwaukee Chicks, and Chicago Colleens. The four Midwest teams played an 108-game schedule. Hall of famer Max Carey was the president of the league and he said “ Femininity is the keynote of our league; no pants-wearing, tough-talking female softballer will play on any of our four teams” and all the players had followed those rules. Mr. Wrigley after practice made the girl players go to Helena Rubinstein’s charm school to learn how wear makeup, put on a coat, and how to get in/out of a car or chair. The players had to wear skirts, if caught wearing slacks you had to use the servants’