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O’Dowd, Annie
Grand Valley State University
All American Girls Professional Baseball League
Veterans History Project
Interviewee’s Name: Annie O’Dowd
Length of Interview: (41:09)
Interviewed by: James Smither
Transcribed by: Chelsea Chandler
Interviewer: “Okay, now start us out with some background on yourself, and to begin with,
where and when were you born?”
Okay, I was born in Chicago in 1929, which is ages ago.
Interviewer: “Sure, it was. Now did you grow up in Chicago, or did you move around?”
I grew up in Chicago and moved out, well, when I started playing ball.
Interviewer: “Okay. What neighborhood of Chicago were you living in?”
I was on the south side of Chicago.
Interviewer: “Okay, that’s still a pretty big area. Is there a particular neighborhood within
that that had a name that you remember?”
I don’t remember the name, but it was around 59th and Kedzie.
Interviewer: “Okay, so it’s not all the way west of Hyde Park and places like that.”
Oh, yes, west of Hyde Park. Kedzie was 3200, I think. West.
Interviewer: “Okay, so it’s kind of southwest side of the city.”
Right. (1:06)
Interviewer: “All right, and what did your family do for a living when you were growing
up?”
Well, my dad was the only one that worked. Mom stayed home. He was a driver for the Chicago
Tribune, and that was all the income we had until I started playing ball. And then I got my
paychecks playing ball. I sent them right home to Mom.
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Interviewer: “Okay. How did you learn how to play baseball?”
Well, my brother was fairly athletic, and we used to, you know, throw the ball back and forth,
back and forth. And we’d run up and down the street, and of course I played with all the boys on
the street. And that’s how I learned to play ball.
Interviewer: “Okay, now did the boys just let you do all the same things they did, or did
they make you only do certain things?”
Well, I was kind of the boss. Whether they liked it or not, I really don’t know, but I was kind of
the leader of our street, which was Troy Street, Chicago. (2:11) And I became kind of a leader
when I played professional ball.
Interviewer: “Okay, now you’re growing up, you’re playing in the street...Now were there
organized sports for girls in the schools or churches or parks?”
Well, when I was growing up, there wasn’t any organized ballplaying. You’d go to the park and
play and play in those games, but there wasn’t any really organized ballplaying.
Interviewer: “Okay, now there were kind of semi-pro softball teams. There were teams
that women played on in Chicago in that period.”
Yes, there were. The Chicago Bloomer Girls and the Bluebirds, I think, and I don’t know. Can’t
remember the name of the other teams that they had there, but I did go to some of the ball games,
and they had—I don’t know. A team like bigger, bigger women than we were. I remember the
Savona Sisters, and they were big and broad and tall and heavy. I mean, they were heavy. They
were sturdy women. And yeah, I used to go to watch them play.
Interviewer: “Okay, now you’re growing up in the period of the Depression and World
War II. Do you know if your father had sort of steady work through the ‘30s?”
Oh, yes, he had steady work, and I remember getting food stamps during the wartime for sugar
and meats.
Interviewer: “Oh, yeah, because you had the ration cards and all of that.”
Right, right, right. I remember going to the butcher store, you know, handing over my little
tickets.
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Interviewer: “Right. Okay, now did you finish high school?”
Oh, yes.
Interviewer: “And what year did you graduate?”
Oh, 1947.
Interviewer: “Okay, and what did you do after you graduated?” (4:11)
After I graduated, a friend of mine—You know, we’re looking for jobs, and we weren’t skilled at
anything that would be—take place in an office. So we had to work in a factory. Worked in a
box factory, which was—It was pretty hard work, but that’s what I did for how many years.
Don’t remember that, but then I did get a job in an office for Campbell’s Soup.
Interviewer: “Okay, so how did you wind up becoming a professional baseball player?”
Well, I read in the paper that there were tryouts at this Marquette Park, which I lived probably a
mile, and so I thought, “I think I’ll go over and try out.” I wanted to be a first baseman, but the
gentleman that was running the tryouts said, “I think you have the stature of being a catcher.” So
I became a catcher, which I loved.
Interviewer: “Okay, now had you played catcher periodically?”
Oh, no, never. Never in my life.
Interviewer: “Okay, now had you continued to play those pickup games even after high
school? So were you still actively playing at the time you tried out?”
Oh, sure. With the boys.
Interviewer: “Okay, so that was going on even though you’re getting to be close to twenty
years old. But there’s still people out there playing.”
Right, right.
Interviewer: “Okay, and your preferred position was first base.”
That’s what I wanted to be. Yeah, first baseman.
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Interviewer: “Okay, now did you have some experience in other positions?”
No, none. None at all.
Interviewer: “Okay, so you never played outfield, or…?” (6:05)
No, you played wherever you needed to be, and that’s the position I would play.
Interviewer: “Okay, so why did you like first base?”
It was full of action, and I wanted to be in on everything. But being a catcher, you’re in on
everything. Everything, everything.
Interviewer: “Yeah, now you’re calling the game.”
Right, and you’re in charge. I guess I like being in charge.
Interviewer: “All right, so the scout there or whatever—the person running this—they’ve
seen that. Unless it was just exactly how tall you were or something, and said, ‘Oh, you
should be a catcher.’”
Yes, because I had that sturdy build. I was a little heavier than I am now, and he looked at me
and said, “Oh, no, you’re going to be a catcher.” So then I was.
Interviewer: “Okay, now when you went to this tryout, about how many women do you
think were there?”
Good question. I would say between twenty-five and fifty.
Interviewer: “Okay, so a reasonable number of people. Now were a lot of them softball
players, or do you not know?”
Probably all of us were softball players.
Interviewer: “Okay, so were you playing softball, too?”
Oh, yes.
Interviewer: “Okay, and was that still just the unorganized games?”
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�O’Dowd, Annie
Right, unorganized games.
Interviewer: “All right, but when you were playing with the guys, were you sometimes
playing baseball rather than softball?”
No, mostly softball.
Interviewer: “Okay, so your experience is in softball, but—So when you were actually
trying out for the baseball, were they using now regulation sized baseballs, or was the
league all the way there yet, or…?”
No, the size of the ball was ten inches when I played, and you get used to playing with whatever
size it is. (8:02)
Interviewer: “Sure, because I think a standard baseball is nine inches, but softball in
Chicago was as big as sixteen.”
Oh, yes, and that was Chicago ball. They called it Chicago ball, which was what my brother
played on, and he was very good. But that was a great game, Chicago ball.
Interviewer: “Yep. All right, so this is spring of ‘49 now that you’re trying out?”
Mm-hmm.
Interviewer: “Okay, and do they tell you right away that they’re taking you, or do you have
to wait?”
I think they said I made the team, and I was very excited and went home and told my parents.
And I waited until whatever was coming next.
Interviewer: “So what does come next?”
Well, next they said, “We’re going to go to spring training.” And I can’t remember exactly
where that was, but I had to go away. It was out of town.
Interviewer: “Did you go south for spring training?”
It wasn’t very, very far away. I believe it was south.
Interviewer: “But it wasn’t like North Carolina or Florida or some place like that.”
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�O’Dowd, Annie
No, no, no. No, no, no.
Interviewer: “Okay. Well, that’s the kind of thing that gets looked up because it did move
around quite a bit, and it was done different ways in different years.”
Yes, right. I never got—When I saw the film, there were a lot of ballplayers. Everybody was in
one place. When I went to spring training, it wasn’t that way. There were, you know, just a
couple of teams.
Interviewer: “Okay, so what team were you assigned to, or did you not have a team yet?”
Well, when I first started, it was the traveling team, and I was on the Chicago Colleens.
Interviewer: “Okay, now explain a little bit what the traveling teams were.”
Oh, that was so much fun. It was really a lot of fun. You get in the bus, and you go to your
destination. And we traveled to twenty-seven states in all, but it was fun riding the bus. (10:10)
You’d sing and try to sleep and stop to go to the bathroom, and it was just a load of fun.
Interviewer: “Okay, and what was the purpose of these teams? Because these are not the
regular league teams.”
No, this was like a—What do they call it in real baseball?
Interviewer: “Minor League?”
Minor League. Thank you. Minor League, and, you know, you just play ball, and when they
thought you were good enough, they’d send you up to the big leagues.
Interviewer: “All right, because you had to kind of make the transition to playing,
essentially, baseball rather than softball. Now were you older than a lot of the other players
on those traveling teams?”
Maybe a year or two.
Interviewer: “Okay, because some of them talk about joining when they’re in their midteens.”
Oh, no, I wasn’t that young.
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�O’Dowd, Annie
Interviewer: “Yeah, but some of them, you know, may have been. Okay, but you didn’t feel
like you were a whole bunch older than they were.”
Oh, no, not at all.
Interviewer: “All right, now you’d go to a particular town on this tour, and then what
happens?”
Well, they put us up in a hotel. You’d go to your room, and then they’d tell you what time we
were going to play ball the next day, and we would prepare for that. And the rest of it was, you
know, do what you want, but you have to be back in your room by such and such time because,
you know, there was a curfew.
Interviewer: “Right, yeah. Now the league is sort of famous for having a lot of rules and
regulations to govern what the player did, so which of those rules were still in place when
you joined?”
Well, the rules were you had to be in your room by such and such time. You could never wear
slacks or anything. You always had to be in a skirt, which was not much fun, because today’s
day and age, everybody wears long pants. (12:07) And the skirts were pretty hard to play in
because, you know, you would get slide, and you would get strawberries, and that wasn’t any
fun. But if your arm was sore or anything, the chaperone would come and give you a nice
rubdown. And there were times when you didn’t have a sore arm, but you still wanted a
rubdown, and that was the good part.
Interviewer: “And then were there rules about—Did you have to wear makeup when you
were out in public or that kind of thing?”
Well, we didn’t have to wear makeup, but we had to be ladylike, and I did go to charm school.
Interviewer: “I thought that the charm school had ended. It goes out at some point, but
now were they doing the charm school when you were doing spring training, or…?”
Yes, they had charm school when it was spring training. And yeah, you had to walk around with
the book on top of your head. You had to learn to sit like a lady and walk like a lady. It was very
good for you. Yeah.
Interviewer: “All right, now did you have any troubles transitioning from softball to
baseball, or was that easy?”
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�O’Dowd, Annie
Well, at that age it would be easy. Yeah, you didn’t even think about it. You just did it. It came
automatically, really.
Interviewer: “Okay, and what about learning to play catcher?”
Well, that was something altogether new to me, and it wasn’t easy. The hardest part was keeping
your eyes open when a bat was coming into sight. You know, you’d go like this, and if they
popped it up, you didn’t know where the ball was. So you learned how to keep your eyes open.
(14:01)
Interviewer: “Okay, now did they have you calling pitches, or…?”
Oh, yes. There weren’t that many pitches as there are today, but there were some.
Interviewer: “Well, what would pitchers normally throw?”
Fastballs. Normally they would throw fastballs. They would throw curves.
Interviewer: “So at that level, it was—Normally they would just throw fastballs, and then
would you call for location, or…?”
Oh, yes, you’d call for location. And they did have curveballs and changeups and knuckleballs,
but there weren’t any sliders or those types. We didn’t have that.
Interviewer: “Okay, and was there more variety of pitches when you actually got to play
with the regular teams? Did you now have pitchers who could do more things?”
No, I don’t think so. I think it was what you learned at spring training is what you brought to the
big leagues.
Interviewer: “Okay, now how long did you stay with the traveling team? Was it a full
season?”
Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Yeah, that was a full season, which the seasons weren’t that long.
Interviewer: “And what part of the country were you traveling around in?”
Mostly Midwest and east. Oh, we’d go south, too. We were in South Carolina, and east, we were
in New York, and then the Midwest. (16:03)
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�O’Dowd, Annie
Interviewer: “Okay, and what kind of audiences did you attract?”
Oh, there were good, good audiences. There were—I don’t know. I would say maybe five
thousand people per game.
Interviewer: “Which is pretty good even today for a lot of Minor League teams, so...Okay,
and you were getting that back then. All right, and did you get local press coverage at all?
Did you ever get interviewed?”
Yes. No, I didn’t get interviewed, but they did take a lot of pictures. And I was on one of the
brochures that they’d put up for a game, and that was nice.
Interviewer: “All right, now when you’re thinking about the time that you spent with the
traveling team, are there any particular memories or things that stand out for you?”
On the traveling team? For myself?
Interviewer: “Yeah.”
Yes, there was one day I was playing, and it was very hot. And it was a doubleheader, and I had
to catch both games. And somebody hit a popup, and I went for it. And I lost it in the sun, and
the ball came right down on my eye. And I had a big shiner, but I continued to play.
Interviewer: “Yeah, they might have taken you out today, but you stayed in.”
No concussion.
Interviewer: “Okay, that’s good anyway. All right, so you did one season essentially with
the traveling team.”
You would say that, maybe. I think maybe a year and a half.
Interviewer: “Okay, because we have your dates recorded as sort of ‘49 through ‘51. That
includes the time with the traveling teams?”
Yes. (18:08)
Interviewer: “Okay, so what were they paying you at that point? Do you remember?”
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�O’Dowd, Annie
It was...God, I can’t remember these things. I think I got a salary of $105 a week, and traveling
money...Oh my god. Three dollars a day for food. And I thought, “Three dollars a day for food?
That’s a lot of money.”
Interviewer: “What would that buy?”
Oh, you could go to a restaurant—twenty-five cents for a hamburger, five cents for a Coke—and
it was cheap back then.
Interviewer: “Okay, now eventually you go to the big leagues, basically, and what team did
you play for first?”
The Rockford Peaches.
Interviewer: “Okay, and when you got there, were you a reserved player, or did you start
catching right away?”
No, I was second string—reserved—because I was a rookie. And I didn’t like sitting on the
bench. For sure. But, you know, I did my sitting out and finally got to catch on a regular basis.
Interviewer: “Okay, now who was pitching for that team at that time?”
Oh, too hard of a question.
Interviewer: “All right. How was life different when you’re playing on one of the regular
teams than it was on the traveling team?”
Well, actually the traveling team was more fun, and we were closer together. And when I went
up to the big leagues as they call it, I didn’t really know anyone. (20:03) So it’s kind of hard.
Interviewer: “And what kind of living situation did you have?”
They arranged for us to stay in people’s homes, and so we had, you know, our own little
bedroom and bathroom, which was very nice.
Interviewer: “Now were there other women from your team staying at the same place you
were, or…?”
No, I was the only one.
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�O’Dowd, Annie
Interviewer: “Okay, and what was the family like that you were staying with?”
Oh, they were as sweet as can be, you know. “Everything okay?” “Oh, yeah, everything is fine.
Thank you.” And they didn’t bother you if you didn’t want to be bothered, but they were very
sweet.
Interviewer: “Okay, and so did they live close to the ballpark, or could you walk there, or
did you have some other way to get there?”
You know what? I don’t recall. I don’t recall that. I probably walked there.
Interviewer: “All right, and do you have a sense of how well the team was playing? I mean,
do they have a winning record while you’re with them, or…?”
Too hard of a question.
Interviewer: “Okay, now when you had to go and play road games, how would you get
there?”
On a bus that they got. Everywhere we traveled it was on a bus.
Interviewer: “And how long were those bus rides?”
Oh, sometimes they were very long. Eight hours, ten hours. Yeah, they were—But not in the big
leagues because all the teams were in the Midwest, so that didn’t take long at all.
Interviewer: “Okay. Well, Rockford to Grand Rapids at that point might have been four
hours or something like that.”
Right. Yeah, that was probably one of the longest rides.
Interviewer: “Okay, and at that point—Do you remember some of the places you played? I
mean, there was Grand Rapids…”
Oh, yeah. Muskegon. (22:01) Racine.
Interviewer: “I guess Fort Wayne and South Bend, maybe.”
Oh, yeah, Fort Wayne, South Bend. You know, the memory button’s not too good anymore.
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Interviewer: “Okay, now were you a good defensive catcher?”
I thought I was. I don’t know what the team thought, but I thought I was good at it.
Interviewer: “Okay, well, one of the things the league is famous for is having women steal
bases. It was one of the first things that separated you from women’s softball. So could you
throw runners out?”
Oh, yes. I would catch them leaning on first base and get them out.
Interviewer: “Okay, so you do pick off a thrower first.”
Right, and one of the things I used to do is I’d look at the pitcher and throw to first base. And
that’s the way I caught them off base.
Interviewer: “Okay, and did you have much success throwing them out at second?”
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I had a fairly good arm.
Interviewer: “Okay, now in the league, did the baserunners—Did they have a sense of who
the good catchers were?”
Oh, I think so.
Interviewer: “So they were a little more careful about who they would run on.”
I would think so. Yes.
Interviewer: “Okay, and were you a good hitter?”
You know, I was a fair hitter. I don’t like to say I was excellent. I was decent.
Interviewer: “Okay. Do you remember what your batting average was overall, or…?”
Well, overall I think I was around 270.
Interviewer: “Okay. And even today that’s pretty good for a catcher.”
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Yes. It’s not on the back of the card, though, that I hit that well. But it seemed to me I was
always in cleanup, and I don’t think cleanup hitters are, you know, 240, 250. And on the back of
the baseball card that’s what it was, and I know I was a better hitter than that. (24:08)
Interviewer: “Well, some kind of hitters are power hitters. Did people hit a lot of home
runs in that league, or were there not very many?”
Some of the women, yes. There were some very, very good hitters that hit home runs. I was not a
home run hitter. I was kind of line drives—left, center, and right—and I could hit to any field. I
feel like I’m bragging about myself.
Interviewer: “No, no. Our problem in doing these interviews is that people don’t want to
say enough about themselves. They’re too modest. But we want to know this stuff. All right,
now catchers are supposed to be slow.”
Oh, and I was slow.
Interviewer: “Okay, so you’ve got that one down.”
I was as slow as a catcher usually is.
Interviewer: “Now would you steal some bases anyway?”
No, I was never a base stealer. I’d run as hard as I could, but I wasn’t a base stealer.
Interviewer: “All right, now you started out playing for Rockford. And did you start
playing catcher regularly for them, or did you do that at other teams later?”
As I said before, I was on the bench when I first came out, but then to be a regular later.
Interviewer: “But you were a regular for Rockford for a while?”
Maybe the last part. The last month I was there.
Interviewer: “Okay, now did you play a full season for Rockford, or did they trade you
somewhere else?”
No, I think I played a half a season for Rockford, and then they so-called traded me to Racine,
and there I became first string.
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Interviewer: “Okay, and that all may have been designed. The league, I think, assigned
people. They tried to get them…”
Right. They wanted the teams to be even, and that’s why you got traded more than once.
Interviewer: “Okay, now did you have pretty much the same experience in Racine as in
Rockford, or did you like it better there, or…?” (26:15)
It was about the same. I got to know a few of those players a little bit, Sophie Kurys being one.
The base stealer of all times. Yeah, I got to know her a little bit then. That was nice. She was a
nice lady.
Interviewer: “All right, now how long did you stay with Racine?”
Oh, you ask these hard questions all the time.
Interviewer: “Well, was it sort of the rest of one season and then on somewhere else, or…?”
I probably played there for a season, and, as I said, I don’t remember. I think it was Kalamazoo,
but I’m not sure about that.
Interviewer: “Okay, but the last team you played for was the Lassies regardless of where
you were.”
Right, right, and then I thought, “Well, I better stop having all this fun and get a real job.” So I
stopped playing ball and got a real job.
Interviewer: “Okay. I mean, it was a real job in the sense that it paid pretty well.”
Right. I don’t think it paid as well as playing ball, though.
Interviewer: “Well, no. That’s actually what I was saying. So why wasn’t playing ball a
real job?”
It was too much fun. I mean, it wasn’t like a job at all. I mean, it was just fun. Fun, fun, fun.
Interviewer: “Okay, now while you were playing—this was kind of through ‘51—were the
teams still getting good attendance?”
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Yes, they were. You know, I couldn’t tell you what the attendance was, but there were a lot of
people out there.
Interviewer: “Okay, but you didn’t have a sense yourself that the league was in trouble,
or…?”
No, not at all. No sense of that whatsoever. (28:03)
Interviewer: “Okay, so for you...was maybe just going and getting maybe a grown-up job,
or…?”
Well, I thought it was a grown-up job where you had to get up at seven in the morning and go to
work.
Interviewer: “Okay, now did you go back to Chicago to work, or did you go somewhere
else?”
Oh, back to Chicago.
Interviewer: “Okay, and what kind of job did you take?”
Well, I worked in the factory, and, you know, it was eight to four whatever. And it was not fun.
It wasn’t as much fun as playing ball.
Interviewer: “Okay, and so how long did you stay with that?”
Let’s see. I worked in the box factory probably a couple of years, and then I went to Campbell’s
Soup. And I was in the offices. A clerk. And then in my mid-20s, late 20s, I became a supervisor,
an office supervisor. And from there on I got a job as a buyer for Ameritech Communications,
and I ended up pretty high on the bracket.
Interviewer: “Okay, so after you left the league, I mean, did you talk to people about
having played baseball, or did they even know you did that?”
People didn’t know I did it, and I didn’t talk about it because I thought people back then would
think, “Oh my god, she’s so boyish or mannish.” I didn’t want to talk about it because they
didn’t look up to people then or to women then. (30:02) It was all, you know. “Oh, you did
that?”
Interviewer: “Women weren’t supposed to do what men were doing.”
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Exactly. So never ever talked about it until 1992 when the movie came out, and that was
excellent.
Interviewer: “Okay, now when they made the movie, you know, they brought in some of
the former players, and some of them helped train them, and they had events and things
like that. Did you get invited to participate in any of that?”
Well, I was there when they were shooting in Cooperstown, and you participated a little, you
know. But I never really consulted or anything like that on the movie.
Interviewer: “Okay, so how did they know to contact you? Had you stayed in touch with
any of the players, or did the league have an organization that you were a part of by then?”
I think the league…
Interviewer: “Okay, so basically the league—They’re organized on some level. They’re
trying to find people. So they find you at that point, and then you kind of get reconnected
with them at that point. And so what do you think was sort of different from your
experience to what’s in the movie?” (32:21)
I think the movie was fairly correct except we didn’t have a pitcher or catcher that were sisters.
They made that part up.
Interviewer: “Yeah, but that was also supposed to be the first season, and you weren’t
there yet. But yes, they made that up.”
Yeah, but the good part of the movie was when the catcher went to get a foul ball. She did the
splits. Well, I did the splits, and I was proud of that.
Interviewer: “Okay. Do you remember who you had for managers?”
All I can remember is Lenny, and I can’t remember his last name. And Max Carey. And I can’t
remember the name of the Rockford Peaches coach. Can’t remember.
Interviewer: “Okay. Did the managers do a good job?”
As far as I was concerned, they did a fairly good job. I did not get to know a lot of pointers,
which I thought I would get, but I didn’t get that many pointers on how to catch. I just kind of
self-taught myself.
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Interviewer: “All right, and then I guess the other thing I wanted to ask about and hadn’t
throw in here yet—I mean, you mentioned the chaperones briefly. You know, what did
their duties consist of, and what did you think of them?”
Oh, I liked the chaperones. Well, you know, they told you when to go to bed and what the
schedule was for the next day, and they weren’t really too bad. They weren’t too tough on me.
Of course, I never did anything wrong.
Interviewer: “Well, you were also old enough and principled to kind of look after yourself
anyway.”
Right.
Interviewer: “Okay, now the movie kind of depicts them as more sort of schoolmarmish or
something like that. Well, do you think that part was fair?” (34:31)
I think some of the chaperones were that way, yeah. I didn’t run into those.
Interviewer: “All right, so once the movie comes out, now did you get people starting to
contact you or get you to go places or do things or sign autographs or that kind of thing?”
No, but—Not to sign autographs, but I did—And I still get mail to sign, you know. Baseball
cards.
Interviewer: “Right. So you’re on the list.”
Yes, I’m on the list. Yeah. I get what? Maybe two a week, which is astonishing to me that people
are still looking for autographs from 1949. Amazing.
Interviewer: “All right. Now we’re doing the league’s reunion in Sarasota in 2016. Have
you been to many of their events or reunions or…?”
The only one I was—that I attended was probably one of the first ones in 1986 in Chicago.
Interviewer: “Okay, so you were connected to them. That’s well before the movie.”
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
17
�O’Dowd, Annie
Interviewer: “So that would be how they find you at that point. Okay, so why did you come
this year?”
Because I live in the Villages, and this is only a couple hours away. So I can get a friend to drive
me down here, so I thought this would be a good time to come. (36:13) I am going to Florida—
Miami—for the next one. Is it the reunion?
Interviewer: “The FanFest.”
FanFest.
Interviewer: “The big baseball FanFest. Okay, now after the movie came out, did you tell
anybody at that point?”
Oh, yeah. Then I was very proud of what I did. And yeah, I said, “Did you see the movie A
League of their Own?” “Oh, yeah.” “Well, I was one of the original ballplayers.” Yes, I was very
proud of that.
Interviewer: “Oh, good. All right, to think back at the time then that you spent playing
ball, I mean, what do you think you took out of that, or what did you learn from it?”
Well, I learned to be patient and be more truthful with people. Not that I was not truthful, but I
feel like I was more truthful then. And what else? I don’t know.
Interviewer: “Well, do you think it helped you at all—your career afterward, especially as
you sort of moved up and got more responsibility?”
Well, as I said, I was kind of a team leader, and that’s how I was when I got into the office work.
And I became, you know, a manager. And people like me because I was fair. I was hard when I
had to be, but I was very fair. And I think I got that from playing ball.
Interviewer: “All right, now if you think back over your playing career, and you think
back just to that time, is there anything else that kind of stands out in your memory there
that you haven’t brought into the story yet? (38:19) Events or people or impressions of
things?”
Well, I was very impressed when I went to Yankee Stadium.
Interviewer: “Talk about that. Why did you go to Yankee Stadium?”
18
�O’Dowd, Annie
Well, there was the traveling team then, and it was just amazing to see all the old ball players up
there. Just—It was—I can’t explain how I felt.
Interviewer: “Now did you play a game there?”
Yes, played a game in Yankee Stadium. And don’t remember if I got any hits or anything like
that, but it was...
Interviewer: “All right, now were you doing your game as like an exhibition before a
regular game, or were the Yankees not there that day, or…?”
I don’t think the Yankees were in town that week.
Interviewer: “Okay, so you don’t remember meeting any of them or anything like that?”
No, I don’t.
Interviewer: “Okay. Do you remember if you went to any other Major League stadiums?
Went to Washington or someplace else?”
I think it was the Washington Senators then, and Connie Mack, I think, was still managing then.
Did I meet him? Don’t recall. It’s awful. I don’t recall a lot of things.
Interviewer: “All right. Well, he would have been kind of old by then.”
Yes, he was pretty old.
Interviewer: “But he did that a long time. Yeah, I guess we normally associate him with
Philadelphia, but if you were going up the East coast, you might have gone there, too.”
(40:08)
Well, didn’t he—Wasn’t he a manager for the Washington Senators?
Interviewer: “He might have been. I’m too young to remember Connie Mack.”
Oh, now you’re bragging. You’re too young.
Interviewer: “Yeah, yeah, I know. All right, but I had heard of him in association with
Philadelphia Athletics, but anyway. Okay, so yeah, you got to see a good chunk of the
country along the way there.”
19
�O’Dowd, Annie
Twenty-seven states.
Interviewer: “All right. I think we have pretty much covered what I had in mind. Anything
else we ought to be talking about?”
I think you should interview Jill.
Interviewer: “All right. Anyway, I would just like to close this by thanking you for taking
the time to talk to me today.”
Oh, you’re entirely welcome.
20
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Interviews
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was started by Philip Wrigley, owner of the Chicago Cubs, during World War II to fill the void left by the departure of most of the best male baseball players for military service. Players were recruited from across the country, and the league was successful enough to be able to continue on after the war. The league had teams based in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan, and operated between 1943 and 1954. The 1954 season ended with only the Fort Wayne, South Bend, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, and Rockford teams remaining. The League gave over 600 women athletes the opportunity to play professional baseball. Many of the players went on to successful careers, and the league itself provided an important precedent for later efforts to promote women's sports.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/484">All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Collection, (RHC-58)</a>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Sports for women
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League--Personal narratives
Oral history
Baseball players--Minnesota
Baseball players--Indiana
Baseball players--Wisconsin
Baseball players--Michigan
Baseball players--Illinois
Baseball for women--United States
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49401
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-58
Format
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video/mp4
application/pdf
Type
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Moving Image
Text
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-10-02
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
RHC-58_ODowdA1971BB
Title
A name given to the resource
O'Dowd, Anna (Interview transcript and video), 2016
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
O'Dowd, Anna Mae
Description
An account of the resource
Annie O’Dowd was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1929. She graduated from high school in 1947 and worked in a box factory before trying out for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in 1949. She was initially placed in the Chicago Colleens, a travelling team (similar to a minor-league team), and played with them for a season. After the Colleens, she joined the Rockford Peaches and played with them for half of a season. The final team she played with was the Kalamazoo Lassies in the early 1950s before leaving the League.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
Baseball players--Michigan
Baseball players--Wisconsin
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-10-21
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/484">All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Collection, (RHC-55)</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
video/mp4