Description
Jeneane Lesko was born in Springfield, Ohio, in 1935. She grew up playing sports, practicing with men's baseball and basketball teams. She was playing for a softball team in Lima, Ohio, when she was recruited into the AAGPBL. She was a pitcher for the Grand Rapids Chicks during the last two seasons of the league, 1953-1954. Because of the larger size ball and the shorter distance between the pitcher's mound and home plate in the women's league, she had control problems as a pitcher in her first season, but still went 8-6. During the final season, when the league changed the rules and played the standard men's game, she did even better. After the league folded, she joined a barnstorming team made up of former league players, and stayed with it for three years. After that, she became a teacher and a professional golfer, and has actively supported women's baseball.