Sition Until She Got Too Good," Chided the Newspaper. While
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with Clinton for Margaret to play second base for the oppo- Margaret. Although her brother was unable to go, from sition until she got too good," chided the newspaper. 1930 through 1934 Margaret toured with the All Star While officials pondered, tournament play continued, Ranger Girls through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and on 24 June the Cubs defeated the Baptists a second New York, and parts of New England. During the off- time, thus winning the first round of tournament play. At season, she went to school, graduating from Clinton High this point Robert Bushee, Indiana state athletic officer, School and Indiana State University. stepped in to suspend Margaret Gisolo for six days. During When her barnstorming days were over, Margaret Gisolo the suspension, Bushee met with national director of the went on to a wide and varied career. Among other things, tournament Dan Sowers, who met with Baseball Com- she was supervisor of physical education for the public missioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Ultimately ruling that school system of Paris, Indiana; attended the University of Margaret was eligible to play, Bushee then forfeited the California and New York University; served in the WAVES; first Blanford victory to Clinton because one of the other and helped create the Department of Dance at Arizona Blanford players was over the age limit. In the deciding State University. In 1982 she was honored by Indiana State game, the Cubs turned back the Baptists a third time, 5-2. University as one of its distinguished graduates. t was an unusually good team," says Margaret Gisolo of In the 1930s, as the Bloomer Girl era was ending, softball the Cubs and her teammates such as first baseman John was beginning its climb to popularity. Well aware of soft- Nelson and pitcher Pauley Foltz. "We worked so well ball's growing popularity, Philip K. Wrigley intended to together. There was a feeling of cooperation." Because build on it and draw people to the ballparks during World the Blanford Cubs were small-town underdogs and War II, when many major leaguers were in the armed because their second baseman was a girl, the eyes of the forces. Thus in 1943 he founded the All-American Girls state and the nation followed them. Softball League. IOn 6 July the Cubs faced the Terre Haute Blue Devils in a Wrigley's game was played on a diamond with sixty-five- one-game playoff. When the game had ended, the Terre foot base paths, a mound forty feet from the plate, a twelve- Haute Spectator philosophized that "the sand lots and the inch ball, and underhand pitching. From the beginning the commons where all the real ball players come from had game was coached by former major leaguers who loved their innings at the stadium Wednesday afternoon." Aided baseball—men such as Terre Haute native Max Carey, by a Gisolo hit that drove in two runs, the Cubs defeated famed center fielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates who at vari- the Blue Devils, 6-5. ous times led the National League in putouts, assists, The next step up the tournament ladder for the "kids triples, and stolen bases. from the mining camp" was a game against the Evansville Carey, who would be elected to the Hall of Fame in 1961, West Side Nuts. With little effort the Cubs shelled their agreed to head Wrigley's new league. With major leaguers opponents, 26-7, with Margaret "accepting six chances such as Bill Wambsganss and Bert Niehoff managing, the at second and scoring several of her team's runs." women of the AAGSL played softball with one big differ- Two days later, Blanford faced the highly favored Gary ence: aggressive base stealing. The first four teams were the Yanks at Indianapolis's Riverside Park: at stake was the Racine Belles, Kenosha Comets, Rockford Peaches, and state championship. South Bend Blue Sox. Only the Peaches and Blue Sox At Riverside the lead see-sawed back and forth, with would go the distance: 1943 to 1954. many of the Cubs' runs coming from the stickwork of Dimensions and name changes came to the league almost Gisolo. Finally, in the top of the sixth the Cubs took a one- yearly, and by 1949 the women of the All American Girls run lead and proceeded to shut down the Yanks' hitting. Base Ball League were pitching overhand with a ten-inch After pushing an insurance run across the plate, Blanford ball from a mound fifty-five feet from home plate and run- won the Indiana American Legion Junior championship by ning seventy-two-foot base paths. After baseball became one a score of 14-12. In seven games of tournament play word the abbreviation for the league shortened accordingly. Margaret Gisolo pounded out nine hits in twenty-one at The early years of the AAGBL were dominated by the bats (.429) and made ten putouts and twenty-eight assists Racine Belles and Rockford Peaches. The South Bend Blue with no errors. Sox, it seemed, always finished near the bottom, despite Traveling to Illinois for the first round of interstate play, having outstanding players such as Betsy "Sockum" the Cubs lost to the Chicago Marine Post team in Comiskey Jochum, who won the 1944 batting crown with a .296 aver- Field. Welcomed back to Blanford as heroes, the team was age. A native of Cincinnati, Jochum settled in as outfielder feted at an end-of-season banquet. It was there that for the Blue Sox and settled into the town as well, becom- American Legion officials announced that girls would ing a high school teacher in the South Bend school system. henceforth be excluded from Junior Baseball. Elizabeth "Lib" Mahon, a teacher from South Carolina, Enter Maud Nelson, still going strong with her new team, gave up education to become a professional baseball player, the All Star Ranger Girls. Early in 1929 Nelson wrote to starring for the Blue Sox from 1945 to 1952. In 1946 she Toney Gisolo to arrange a tryout for both him and was the team's leading run scorer, crossing the plate ninety Spring 1993 31 .