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By Stephanie Pendrys Use Your Vision Insurance/ Flex Dollars Before They Expire!

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By Stephanie Pendrys Use Your Vision Insurance/ Flex Dollars Before They Expire! Ann Meyer Petrovic signing her AAGPBL contract: Fred Meyer (father, standing behind Ann), Marty McManus (Kenosha Comets manager, sitting with contract in hand), Ann is in the center; man at the left is unidentified. Photo courtesy of Ann Petrovic Above: Mary Lou Graham Douglas (center, sitting and being tended to by the Photo courtesy of Mary Lou Douglas Lou Mary of courtesy Photo South Bend Blue Sox chaperone) Chicago Bluebirds team photo (Ann Petrovic is in bottom row, third from left) by Stephanie Pendrys Use your vision insurance/ flex dollars before they expire! A Main Office s the days grow shorter and the shadows grow longer, mil- 440 N. Alvernon, #101 5th Street & Alvernon lions of sports fans are tuned in to that autumn staple: postseason 327-6211 baseball. Two local women have more than a keen interest in the Sunrise & Swan 4747 E. Sunrise Dr. World Series. Back in the 1940s and 1950s, when cars came with run- Sunrise & Swan ning boards and Coca-Cola was served in glass bottles, Ann Petrovic 299-4000 Tanque Verde & Sabino Canyon and Mary Lou Douglas barreled down base paths, smacked line drives 7123 E. Tanque Verde and hurled fastballs as members of the All-American Girls Northeast Corner 296-4157 Featuring Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) — the only women’s profes- Casas Adobes Optical eyewear by sional baseball league this country has ever had. 6987 N. Oracle Rd. Oracle & Giaconda Way Coach, Nike, 297-2501 Armani, Gucci, Shortstop Ann Meyer (now Petrovic) was the first time I’d been outside of Campbell Plaza Dior and more. grew up in Aurora, Ind., and learned the Aurora,” she recalls. 2820 N. Campbell Campbell & Glenn game from her five older brothers. “My Petrovic spent six years in profes- 323-3937 brother, Tugs, gave me his old ball glove, sional baseball, one with the Kenosha We service most vision plans. We Accept ALL Green Valley Doctor's Prescription. Complete family vision care. and they put me up against the side of Comets/Minneapolis Millerettes of the Green Valley Mall 101-69 S. La Canada Dr. AlvernonOptical.com the barn,” Petrovic recalls. AAGPBL (1944) and five with the 625-5657 “I guess I had to learn to Chicago Bluebirds/Queens of the catch or be killed.” National Girls Baseball League $10 off $25 off Baseball was as much (1945–50). When she was playing for the any frame & lens a part of everyday life for Bluebirds, the team’s batboy was none eye exam May be used with vision insurance. May be used with vision insurance. the Meyer clan as chores or other than Bill Bidwill, owner of the This coupon must be presented at the time of purchase. This coupon must be presented at the time of purchase. Sunday dinner. In fact, the Arizona Cardinals. Eye exam by independent doctors of optometry. Not valid with sale items, promotional offers, or non-prescrip- Certain limitations apply. tion sunglasses. Certain limitations apply. nine Meyer siblings had Playing professional baseball wasn’t Not valid for cash redemption. Offer expires 10/31/09 Not valid for cash redemption.Offer expires 10/31/09 Photo courtesy of Ann Petrovic their own baseball team all fun and games. The AAGPBL uniform, and one evening beat the a one-piece dress that many movie-goers local All-Stars as the whole might recall seeing in the 1992 film A town of Aurora watched League of Their Own, “was not exactly the from the bleachers, shoul- best outfit to play ball in,” according to der to shoulder as though Petrovic. A leadoff hitter and speedy base the rural ballpark were a runner, she accumulated many bruises vast living room. and strawberries from sliding into bases “I loved the game and and avoiding tags. “I still have scars on would have played anyone, my knees,” she says. anywhere and anytime, as There were also long dusty road long as someone would give trips on buses and trains, as the All- me a shirt with a number Americans toured the Midwest from on the back,” says Petrovic. mid-May through Labor Day, playing six “Pee-Wee” Meyer, nick- days a week, with doubleheaders on named as such for her 5’3”, Sundays. Ann recalled boarding a troop 110-pound frame, was only train once with her teammates. The ser- 15 and a freshman in high vicemen wanted to buy the ballplayers school when she signed a drinks, but other than one beer with contract and became a dinner, drinking was forbidden for the member of the AAGPBL. All-Americans. They were also not “The train ride I took with allowed to smoke, gamble or wear my father to my tryout, that shorts or pants in public. When chew- “Pee-Wee” Meyer, nicknamed as such for her 5’3”, 110-pound frame, was only 15 and a freshman in high school when she signed a contract and became a member of the AAGPBL. October 2009 • The DesertLeaf 15 Photo by Stephanie Pendrys Ann Meyer Petrovic’s baseball card Ann Meyer Petrovic with her Aurora High School Sports Hall of Fame plaque ing-gum magnate Phillip Wrigley found- gle, but Petrovic is still a huge sports fan ed the league in 1943, he was adamant and watches the Diamondbacks, golf that each player be a wholesome, femi- and college and professional basketball. nine, All-American girl. She was recently inducted into the It also wasn’t easy being a female Aurora High School Sports Hall of Fame athlete. “If you were a girl who could and is very proud of the AAGPBL’s induc- play ball, your name was Mud,” says tion into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Petrovic, who along with many All- Cooperstown. “Hey, it says Baseball Hall Americans felt like an outcast because of Fame, not Men’s Baseball Hall of Fame, of her athletic ability and competitive- right?” Petrovic says emphatically. ness between the lines. “There just Former AAGPBL pitcher and Oro weren’t many girls like us, and we Valley resident Mary Lou Graham (now came across someone in every town Douglas) grew up in a baseball family in who thought that there was something South Bend, Ind. Her first glove came wrong with us because we could play from Tom, one of her five brothers, who baseball. I’m glad that times have was playing in a league in South Bend. changed, and it’s not unusual to “When he was done with it, I hemmed, see female athletes on the ESPN high- hawed and hinted and have been playing light reel.” with it ever since,” she says. After hanging up her spikes, Petrovic In 1952, Douglas, then 15, was play- moved to Ohio, where she raised her ing in a parks and recreation youth family and played competitive volleyball league, and her coach took the players for more than 25 years. She got a job at a to see the AAGPBL’s South Bend Blue leather-apparel company and played Sox. “We were playing catch in the park- baseball for the company team — for one ing lot before the game and Karl Winsch game. Petrovic was playing third base (Blue Sox manager) put his hands on my and threw the ball so hard to her inexpe- shoulders and asked me to go down- rienced catcher that she put the catcher stairs onto the field to throw some in the hospital. “I quit after that inning; I pitches,” Douglas recalls. thought that I killed her!” Petrovic She remembers walking out and recalls. “Once a pro, always a pro.” looking across the playing surface, tan She can no longer leg out a bunt sin- and white and green and huge. She was Mary Lou Graham Douglas’s baseball card Mary Lou Douglas outside of her Oro Valley home Photo by Stephanie Pendrys 16 The DesertLeaf • October 2009 nervous, but not afraid. “I knew that I could pitch pretty well. I didn’t fear anyone. I played with my whole heart and threw the ball as hard as I could,” she says. Douglas spent the 1952 season as the batgirl for the Blue Sox, who were League Champions after defeating the Rockford Peaches 6–3 in the final. She broke into the Blue Sox lineup when she was 17 and hurled eight innings with a no-decision. The right-hander pitched for the Blue Sox until the league disband- ed after the 1954 season. The AAGPBL suffered with the emergence of televised baseball and a loss of sponsorships; but the called third strike was the end of the era of Rosie the Riveter. When the men returned to civil- ian life after WWII, the AAGPBL player was expected to put away her glove and bat and re-assume the exclusive role of wife, mother and baseball spectator. “I just barely got my feet wet and it was all over,” Douglas remembers wistfully. In 1955, Douglas and a number of other AAGPBL girls played semi-pro softball and basketball. Douglas also went to work in Los Angeles as a girl Friday, married and had a son. When A League of Their Own came out, Douglas drove 16 hours from Bend, Ore. to see the premiere of the Penny Marshall film in Los Angeles. “I’ve seen it dozens of times and Penny Marshall did a fantas- tic job showing what it was like to play in the league,” she says. “We really did have team chaperones and had to go to charm school.” Douglas, now 73, still has her broth- er’s glove and plays catch with the neigh- borhood kids when they are home from college.
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