An All-Star catcher, Dorothy Maguire was one of the sixty original members of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. While only a modest hitter at the plate, Maguire displayed considerable skill in handling
pitchers and an ability to understand the strategy of the game. She achieved a playoff berth in six of her seven seasons in the league, including the championship teams in 1943 and 1944, though she played with three different teams based in four different cities, because the league shifted players as needed to help teams stay afloat. Her life was full of energy, excitement, and risks unfamiliar to many women through the years, as she worked in cabbage fields during the
Great Depression, raised horses, worked in factories, and drove taxi cabs in
Cleveland during World War II. She was dubbed
Mickey after
Detroit Tigers catcher
Mickey Cochrane, due to her tenacity to accomplish any task she set out to do and her amazingly warm-hearted spirit. The league made an auspicious debut, averaging about 1,000 fans per game in 1943, while attracting about 210,000 for the entire year. Early in the 1944 season,
Philip K. Wrigley sold the league to
Arthur Meyerhoff. It was under Meyerhoff's management that expansion and the publicity campaign of the AAGPBL reached its peak. The circuit excelled in attendance and performing during the 1948 season, when 10 teams attracted 910,000 paid fans, but by 1954, attendance dropped to only 270,000, dooming the league to extinction. It was a neglected chapter of sports history, at least until
1992, when filmmaker
Penny Marshall premiered her film
A League of Their Own, a fictionalized account of activities in the AAGPBL that brought a rejuvenated interest to the extinct league. Maguire was born Dorothy Maime McAlpin in
LaGrange, Ohio, and grew up playing
sandlot ball with her neighborhood kids at an early age, most of them boys, but did not start participating in organized baseball until she was 16. She then joined the Erin Brew, a perennial champion
fastpitch team based in Cleveland, where she was discovered by an AAGPBL
scout. She was invited to assist in final tryouts at Wrigley Field. Following a week and a half of drills, she was allocated to the Racine Belles, a team
managed by
hockey legend
Johnny Gottselig. Maguire enjoyed a good first season. She shared catching duties with
Irene Hickson, while the Belles claimed the first Championship Title in the league's history. Racine was characterized by strong pitching, solid defense, timely hitting and speed on the bases.
Mary Nesbitt posted a 26–13 record in the regular season, while
Joanne Winter finished with an 11–11 mark to give Racine a strong one-two pitching staff. The offense was led by
Eleanor Dapkus, who hit a league-lead 10
home runs. The speedy
Sophie Kurys stole a league-best 44 bases and
scored 60 runs, while
Margaret Danhauser,
Maddy English,
Edythe Perlick and
Claire Schillace could be counted on for their bats and solid defense. In the Championship Series, the Belles defeated the Comets, winners of the second half, 3 games to 0. Maguire hit .269 in 70 games,
driving in 33 runs while
scoring 34 times. She also appeared in the All-Star game during the midseason, which was played between two teams composed of Belles and Comets players against Blue Sox and Peaches players. Two new teams joined the league in 1944, the
Milwaukee Chicks and the
Minneapolis Millerettes. Maguire started the season with the expansion Chicks as their regular catcher, appearing in 109 of the 117 games of her team. She married Tom Maguire, who was reported killed in action during wartime in the month of June. Maguire received a call just before a game from her mother, but kept the news to herself and entered the field of play. After completing the game, she reported the news to the press. Then, she received a couple of letters from him in August from a hospital in Italy, explaining that he had not been identified for that time and was presumed dead. This event provided partial inspiration for the character of catcher Dottie Hinson, portrayed by actress
Geena Davis in the film
A League of Their Own. With
Max Carey at the helm, the Chicks went 30–26 in the first half of the year, but dominated the second half (40–19) and had the best overall record (70–45). They then went on to win the Championship Title, beating Kenosha in seven playoff games. Although the Chicks won the title, they had no local financial backing and could not compete with the
American Association Milwaukee Brewers. In fact, the Chicks were forced to play all seven games of the series at Kenosha's Lake Front Stadium because the Brewers were using the
Borchert Field in Milwaukee. In addition, the high ticket prices charged for AAGPBL games failed to encourage significant fan support. Due to lack of community support and skepticism of journalists, the Chicks moved to
Grand Rapids, Michigan prior to the 1945 season. In April 1947, all of the league's players were flown to
Havana, Cuba, for
spring training. Maguire saw little action with the Lassies that year, but she still managed a .216 average with 28 runs and 24 RBI in just 75 games due to an injury. Muskegon improved considerably under a new manager,
Bill Wambsganss, to win a close pennant race with a fine 69–43 record, backed by a strong performance from outfielder/pitcher
Doris Sams, who hit a third-best .280 average with 31 runs and 41 RBI in 107 games, and posted an 11–4 pitching record with a respectable 0.93
earned run average, to finish second only to Grand Rapids'
Mildred Earp (.068). Sams was named Player of the Year, but Muskegon fell in the first round of the playoffs, dropping 3 of 4 games to Racine. For the 1948 season, the AAGPBL expanded to a historical peak of ten teams divided into Eastern and Western Divisions. That year, Maguire returned in good form, playing all but one game for her team. She hit a career-low .155 (58-for-373) with 58 runs and 30 RBI in 124 games, but recorded career-numbers in
at-bats and game appearances. Muskegon remained strong, finishing 67–58 for the second-best record in the eastern division, but fell in the first round of the playoffs to Grand Rapids by a 3–1 margin. Maguire was divorced in 1947. After marrying George Chapman in 1949, she decided to retire at the end of the season. Used sparingly, she hit .148 in only 17 games. Muskegon, now managed by
Carson Bigbee, fell back to sixth place (46–66) in the eight-team league, but won a
wild card playoff berth. The Lassies took the first round from Kenosha, two to zero games, but were swept in the next round by Grand Rapids in three games. ==After baseball==