A native of
East Greenville, Pennsylvania, Faut grew up in the home of a working-class family. She was the second oldest daughter of Robert Faut, an automobile plant worker and park guard, and Eva (
nee Gebert) Faut, a housewife. The young Jean, along with her two sisters and three brothers, were raised during the
Great Depression era. The children were instructed by their parents to live frugally, save, and avoid debt. Unlike most AAGPBL players, Faut never played softball while growing up and had no previous professional experience. She attended
East Greenville High School, where she excelled in
track and field,
basketball and
field hockey. She also pitched batting practice for the school baseball team and hurled in exhibition games against the Cubs, a semiprofessional team in her hometown. In the process, she learned how to throw different pitches. After graduating from EGHS in 1942, Faut worked in a clothing factory until the spring of 1946, when she attended a tryout for the AAGPBL in
Pascagoula, Mississippi. As a result of the success of the league in its first year, two new teams were added in the
1944 season: the
Milwaukee Chicks and the
Minneapolis Millerettes. But both teams lost their franchises by the end of the year and were replaced by the
Grand Rapids Chicks and the
Fort Wayne Daisies in the
1945 season. The league added two more teams in
1946, the
Muskegon Lassies and the
Peoria Redwings. Faut was rewarded with a contract to play in the eight-team league and was assigned to the established South Bend Blue Sox, by then
managed by
Chet Grant, a former
Notre Dame football player and the sports editor for the
South Bend Tribune. In 1946, the AAGPBL made significant changes in its rules, extending the length of the base paths and pitching distance and decreasing the size of the ball. Later in the season, the league allowed a sidearm pitching delivery, permitting the pitchers to add a
curveball or
sinker to their repertoire of
fastball and
changeup, all of which Faut had hurled before joining the league. All of these rule changes were designed to make the game more exciting and more like men's baseball. In her rookie season, Faut appeared in 101 games, mostly at
third base, hitting a .177 (61-for-344)
average with 40
runs batted in while scoring 37
runs. She committed 60
errors at third for a .893
fielding percentage. When the sidearm motion was approved, Blue Sox manager Grant included her on the pitching staff for the rest of the season. Faut posted an 8–3 record with 21 strikeouts and a 1.32 earned run average in 12 outings, including nine
starts, eight
complete games, and a pair of two-hitters in 81
innings of work, ranking third in ERA and winning percentage (.727). That season, South Bend led the circuit in team batting with a .220 average, while finishing third in fielding with an average of .943. Grand Rapids' star
Connie Wisniewski led the circuit in ERA (0.96) and shared with Racine's
Joanne Winter the wins title (33), while Fort Wayne's
Dorothy Collins topped in strikeouts (294) and shutouts (17). More than half of the batters averaged under .200, while the highest marks were recorded by Rockford's
Dorothy Kamenshek (.316), South Bend's
Bonnie Baker (.286), Racine's
Sophie Kurys (.286), Grand Rapids'
Merle Keagle (.284) and Kenosha's
Audrey Wagner (.281). The Blue Sox finished in third place with a 70–42 mark, though lost in the semifinal round to Rockford, three games to one. In her first post-season, Faut went 0–2 with a 1.13 ERA against Racine. In Game 1 of the playoffs, she suffered the loss in a 17-inning pitching duel against
Anna Mae Hutchison, when
Maddy English knocked in the winning run in a 3–2 game. The AAGPBL made the transition from underhand to full side-arm pitching in 1947. Before starting the season, Faut married
Karl Winsch, a former
Philadelphia Phillies pitching prospect from East Greenville, near her hometown. The couple established their initial residence in
South Bend, Indiana, where she worked in the off-season for Ball-Band, a local division of the
United States Rubber Company. Pitching in 44 games, Faut came through with a 1.15 ERA to go with her 19–13 record, allowing 56 runs (38 earned) on just 179 hits in a career-high 298 innings. She walked 67 batters and struck out 97, ending third in innings, fifth in ERA and eighth in strikeouts, while tying for fifth in wins. She also posted a .236 average in 56 games, ranking 19th in the league behind Kamenshek, who won her second consecutive title with a .306 mark. Her most durable performance came on July 31, when she defeated
Eleanor Dapkus and the Belles in 22 innings by a 4–3 score. Faut spaced 16 hits, walked five, struck out eleven, and contributed two hits to her own cause. The league moved fully to overhand pitching in 1948, which made the game close to regulation baseball. Such change adversely affected the performance of underhand pitchers, because many of them were experienced
submariners who could not make the transition to the new pitching style. Consequently, many teams converted their
outfielders to pitchers since they were used to throwing the ball overhand with power. Batters, too, had to make adjustments, since underhand pitches tend to rise, overhand to drop. In that season also were incorporated the
Chicago Colleens and the
Springfield Sallies, and the AAGPBL expanded to a historical peak of ten teams divided into Eastern and Western Divisions. Faut had mixed results in 1948, because she was forced to set aside from her teammates. Recently married, with a baby to care for, she began handling baseball like a professional job and could not socialize after games. As she recalled in an interview, "I had to go home, take care of my family, cook and clean, and all of those things". Nevertheless, in 1949 she recorded her best career season so far, considered by many historians to be the best individual season for any pitcher in AAGPBL history. Faut posted a 24–8 record with a 1.10 ERA in 34 games, allowing 47 runs (36 earned) on 136 hits and 118 walks, while striking out 120 in 261 innings of work. She led the league in wins and shutouts (12), finished second in innings and third in complete games (20). Only two pitchers gave up fewer earned runs, both of Rockford:
Lois Florreich, who finished 22–7 with a 0.67 ERA in 269 innings, and
Helen Nicol, who was 13–8 with a 0.98 ERA in 212 innings. By the time the
1951 season rolled around, Faut was a successful and established pitcher. That year, her husband
Karl Winsch took over as manager of South Bend. It was to be a breakthrough year for the Blue Sox as well. Faut finished 15–7 with a 1.33 ERA in 23 games, striking out 135, while giving up 43 runs (28 earned) on 121 hits and 65 walks in 190 innings. She led the league in strikeouts, tied for seventh in wins, and ranked third in ERA and in shutouts (seven). Meanwhile, Winsch enjoyed an auspicious managerial debut, Nevertheless, when he became manager of the team, it made the situation even stickier and increased Faut's isolation from her teammates. Perhaps to avoid charges of favoritism, Winsch reduced significantly the number of games and innings pitched by Faut in 1950. Most women in the league were unmarried, making Faut odd-woman-out on her team. Faut reached her peak of the season on July 21, when she hurled a perfect game against the visiting Rockford Peaches at
Playland Park. Ahead 2–0, Faut struck out five of the last nine hitters, including pitching ace
Helen Nicol to end the game. The season started inauspiciously for Faut; her record in the first half was a good, however rather unremarkable 8–5 mark although, and notably, all five losses were by one run. This historic victory set the tone for the rest of the season. While South Bend placed third in the first-half standings, the team finished first in the second half, thus giving them a playoff berth. Their complete season record of 75 and 36 was best in the league that year. The competition she faced in that special game was among the best highlights of her career, because Rockford would end the season battling South Bend for the league championship. By
1952, only six teams remained in the league after Kenosha and Peoria were disbanded. That season saw Winsch become more demanding of his players in an extremely heavy-handed way with close scrutiny of each player. Faut again led the league in several pitching categories, but the fact her husband managed the team created friction between Faut and many of her teammates. Some of the women bristled under Winsch's leadership, so many refused to speak to either the manager or their star pitcher. South Bend finished with a league-best record of 76–36, then eliminated Grand Rapids in the best-of-three series (2–0). Faut was the winning pitcher in the first contest in a 2–1 complete game, in which she got out of a no-outs, bases-loaded jam in the ninth inning, surrendering just one unearned run. South Bend handily defeated the Chicks in the second game, 6–1, with Faut delivering two RBI and relieving in the ninth to seal the victory. Rockford disposed of Fort Wayne in the other series, two games to one. The 1952 championship series was a repeat of the previous year with South Bend again facing Rockford. It was a contest rocked by controversy as Faut lost the first game, delivering a sub-par performance when she surrendered an uncharacteristic seven runs on 13 hits. She was pulled in the seventh inning after giving up a two-run homer. The second game ended in another Rockford victory and a South Bend protest. Because their playing field was being readied for football, the Peaches had moved the right field fence in to 190 feet, 20 feet shorter than the league minimum. Consequently, the league disallowed the victory and forced a replay of Game 2. South Bend won it in 12 innings with Faut getting the victory when she pitched a scoreless final four innings in relief. As in the previous season, Faut was the winning pitcher in the decisive Game 5, hitting two triples and driving in two runs while turning in a 6–3 complete game performance. She was 2–1 with a 5.40 ERA in the playoffs, allowing over a hit per inning. It was the second league championship for South Bend and the second time Faut pitched the deciding game. In her last season, Faut led all pitchers in ERA for the fourth year in a row and tied for the most wins with
Eleanor Moore of Grand Rapids, who went 17–7 with a 2.00 ERA. In addition, Faut topped the league with 143 strikeouts to win the Triple Crown pitching for a second time. She also finished third in shutouts (5), seventh in innings (226), and tied for the third in complete games (24). On September 3 of that year, she hurled a perfect game against the Kalamazoo Lassies, 4–0. She is the only professional baseball player, male or female, to have pitched two perfect games. She helped herself with the bat as well, hitting a solid .275 (87-for-316) with 11 doubles, one triple, and a career-high four home runs, while driving in 38 runs and scoring 33 times in 98 games. In addition, she was included in the All-Star team for the fourth time, and once again won the Player of the Year honors, although South Bend finished fifth and missed the playoffs. Making that, she joined
Doris Sams as the only two-time Player of the Year winners in AAGPBL history. On September 6, 1953, the Blue Sox management and around 1,500 fanatics honored their longtime diamond ace with a
Jean Faut Night before a game at Playland Park. After collecting four hundred dollars in gifts, Faut ended her baseball career that evening with a 3–0, nine-hit defeat to the visiting Grand Rapids Chicks. Faut retired from baseball, frustrated by tension with teammates owing to being the team's best player but also the wife of the disliked team manager. The 1954 season ended with only five teams remaining: Fort Wayne, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Rockford and South Bend. The AAGPBL folded at the end of the season. ==Life after baseball==