In 1950, between her junior and senior years in college, Mudge was given a contract to play with the
Chicago Colleens, then was sent to the
Springfield Sallies during the midseason. She hit a combined .308
average with 24
runs batted in in their first 40 games. However, she tore a cartilage in her knee that required surgery and rehabilitation for the rest of the summer. ″Smudgie″, as her teammates called her, returned home after the league disbanded. She married and changed her name to Nancy Mudge Cato. She later moved to
Elk River, Minnesota, where she live for the rest of her life. Since 1980, her former teammate June Peppas and a group of friends began assembling a list of names and addresses of former All-American Girls Professional Baseball League players. Her work turned into a newsletter and resulted in the league’s first-ever reunion in
Chicago, Illinois, in 1982. Starting from that reunion, a Players Association was formed five years later and a significant number of former AAGPBL players continued to enjoy reunions, which became annual events in 1998. For many years, Mudge was an active participant in the events organized by the association. The AAGPBL folded in 1954, but there is now a permanent display at the
Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at
Cooperstown, New York, since November 5, , that honors those who were part of this unique experience. Mudge and Peppas, along with the rest of the league's girls, are now enshrined in the Hall. The AAGPBL Players Association helped to bring the league story to the public eye. The association was largely responsible for the opening of the aforementioned exhibition. Of the approximately 560 women who had played in the league, most had lost touch with the others; at least not until the first reunion held in Chicago. In July 1988, the
Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) held their annual National Convention in
Minneapolis with 340 people in attendance.
Andy MacPhail was the keynote speaker, and
Minor league baseball home run legend
Joe Hauser was a special guest, while Nancy was part of a players panel along Hauser,
Julio Bécquer and
Howie Schultz. In 1992, Mudge, along with
Jean Havlish and
Kay Heim, two other Minnesota residents and former AAGPBL players, were invited to throw out the first pitch in a game
Angels–
Twins played at the
Metrodome. The trio also was honored by the
Colorado Silver Bullets all-female baseball team in their 1994 inaugural season, in which they threw out the first ball pitch of a game celebrated in Saint Paul. Nancy Mudge Cato died in 2012 at her home in Elk River, Minnesota, at the age of 82. ==Career statistics==