What was the women’s baseball league that was formed in 1943 as a result of a shortage of males due to the war effort?

The All-American Girls Baseball League (AAGBL) was the brainstorm of Chicago Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley. He intended it to be a softball league in which the teams would play in major-league stadiums while the men were away at war. The league consisted of four teams — the Rockford Peaches, the South Bend Blue Sox, the Racine Belles, and the Kenosha Comets — who played a 108-game schedule. It included over 500 female players, and some male managers, such as Jimmie Foxx,Bill WambsganssMax Carey, and Dave Bancroft, who had spent time in the major leagues. Total attendance for the first year was 176,000, and the number increased yearly until it reached its peak of over 900,000 fans in 1948.

Despite its increasing popularity, the AAGBL was eventually forced to dismantle in 1953 after organizational problems, the rise in popularity of men’s baseball after the end of the war, and the social idea that women should return to the home after the men returned to their jobs.

In October 1988, the National Baseball Hall of Fame dedicated an exhibit to the AAGBL to honor the first truly successful women’s baseball league.