The women's-league test: the South Bend Blue Sox had no Granger daughter

1943–1954 · the AAGPBL roster tested by birthplace and hometown

The test, stated: The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League played in this county for its whole life — the South Bend Blue Sox, 1943–1954 — and the Blue Sox file lives in South Bend's history, where it belongs. What had never been run for this ground is the share test: whether any woman on the league's roster was born in Granger, or carried Granger as a hometown. It was run against the league's own player record — the AAGPBL Players Association roster and profiles, the History Museum's South Bend baseball record, SABR's biographical project and the Baseball-Reference register of Blue Sox rosters — by birthplace and hometown.

The result, at true size: Negative. No player in the league record carries a Granger birthplace or a Granger hometown. The Blue Sox's Indiana daughters in the record are other towns' — the 1948 roster's birthplaces run to LaPorte, Osceola and Auburn in this state, beside Pawtucket, Havana and Chicago beyond it — and the league's best-documented local life, Betsy "Sockum" Jochum (Blue Sox 1943–48, died in South Bend on May 31, 2025), was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on February 8, 1921: a South Bend immortal by career and by residence, not a Granger birth. Margaret Berger, an original Blue Sox pitcher of 1943–44, carried a Miami, Florida hometown. Granger in the 1940s was farm townships of a few hundred families; the league's scouts drew from city softball, and the roster they built — the definitive list stands from the Players Association's eight-year research project — holds no name from this ground. The test is printed as run: the women's league is county history at full size in South Bend's file, and Granger's share of its roster is zero.

Sources:

1. AAGPBL Players Association — official player roster and profile search (aagpbl.org), by birthplace and hometown; the definitive league player list per the Association's research project.
2. Baseball-Reference register — South Bend Blue Sox rosters (1948 roster birthplaces itemized in the entry).
3. SABR Biographical Project and the standard record — Betsy Jochum (b. Cincinnati, Ohio, February 8, 1921; Blue Sox 1943–48; d. South Bend, May 31, 2025); Margaret Berger (hometown Miami, Florida; Blue Sox 1943–44).
4. The History Museum, South Bend — Blue Sox record; no Granger birthplace or hometown appears.