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1918–2003 · South Bend, 1943–1950
Mary Geraldine Baker — Bonnie — was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, on July 10, 1918, on the register's dating; the Canadian references give 1919, and the variant stands. Recruited out of Canadian softball by the scout Hub Bishop for the league's first tryout camp at Wrigley Field in May 1943, she was assigned to South Bend and caught the club's first game, against Rockford on May 30, 1943. She became at once what the new league needed most: its most publicized player, "Pretty Bonnie Baker," whose picture in mask and chest protector opened Life magazine's 1945 essay on the league. She was an All-Star in 1943 and again in 1946 — a Saskatchewan source says three selections; the league record gives two — and 1946 was her best season: a .286 average with a league-leading 94 stolen bases. Her career ran to 930 games and 506 stolen bases.
In June 1950 she made a different kind of history: traded away, she became player-manager of Muskegon, then of Kalamazoo when the franchise moved — the only woman to manage a league club full-time, until the league barred women from the job. She sat out 1951 for the birth of her daughter, returned with Kalamazoo in 1952, and appeared on What's My Line? on August 17 of that year, at the height of the league's fame. After baseball she became the first woman sportscaster in Canada, calling games on CKRM in Regina in 1964–65, and Canada put her in its Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998. She died in Regina on December 17, 2003. For the league's first decade, its face was a South Bend catcher's.
Sources
- Jim Sargent, SABR biography of Bonnie Baker — the scouting and tryout camp, the first game, the Life essay, the 1946 season, the managership, the broadcasting career.
- The Canadian Encyclopedia and Canada's Sports Hall of Fame — the 1919 birth year against the register's 1918; the Canadian honors.
- Baseball-Reference Register — the 930 games and 506 stolen bases; the league record of two All-Star selections against the Saskatchewan source's three.