Dottie Schroeder: All Twelve Seasons

1928–1996 · South Bend, 1943–1945

Dorothy Schroeder was born April 11, 1928, in Sadorus, Illinois, and signed with South Bend at fifteen, for fifty-five dollars a week, the youngest of her league's founding players. She played in the league's first game, on May 30, 1943, as the Blue Sox' shortstop. She also played in its last championship game, on September 5, 1954, as Kalamazoo's shortstop, and won a championship in it. Between those bookends she is the only player who appeared in all twelve of the league's seasons — South Bend 1943–45, then, after the trade that brought Lib Mahon here, Kenosha 1945–47, Fort Wayne 1947–52 and Kalamazoo 1952–54 — and she left the league's most durable record line: the most games, 1,249; the most at-bats, 4,129; the most runs batted in, 431; the most walks, 696; three All-Star selections and three selections as the league's best-fielding shortstop. Charlie Grimm, who managed the Chicago Cubs, gave the era's plainest professional verdict: "If she were a man, she'd be worth $50,000 to any major League club." After 1954 she toured four more summers with Bill Allington's All-Americans, the barnstorming side of league veterans. She died December 8, 1996. South Bend, where she started, keeps a plaque in her name; the twelve-season record itself is the monument.

Sources

1. Champaign County History Museum, exhibit biography of Dottie Schroeder — the signing at fifteen, the first and last games, the team sequence, the Grimm statement and the Allington tours.
2. All-American Girls Professional Baseball League records — the games, at-bats, runs batted in and walks marks; the All-Star and best-fielding-shortstop selections.