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South Bend, 1943–1945
Dorothy "Dottie" 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 the league's founding players. She played in the league's first game, on May 30, 1943, as the Blue Sox' shortstop, and she played in its last championship game, on September 5, 1954, as Kalamazoo's shortstop, and won a championship in it. She is the only player who appeared in all twelve of the league's seasons. The 1945 trade that sent her to Kenosha for the Mahon package began her tour — South Bend 1943–45, Kenosha 1945–47, Fort Wayne 1947–52, Kalamazoo 1952–54, the seam years rendered slightly differently by different exhibits — and she accumulated the league's most durable record book 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; three selections as the league's best-fielding shortstop. Charlie Grimm, who managed the Chicago Cubs, gave her 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 team of league veterans, before the trail closes. 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
- Champaign County History Museum, exhibit biography of Dottie Schroeder — the signing at fifteen, the first and last games, the team sequence and league records, the Grimm statement, the Allington tours.
- All-American Girls Professional Baseball League records — games, at-bats, RBIs and walks marks; All-Star and best-fielding-shortstop selections.
- Jim Sargent, SABR biography of Lib Mahon — the 1945 trade that sent Schroeder to Kenosha.