Guest Speaker: Betty Mullins
Growing up in western Canada, Betty Mullins likely never suspected that baseball would lead her to America...and to a career in the game, during World War II.
As a youth in Regina, Saskatchewan, she was recruited to her high school softball team to play third base -- mainly because she was the only girl in school who could make the throw from third to first. Unbeknownst to Betty, her skill got her noticed by a scout for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, an all-women's league started by P.K. Wrigley to keep the game alive during the war...and kept on going for a few years after that.
Betty was eventually offered a chance to try out for the league; all players had to go through tryouts, whether they had experience or not, and weren't assured a spot on any team...let alone the one they may have played for the prior season. She was a skilled third baseman, and wound up playing for three seasons in towns including South Bend, Grand Rapids and Muskegon.
Her best season came in 1949, when the Grand Rapids Chicks made it to the league's championship series, losing to the Rockford Peaches 3 games to 2. During her career, she had one spectacular game...making a dozen putouts from third, something that's never been done by any player in Major League Baseball.
She and her husband eventually settled in Sycamore, where they continued to remain active in sports through coaching; her work with the school's softball team led to full-time employment as a teacher, even though she'd never received any formal education in teaching. And she now keeps alive the legacy of the league, which eventually folded in 1954; it's enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, she herself is in three different sports halls of fame in Canada...and today, she is the last surviving player from all three teams she was on during her pro career.