by Dan Gutman
“Nothing much,” I said casually. “We watched TV mostly. How is Dad?”
Before Mom could answer, there was a knock at the front door. I went to get it. Coach Tropiano was standing on the front porch. I let him in.
“I couldn’t reach you by phone,” he said, “so I thought I’d stop by. I just wanted to see if your dad was okay, Joe, and to see if you might be able to play today. It’s a big game, our last game.”
I turned to Mom. She motioned for me to come over to her, and took my hand in hers when I did.
“Dad is doing better now, Joey,” she said. “But he…doesn’t have any feeling.”
“You mean he’s paralyzed?”
She nodded her head, and I collapsed in her arms.
“Below the neck,” she said softly.
“Uncle Bill is paralyzed?” Samantha asked, bursting instantly into tears.
“I’m sorry!” Coach Tropiano blurted out, backing toward the door. “I shouldn’t have come over at a time like this. My deepest condolences, Mrs. Stoshack. I’ll call you in a few days to see how you’re doing, Joe.”
“Wait,” I said, getting to my feet. “Don’t go, Coach.”
Coach Tropiano paused in the doorway.
“What is it, Joe?” he asked. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Yes,” I replied. “Start me.”
“Joe,” the coach said, “I completely understand if you don’t come to the game. The guys on the team will understand, too. I’ll make an announcement.”
“No announcement,” I said. “I want to play, Coach. Is it okay, Mom?”
My mother nodded her head. I went upstairs to put my uniform on.
Facts and Fictions
EVERYTHING YOU READ IN THIS BOOK WAS TRUE. THAT is, except for the stuff I made up. It’s only fair to let you know which was which.
First, the facts…
Mickey, Connie, Tiby, Merle, and all the other players in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) were real people. So was Max Carey, the Chicks’ manager. During World War II, when so many men were away fighting, suddenly American women had the opportunity to enter fields in which they were not welcome before, and professional baseball was one of them. Chicago Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley (whose father started the gum company in 1891 with $32) founded the AAGPBL in 1943, mainly to keep baseball alive during the war.
After two seasons, with the war won (almost a year after D day, Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945), Wrigley sold the league to his advertising director for $10,000. The AAGPBL thrived in the late 1940s, and closed up shop in 1954.
Why did it die? Lots of reasons. Americans had new things to do. Drive-in movies. Bowling. NASCAR started in 1948. The NBA was founded in 1949. Young women were getting married and starting a baby boom.
And, of course, there was television. In 1945, there were only seven thousand TV sets in the entire United States. Six years later, there were ten million. People could watch major-league games for free in their living rooms, so why go out for anything less? Many men’s minor-league teams went out of business at this time, too.
After their poor start in 1944, the Milwaukee Chicks came back strong. They went on to finish the season at 70-45 and win the AAGPBL championship, beating the Kenosha Comets in a seven-game play-off.
Sadly, that was the only year the team existed. Due to poor attendance, they were moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1945, where they remained for ten years. Wrigley really did hire the Milwaukee Symphony to play before games, in hopes of increasing attendance. It didn’t work.
Borchert Field (which was actually nowhere near the train station) was torn down in 1954. Interstate 43 now covers the site.
Connie Wisniewski was the AAGPBL player of the year in 1945. When the league switched to overhand pitching in 1948, she became an outfielder and led the league in homers one season. After her baseball career, she worked at General Motors and also opened a restaurant called The Chicks’ Dugout. She died in 1995.
Alma “Ziggy” Ziegler was player of the year in 1950. She became a court reporter. Thelma “Tiby” Eisen worked at General Telephone in California, where she became one of the first female equipment installers.
Merle “the Blond Bombshell” Keagle died from cancer in her thirties. Doris Tetzlaff became a physical education teacher and died in 1998.
Chicks manager Max Carey was president of the AAGPBL from 1945 to 1949. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1961 and died in 1976.
A fifteen-year-old boy named Joe Nuxhall really did pitch for the Cincinnati Reds on June 10, 1944. He didn’t last one inning, walking five batters and giving up two hits. But Nuxhall came back in 1952 and had a productive fifteen-year career in the majors.
The players in the AAGPBL really were required to go to charm school. Everything the charm school lady said in this book came directly from The Charm School Guide, which was given to all the players in the league. The rules of conduct are also real, though I shortened them.
The facts in this book came from interviewing Mickey Maguire’s son Rick Chapman; her sister Jean Cobb; and her teammates Tiby Eisen, Alma Ziegler, Vivian Anderson, Viola Thompson Griffin, Helen Steffes, Helen Hannah, and Sarah Lonetto.
I also got a lot of information by reading A Whole New Ball Game by Sue Macy; Girls of Summer: In Their Own League by Lois Browne; When Women Played Hardball by Susan E. Johnson; Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball by Barbara Gregorich; Women in Baseball: The Forgotten History by Gai Ingham Berlage; and W. C. Madden’s reference books about the AAGPBL.
After the AAGPBL folded, the women went on with their lives and rarely talked about the league. Mickey Maguire never even told her children that she had been a professional ballplayer! The surviving players held a fortieth anniversary celebration in 1982, and in 1988 the Baseball Hall of Fame included them in a new exhibit titled “Women and Baseball.” But the world didn’t really learn about the AAGPBL until 1992, when the movie A League of Their Own was released.
You may have found it odd that the women of the AAGPBL were called “girls” in this book. In 1944, women were often called girls and did not take offense at it. Times have changed.
Now the fictions…
The teams of the AAGPBL did not have mascots, and men were never allowed to play. I must admit I made that part up to get Stosh into the action.
While Chicks first baseman Dolores Klosowski did break her leg during a game in 1944, it happened a week after the events in this book, on June 14.
While Toni Stone was a real person and was eighteen years old in 1944, she never tried out for the AAGPBL. She did play second base in the Negro League in 1953, hitting a respectible .243. Two African-American women worked out with the AAGPBL in 1951, but they were not signed up.
The news that the Allies captured Rome was actually in the newspapers the same day that D day was reported, but for the sake of the story, I placed it a few days later.
Finally, Joe Stoshack and the characters from the present day do not exist. Time travel is impossible with baseball cards or any other way, darn it.
One more thing…
It’s true that three days after D day, Mickey Maguire got the news that her husband, Tom, had been killed in action, and she insisted on playing that day. But there is more to the story. Two months later, Tom Maguire was found in Italy—alive! He had suffered severe burns while fighting.
A year after Tom came home, he and Mickey divorced, partly because he wanted her to quit baseball. Mickey played until 1949. By that time, she had married a man named George Chapman. They had six children. Their son Rick tried out for the Kansas City Royals in 1970. Mickey loved horses and trained many of them. She died on August 2, 1981.
Permissions
The author would like to acknowledge the following for use of photographs and artwork:
National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, NY: 8, 65, 87; Kenosha News, 115 (first article); Larry Fritsch Cards, Inc.: 23, 32; Nin
a Wallace: 30, 54, 145; Northern Indiana Historical Society, Inc.: 51, 56, 70, 128; Racine Journal Times, 115 (second article).
Reproductions of baseball cards are courtesy of Larry Fritsch Cards, Inc. To get a copy of their catalog, contact them at: 735 Old Wausau Rd., P. O. Box 863, Stevens Point, WI 54481 or 715-344-8687 or www.fritschcards.com.
Acknowledgments
This book may have been possible without the help of Jim Nitz of the Milwaukee County Historical Society, but I don’t know how. Thanks for everything, Jim! Also, a big thank-you to Dolly Brumfield White of the AAGPBL Player’s Association; Joanne Pure of the Haddonfield Public Library; Rachel Kepner, Bill Francis, and Bill Burdick at the National Baseball Hall of Fame; Sue Macy; Rick Chapman; Jean Cobb; Tiby Eisen; Alma Ziegler; Vivian Anderson; Viola Thompson Griffin; Helen Steffes; Sarah Lonetto; Helen Hannah; John Ranz; and Dr. Scott Kolander.
About the Author
DAN GUTMAN is the author of many books for young readers, including the four previous Baseball Card Adventures: HONUS & ME, JACKIE & ME, BABE & ME, and SHOELESS JOE & ME. When he is not writing books, Dan is very often visiting a school. He lives in Haddonfield, New Jersey, with his wife, Nina, and their children, Sam and Emma.
You can visit him at his website www.dangutman.com
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
Also by Dan Gutman
Honus & Me
Jackie & Me
Babe & Me
Shoeless Joe & Me
Johnny Hangtime
Credits
Cover art © 2003 by Steve Chorney
Cover © 2004 by HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
Copyright
MICKEY & ME. Copyright © 2003 by Dan Gutman. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub © Edition OCTOBER 2008 ISBN: 9780061973284
Version 12142012
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