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Women have a long history in American baseball. The first professional team in the United States was a women's team^{[citation needed]}, and many women's teams have existed over the years.

Contents 1 Amateur play 2 Professional play 2.1 20th- and 21st-centuries 2.1.1 All-American Girls Professional Baseball League 2.1.2 1954-present 3 Notes 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Amateur play

Baseball was played at women's colleges in New York and New England as early as the mid-nineteenth century;^[1] teams were formed at Vassar College, Smith College, Wellesley College, and Mount Holyoke College.^[2] An African American women's team, the Philadelphia Dolly Vardens, was formed in 1867, two years before the formation of the Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first professional baseball team.^[3]

[edit] Professional play

[edit] 20th- and 21st-centuries

A number of barnstorming teams existed, including Madame J. H. Caldwell's Chicago Bloomer Girls.^[4]

Women also played alongside men, if sometimes briefly. In the 1930s, 17-year-old Jackie Mitchell of the Chattanooga Lookouts struck out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game. Commissioner of Baseball Landis voided her contract as a result.^[5] Commissioner Ford Frick voided the contract of another woman signed to the Harrisburg Senators in the 1950s.^[6]

[edit] All-American Girls Professional Baseball League

See: All-American Girls Professional Baseball League

[edit] 1954-present

• The Colorado Silver Bullets (1994-1997)^[7]

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Cahn, Susan K (1995). Coming on strong: gender and sexuality in twentieth-century women's sport. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674144341. 
• Gems, Gerald; Linda Borish, Gertrud Pfister (2008). Sports in American History: From Colonization to Globalization. Human Kinetics. ISBN 0736056211. 
• Ring, Jennifer (2009). Stolen Bases. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-03282-0. 

[edit] External links

• The American Women's Baseball Federation
• North American Women's Baseball League
• Women's Baseball Association of Japan
• The Women's Baseball League
• Women's World Series