Joanne Winter

Joanne Emily Winter [Jo] (November 24, 1924 – September 22, 1996) was a pitcher who played from 1943 through 1950 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

Listed at 5ft 8in, 138 lb., she batted and threw right-handed.

A native of Chicago, Illinois, Joanne Winter was the daughter of George Winter and Edith (née Watson) Winter, of German and Scottish origins, respectively.

The young Winter attended Proviso Township High School in Maywood, Illinois.

Athletically inclined, she participated in basketball, soccer, swimming, volleyball, track and field, tennis, and handball as a youth in Maywood, a western suburb of Chicago.

At age 11, she joined the Oak Park Coeds softball team.

In addition, she spent much of her free time training in a gymnasium owned by Jocko Conlan, a local hero and an umpire with Major League Baseball experience.

Winter dropped out of Proviso Township High School at 15 to play softball for the Parichy Roofing Company, well known as a Bloomer Girls team, and later joined the Admiral Music Maids of the National Women's Softball League.

She later moved with her family to Phoenix, Arizona, where she played for the Arizona Ramblers.

At 18, she heard about Philip K. Wrigley and his remarkable experiment in creating a women's professional baseball league.

During World War II, Wrigley was in charge both of the Wrigley Company and the Chicago Cubs Major League Baseball club.

Wrigley decided to found the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League as a promotional sideline to maintain interest in baseball as the military draft was depleting Major League rosters of first-line players.

Wrigley approached other Major League team owners, but the idea was not well received.

Then, four non-Major League cities were selected that were in close proximity to the AAGPBL headquarters in Chicago and close to each other: Rockford of Illinois, South Bend of Indiana, and Racine and Kenosha of Wisconsin.

After four years of semiprofessional competition, Winter tried out for the AAGPBL.

Since the only organized ball for women in the country was softball, the league created a hybrid game which included both softball and baseball.

Wrigley had scouts all over the United States, Canada and even Cuba signing girls for tryouts.

About 500 girls attended the call.

Of these, only 280 were invited to the final try-outs in Chicago where 60 were chosen to become the first women to ever play professional baseball.

The league started with the four teams aforementioned, and each team was made up of fifteen girls.

Winter survived the final cut and was assigned to the Racine Belles, where she played for the next eight seasons.

Winter posted an 11–11 record in 1943, helping the Belles win both the first half of the season and AAGPBL championship.

In the best-of-five Series, Racine defeated the Kenosha Comets, winners of the second half, 3 games to 0.

She also was selected for the All-Star Game, which was the first night game played at Wrigley Field (July 1, 1943).

But each year the field dimension changed as the league came closer to emulating the game played by the men's major leagues.

Winter had a hard time dealing with the changes as she struggled to keep mentally focused, recording a 22–45 mark between 1944 and 1945.

Then she learned from a Mexican hurler how to pitch a sidearm sling-shot delivery.

The rising pitch baffled hitters and transformed her in one of the best pitchers of the league, most notably, when the league expanded from six to eight teams.

The Belles finished in first place with a league-best 74–38 record, won the semifinal round of playoffs by defeating the South Bend Blue Sox in four games, and clinched the title after beating the 1945 AAGPBL champions Rockford Peaches, four games to two.

Throughout the playoffs Sophie Kurys was the biggest Belles star.

She led all players in average, stolen bases, and runs scored.

On the other hand, Winter collected four wins in all series, including three against Rockford, despite allowing 19 base runners in a 1–0 shutout victory over the Peaches in decisive Game Six.

The winning run was scored by Kurys on an RBI-single by Betty Trezza.

The Belles also showed a great defense, notably by left fielder Edythe Perlick, right fielder Eleanor Dapkus, first sacker Margaret Danhauser, shortstop Trezza, and Maddy English at third.

The pitching mound was raised, the pitching distance was lengthened, the ball shrank from season to season, the basepaths were extended and two new teams were added, until sidearm pitching was allowed in 1946.

In 1946, Winter earned 33 victories for only nine losses while pitching 17 shutouts with 183 strikeouts in 46 pitching appearances.

Winter's 33 wins tied her with Connie Wisniewski for most victories in a regular season.

She also set all-time records of 63 consecutive scoreless innings and six consecutive shutouts; was selected an All-Star, and led Racine capture another pennant and championship.

Winter went 22–13 with 121 strikeouts in 1947, leading her team again to the playoffs.

Racine defeated the Muskegon Lassies, three games to one, but lost to the Grand Rapids Chicks in the final Series four games to three.