Eleanor Dapkus
Eleanor V. Wolf was a center fielder and pitcher who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.
Early years
Dapkus was born to Lithuanian parents, Frank and Antonina Dapkus, and raised in Chicago, Illinois. She was the tenth and youngest child in her family and the first girl after nine boys. She attended Christian Fenger Academy High School in Chicago and played every sport available to girls, but they were all of the playground variety, not varsity competition. Over the years, she earned twenty five medals in several sports, including softball, volleyball, basketball and soccer.AAGPBL career
In February 1943, Philip K. Wrigley founded the All-American Girls League. Wrigley, a chewing gum manufacturer and owner of the Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball, materialized his idea as a promotional sideline to maintain interest in baseball as the World War II military draft was depleting Major League rosters of first-line players. Ann Harnett became the first girl to sign with the All-American, being followed by Claire Schillace, Edythe Perlick and Shirley Jameson. The first AAGPBL spring training was set for May 17, 1943, at Wrigley Field in Chicago. 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 four teams, and each team was made up of fifteen girls. Dapkus survived the final cut and was assigned to the Racine Belles team, where she played for eight seasons. Dapkus earned the nickname Slugger for her power hitting abilities, helping Racine to clinch the league championship in both 1943 and 1946. She was chosen as the fourth outfielder for the 1943 All-Star team after leading the league with 10 home runs. The 1943 All-Star Game was the first night game played at Wrigley Field. In 1944, Dapkus paced the circuit with 10 doubles. For the 1946 team, she hit.253 and drove in 57 runs while tying for the league lead with nine triples. In 1948 the Belles decided to move her to the pitching mound, and she responded with a 24–9 mark as an overhand pitcher. But at the end of 1950 the Belles lacked the financial resources to keep the club playing in Racine, Wisconsin. Before the 1951 season, when the team moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, Dapkus, along with original Belles Maddy English, Edythe Perlick and Joanne Winter, were disappointed and decided not to make the move. During eight years, the Belles were a close-knit team, always like a family away from home. Dapkus and her teammates thought that all would be different, like a new team, maybe a new manager and, especially, a new location. Overall, Dapkus hit.229 with 30 home runs and 317 runs batted in 775 games, and posted a 53–34 record with 397 strikeouts and a 1.97 earned run average in 102 pitching appearances. She is seventh lifetime in home runs and ranks eleventh in runs batted in.