Kamenshek, Dorothy

Dorothy Kamenshek, (born December 21, 1925, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.—died May 17, 2010, Palm Desert, California), American athlete, one of the stars of women’s professional baseball, who was considered a superior player at first base and at bat.

Kamenshek showed promise as an outfielder with a local softball league by the time she was 17. A scout for the newly created All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) persuaded her to try out in Chicago. She made the league, and from 1943 to 1953 she played for the Rockford (Illinois) Peaches, starting as an outfielder but soon taking over at first base. Kamenshek’s skills at first base impressed former New York Yankee Wally Pipp as being the most accomplished he had ever seen among men or women. He once predicted that Kamenshek would be the first woman selected for the men’s major leagues. In fact, a men’s team from the Florida International League did attempt to recruit her in 1950, but she declined the offer, believing it was basically a publicity stunt. During her 10-year career with the AAGPBL, she was selected for seven All-Star teams, held the league’s put-out record, won the batting title two years in a row, and struck out only 81 out of 3,736 times at bat. The exploits of Kamenshek and her teammates inspired the film A League of Their Own (1992).

Back injuries caused Kamenshek to retire after the 1951 season. She began studying at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for a physical therapy degree. In 1953 she returned to the Rockford Peaches to help boost the team’s ticket sales, but she retired permanently at the end of the season. After graduating from Marquette, Kamenshek worked as a physical therapist in Michigan. She moved to California and eventually became the director of the Los Angeles Crippled Children’s Services Department.