A league of Chicago’s Own: The other women’s pro league of the 1940s

Curious City

WBEZ Chicago

Investigation, Chicago, Radio, Arts, Society & Culture, Public, Education, Curious, City

4.6 • 661 Ratings

🗓️ 23 July 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There was the Rockford Peaches, women’s pro baseball team of the 1940s that was celebrated in the movie "A League of Their Own." But there was also a pro softball league at the time that had Chicago fans going wild.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Curious City, where we take your questions about Chicago and New Regents and investigate.
0:07.2	Girls Baseball.
0:08.1	Explore.
0:08.9	From WB.EZ.
0:12.5	I'm Erin Allen.
0:14.6	There's no crying.
0:16.6	There's no crying in baseball?
0:18.9	Yes, that's the iconic scene from the early 90s movie, A League of Their Own.
0:24.2	It told the story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League from the 1940s and 50s.
0:30.4	But a curious city listener heard about a lesser-known pro league at the time, based only in the Chicago area.
0:37.7	She wanted to know the story behind that league and if they ever played against the All-American
0:42.0	League.
0:47.7	That lesser-known one was the National Girls Baseball League, and the two did not play against
0:53.6	each other, but they did have a good old-fashioned and pretty fierce sports rivalry.
0:59.0	Now the name National Girls Baseball League is misleading.
1:02.0	For one, they played softball, not baseball.
1:05.0	And it wasn't national. The teams were only in the Chicago area.
1:08.0	But it was a pro league.
1:10.0	From here on out, we're going to call it the Chicago League.
1:13.9	The two leagues started around the same time.
1:16.5	When Philip Wrigley, of Wrigley's Gum in Chicago, created the All-American League,
1:20.9	he didn't include any of the existing softball team owners in Chicago.
	...

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