Auntie Beeb has interviewed veteran major-leaguer Mary Pratt of the Rockford Peaches. Never heard of ’em? Did you see A League of Their Own (1992)? The film is based on this all-women’s club from the 1940s, tho in real life the championship depicted was between the Racine Belles and Kenosha Comets.

In Right off the Bat, Martin and I talk a little about the state of the National Pastime “when all the men were gone.” This would be the summer of 1943, when the women’s league was founded, into the summer of 1945. (Per the photo, Rockford perdured till 1954.)

Skirt-uniforms were worn four inches above the knee—slightly scandalous for the times—and all the women playing hardball had the strawberries (not Darryl) on their thighs to show for their considerable efforts in such garb—while off the field “walking like ladies.” (If she had the opportunity, I’m sure my ultra-coordinated, wiry, and baseball-crazed [She kept score every day, when not at work, from radio broadcasts!] mother might’ve been a women’s-league bench-warmer if not actually in some starting lineup.)

Check out this delightful 4-minute interview with the indomitable Ms. Pratt.