Research Notes for Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball: Lizzie Arlington, Alta Weiss, Lizzie Murphy, Edith Houghton, Jackie Mitchell, Babe D - Paperback

by Barbara Gregorich (Author)

Research Notes for Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball, Volume 2, is a chronological collection of public domain newspaper articles and public documents - research information on which Women at Play was based.Research Notes, Volume 1 documented women ballplayers of the late 19th Century, most of them Bloomer Girls. Volume II documents six women who played on otherwise all-male teams from roughly 1890 through 1935: Lizzie Arlington, who signed a minor-league contract in 1898Alta Weiss, who pitched against men's teams throughout OhioLizzie Murphy, who played semipro ball for over twenty yearsEdith Houghton, who was playing semipro ball at the age of tenJackie Mitchell, who struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in 1931Babe Didrikson, who pitched spring training against major league teamsVolume 2 offers the most important of the newspaper and magazine articles about these six players, some articles in their entirety and some in summary. Included at the end of the volume is "The Only Lizzie," an article about Lizzie Arlington.This book will be of interest to baseball researchers in general, to women in baseball who want to know their history, to people who enjoy reading old newspaper articles, to high school English teachers who assign research topics and papers to students, and to all teachers interested in introducing students to primary source materials. In this volume you will find untold stories about women in sports; primary source materials; research paper materials; and the daily or twice-daily games played by barnstorming women.

Author Biography

Barbara Gregorich's baseball writing started with the well-received novel, She's on First. This story of the first female major leaguer was praised by Publishers Weekly, which wrote that "all baseball fans will appreciate Gregorich's sure feel for the game . . . the baseball scenes are crackerjack, and readers should end up wondering, 'Why not?'" After writing the fictional version of women in baseball, Gregorich began the long job of researching the true story of women who played hardball. The result of that research was Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball, published by Harcourt, 1993. Women at Play won the SABR-Macmillan Award for Best Baseball Research of the Year. In 2013 Women at Play was included in Ron Kaplan's 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. The work that went into researching women who played baseball (from 1875 onward) was intense, and the accumulated articles filled several file boxes. In 2010 Gregorich published Research Notes for Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball, Volume I, offering the most important of the newspaper articles she had found - some in their entirety and some in summary. This, Volume II of Research Notes, brings the story of women in baseball into the early 20th century, featuring news-making heroes such as Alta Weiss, Jackie Mitchell, and Babe Didrikson. 
Gregorich studied at Kent State University, the University of Wisconsin, and Harvard. She worked as an English instructor, a typesetter and a letter carrier. She lives in Chicago with her husband, Phil Passen.