| Jean Lovell | |
|---|---|
 | |
| All-American Girls Professional Baseball League | |
| Catcher /Pitcher | |
| Born:(1926-11-21)November 21, 1926 Conneaut, Ohio | |
| Died: January 1, 1992(1992-01-01) (aged 65) Amboy, Ashtabula County, Ohio | |
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |
| Teams | |
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| Career highlights and awards | |
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Jean Lovell [″Grumpy″] (November 21, 1926 – January 1, 1992) was an American baseballcatcher andpitcher who played for three different teams of theAll-American Girls Professional Baseball League between the1948 and1954 seasons. Lovell batted and threwright-handed. Sometimes she is credited asJean Dowler.[1]
A native ofConneaut, Ohio, Lovell attended elementary school atAmboy Township. While she spent some time atConneaut High School, her family moved just east intoPennsylvania and she ended up graduating fromAbington High School. She played high-level competitivesoftball after graduation, mostly in Conneaut andPainesville before making the jump to the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.[2]
Lovell was a member of three AAGPBL Champion Teams and ended her eight-year career with 25home runs, more than any catcher in the league's history and good enough to rank her 10th in the all-time list. In addition, she was selected to the1953 All-Star Team.[3][4]
Lovell entered the AAGPBL in 1948 with theRockford Peaches, winning back-to-back championships with the Peaches 1948-'49 teams. While having played only 52 and 26 games in her first two professional seasons, she became a full-time player after moving to theKalamazoo Lassies, playing for them in 1950 and 1951. She was traded to theKenosha Comets for the second half of the 1951 season, but rejoined the Lassies in the summer of 1952, with whom she played the rest of her career, including for the 1954 champion team.[3]
In her final season, Lovell said goodbye in a meaningful way when the ball was reduced toMajor League size. She posted a .286batting average with 21 home runs and 69runs batted in, to reach all career goals. Those 21 longballs served to lead the league in that season, and also accounted for all but four of her 25 career home runs, which ended up being the most by any catcher in the history of the league. That season she was a member of the All-Star Team who faced theFort Wayne Daisies host team.[3][5]
Lovell played bothbattery positions, but was a much better receiver, despite playing with sore knees for a while. In addition, she had anappendectomy that limited her to 55 games during the 1952 season. At age 28, though, her professional career came to an end — as was the case for all of the players in the league — as the curtain came down on the AAGPBL as it folded.[6]
Following her playing retirement, Lovell returned to Conneaut and married Harold Dowler in 1959. The couple lived a full, adventurous life together. Both playedgolf andbowling, raisedGerman Shorthaired Pointers, and she also rodemotorcycles. But in her later years, she was beset by arenal failure, which forced her todialysis. Eventually, she suffered complications fromdiabetes. She died inAmboy, Ohio, at the age of 65, and is buried in Waterford Cemetery atErie County, Pennsylvania.[2]
Batting
| GP | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 470 | 1376 | 174 | 315 | 39 | 6 | 25 | 174 | 11 | 140 | 131 | .229 | .300 | .321 |
Fielding
| PO | A | E | TC | DP | FA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1376 | 253 | 77 | 1706 | 33 | .955 |
Pitching
| W | L | W-L% | ERA | GP | IP | H | R | ER | SO | BB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 10 | .231 | 4.18 | 18 | 113 | 103 | 83 | 52 | 17 | 60 |
Batting
| GP | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BA | SLG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | 53 | 5 | 17 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 0 | .321 | .396 |
Fielding
| G | PO | A | E | TC | FA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | 11 | 17 | 5 | 33 | .844 |