| Dorothy Wiltse Collins | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Pitcher | |
| Born: September 23, 1923 Inglewood, California | |
| Died: August 12, 2008(2008-08-12) (aged 84) Fort Wayne, Indiana | |
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |
| AAGPBL debut | |
| 1944, for the Minneapolis Millerettes | |
| Last appearance | |
| 1950, for the Fort Wayne Daisies | |
| Career statistics | |
| Career Batting Average | 0.099 in six seasons |
| Lifetime Pitching Record | 117-76 |
| Lifetime ERA | 1.83 |
| Winning Percentage | 60.6% |
| Years Won 20 or More Games | 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947 |
| Career Strikeouts | 1,205 |
| Teams | |
Dorothy Wiltse "Dottie" Collins (September 23, 1923 – August 12, 2008) was an American professional baseball pitcher for theAll-American Girls Professional Baseball League from 1944 to 1948 and 1950. Collins played her rookie season (1944) for theMinneapolis Millerettes and spent the rest of her career with theFort Wayne Daisies. Known as the "Strikeout Queen," she set multipleAAGPBL records throughout her career and led the league with herwinning percentage,fielding percentage, andstrikeouts. Collins helped form the All-American Girls Professional Baseball league Players Association in 1987 and held many different positions during her tenure with the association.
TheAll-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) had over 500 women's baseball players from the years 1943 to 1954.[1] With only a few exceptions, baseball games were played extremely similarly compared to the gamesMajor League Baseball (MLB) players would play in.[2]Philip Wrigley, owner of theChicago Cubs, started the League in 1943 because he thought fans would forget aboutbaseball because ofWorld War II.[3] The League's seasons would go from May to about mid-September.[2] The players were paid between $55 and $150 per week for a 125-game season, where they would play almost every day with manydoubleheaders on the weekends.[2]
Wiltse Collins, born September 23, 1923, inInglewood, California, was the only child of Daniel Emerson Wiltse and Eleanor Camille Runswick.[4] Her father was aStandard Oil Company welder and former semipro baseball player in theLos Angeles area and her mother was of an English-German-Italian background.[5] On her father's side, Collins had a couple of distant relatives who played professional baseball in the MLB.[4] Starting at a very young age, Collins's love of baseball was always reinforced with positivity.
Collins's father was her biggest role model in her baseball career. Every day once she got home from school, she would wait for her dad to get home from work so they could play catch in thebackyard.[6] Her father built abackstop in their backyard where they would practice a lot, but sometimes they would go to the school'ssoftball field to provide more of a challenge for Collins.[6] Along with practicing with her father and playing on softball teams, Collins was able to participate on a co-ed baseball team throughoutelementary school.[6]
Collins's sports career really started at the age of 9 when she became a bat girl for the Mark C. Bloome softball team, part of the Los Angeles' parks department softball league.[4][5] While working as a bat girl during a bad game in 1935, the manager of the Mark C. Bloome softball team pulled Collins away from her bat girl job and placed her on thepitcher's mound in front of thousands of fans atWrigley Field (Los Angeles).[4][5] Collins was able topitch the team to a victory at 11 years old.[4]
As she got older, Collins was not able to playbaseball inhigh school because school related sports were not allowed for girls during this time period.[6] But she continued to play softball for the Mark C. Bloome softball team, as well as for the Goodrich Silvertown team.[6] Collins graduated fromInglewood High School in 1941 and started working as areceptionist for Payne Furnace very soon after graduating.[6] Once theUnited States entered intoWorld War II, they mandatedblackouts across the country, so many softball games had to be canceled. When the games were cancelled, Collins worked in a localfactory manufacturing airplane parts.[6]
In 1944,Bill Allington, Collins's former manager for her softball teams growing up, recommended that she try out for theAll-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL).[6] Along with choosing Collins, Allington hand-picked five other girls fromCalifornia to try out for the AAGPBL.[6] That spring, Collins got on a train inLos Angeles and made her way toChicago to try out for the League.[6] Tryouts were very competitive, but all six of the 'California girls' ended up making it onto some of the League's teams.[6] The fact that all six of the California girls made it into the League goes along with the idea that they were often described as having a lot of confidence and sometimes were even seen as cocky.[7]
Over the course of Collins's career, the AAGPBL switched their pitching styles form underhand, to sidearm, and eventually settled on the overhand pitch.[5] One of Collins's softball coaches was very surprised that she could throw acurveball underhanded, because he had never seen any other pitcher do that with asoftball.[5] Relying on her wicked curveball, Collins was able tostrikeout over 200 batters her first four seasons in the League.[8][5]
In their first and only season, theMillerettes only won 44 games.[5] Halfway through the season, Minneapolis' owner decided to not disband the team, but to finish out the season by only playing away games.[9] The team members became known as 'the Orphans' as they lived in hotels to finish out the 1944 season.[9] Minneapolis' manager, Bill Allington, the man who recruited Collins into the AAGPBL, was described as being very intense but also very caring towards his players. One example of this is when Collins fell in thedugout and broke hertailbone without knowing it.[10] When Collins went out topitch in pain, Allington came out to ask what was wrong and made sure that she got to thehospital and was taken care of.[10]
One of Collins's best games with the Millerettes was on June 17. She led the team against theRacine Belles and held them hitless for 10 2/3 innings, but the Millerettes ended up losing the game after 15innings.[11] Although the team did not do well as a whole, Collins was able to pitch a 20–16 record in her rookie season.[5] Collins had a league-high 205strikeouts, but also set anAAGPBL record for hitting 44batters.[5]
The Minneapolis Millerettes' main problem was where they were located on the map. The team was 400 miles away from the closest League town, which was theRockford Peaches inIllinois.[9] When scheduling,Minneapolis games were seen as a nightmare because the visiting teams would arrive to thestadium 'surly and exhausted'.[9] Also, it was thought that the League's teams could not last longer in bigger cities, like Minneapolis. Smaller cities were thought to be better for the League. In 1945, the Minneapolis Millerettes were adopted byFort Wayne, Indiana, and became the Daisies.[9]
After Minneapolis was picked up by Fort Wayne in 1945, Collins had her best season as leadpitcher.[5] In the 1945 season, Collins pitched 345innings total and had a record of 29–10.[6][5] She also had anAAGPBL single-season record of 293strikeouts as well as 17shutouts throughout the whole season.[5][6] She pitched twono-hitters in 17 days and had 111 base-on-balls, also known aswalks.[6] Collins ended the season with a 0.83ERA and a 0.744winning percentage, which was tied for league best.[5] In their first year in the League, the Daisies almost won the championship.[12] At one point, theFort Wayne Daisies were even described as being similar to the famousYankees because they recruited the most talented players and dominated the league.[13]
In the 1946 season, Collins, now pitching under her married name, Collins, won 22 games and struck out 294 batters, which was another record.[5][14] In the 1947 season, Collins won 20 more games and led all AAGPBL pitchers with a 0.965fielding percentage.[5] At the beginning of the 1948 season, Collins announced her intention to retire at the end of the season to focus onmotherhood, but ended up immediately retiring in mid-July.[15][16][17]
After taking the 1949 season off to raise her daughter and work, Collins returned to the League for the 1950 season. In the 1950 season, she had an ERA of 3.46 and a winning percentage of 0.619.[17] She ended the season with a 13–8 record.[5] At the end of the 1950 baseball season, Collins decided to permanently retire from the game of baseball.[17]
Many people were very big fans of Collins. Many Fort Wayne Daisy fans would ask her forautographs and localflorists would even send her flowers every time shepitched ashutout.[14] One fan even made Collins's daughter a mini pink Daisy uniform.[17] Collins eventually donated this uniform to the Northern Indiana Historical Society inSouth Bend, Indiana, which has the largest collection ofAAGPBLmemorabilia.[17]
After Collins had gotten married, her husband Harvey would bring carloads of friends to away games to support her.[8] Once Collins came back to baseball after having her daughter, Patricia, her teammates, husband, and mother-in-law were all very supportive of her. Collins's mother-in-law would sit with Patty on her lap in the stands to watch her games.[17]
On August 28, 1945, Collins pitched and won both games of adoubleheader against theRockford Peaches.[5] After watching both baseball games, Harvey Collins, who had spent four years in theNavy duringWorld War II, mentioned to his friend that he wanted to meet Dottie.[17][8] Harvey's friend arranged for him to deliverbeer to the apartment that she shared with five other players.[17] Harvey asked Dottie out on a golf date for the next day, and she accepted.[17] On March 10, 1946, Harvey Collins and Dottie got married and would be together for over 50 years.[18][17]
After getting married, Collins continued to pitch very well. While four-months pregnant during the 1948 season, Collins finally decided to bench herself in the middle of the first game of a doubleheader.[17] Harvey and Dottie's first child, Patricia, was born on December 22, 1948.[19] Harvey and Dottie's second child, Daniel, was born on March 18, 1954.[19]
After retiring from baseball in 1950, Collins started working forGeneral Electric Company in Fort Wayne, Indiana.[5] After her son Daniel was born in 1954, Collins started playinggolf quite often.[17] She won the Fort Wayne All-City Golf Championship twice, and even was able to share the trophy one time with her husband Harvey.[17]
Collins was not able to stay away from sports for very long after she retired, and she soon started working part-time while also raising her family.[17] She worked for Vim's Sporting Goods, and enjoyed helping young baseball players find the right bat for them, and then worked for The Baseball Blue Book, which is where all of the records forMajor League Baseball were kept.[17]
Collins was also very active in her community by promoting youth sports through the Elks Club inFort Wayne during the late 1950s, into the 1960s and 1970s.[17] She organized beginning and intermediate level golf games for children and also helped coordinate a children'sbowling league.[17] Although these sports that Collins helped promote and coordinate were for both boys and girls, they especially benefitted girls because there were very few sports options for girls to play during this time period.[17]
In the year 1982, the AAGPBL had their first reunion in over 30 years.[17] All of the women met inChicago, Illinois, where they had all traveled to try out for the League. In 1987, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association was formed inSouth Bend, Indiana.[17] The Player's Association was formed mainly by Collins reaching out and locating former League players.[17] Collins served as thetreasurer and newsletter editor for 9 years, as well as being a spokesperson for the Association.[17][14]
Along with helping for the Players Association, Collins also helped open the "Women in Baseball" exhibit at theBaseball Hall of Fame inCooperstown, New York, in 1988.[17] Fittingly, Collins was able to open the curtain for the new exhibit inCooperstown.[20]
TheCooperstown exhibit as well as a documentary about theAAGPBL was inspiring for actress and directorPenny Marshall.[20] In 1992, Marshall decided to create the movieA League of Their Own, partially inspired by Collins's life and career.[20] Collins was able to serve as a technical director on the set and helped make sure authenticity was being kept, especially when actualbaseball was being played.[20]
In 1999, Collins became one of the first two women to be included into the Fort Wayne Baseball Hall of Fame.[20]
Collins died on August 12, 2008, at the age of 84.[21] Her cause of death was astroke according to her son-in-law.[21] Collins left a lasting legacy for female athletes, especially female baseball players. She was described as being a fine ballplayer who embodied theAAGPBL's ideal ofathleticism combined withfemininity.[8] Collins's star shone on and off the field during her playing career, which was shone with all of her promotion and organization over the years.[8]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)| International | |
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