Baseball team Rockford Peaches' pitcher Mary Pratt dies at age 101
Mary Pratt, believed to be one of the last surviving members of the women's baseball league which was celebrated in the Hollywood film A League of Their Own passed away at the age of 101.
Mary Pratt, believed to be one of the last surviving members of the women’s baseball league which was celebrated in the Hollywood film A League of Their Own passed away at the age of 101.
The baseball icon Pratt pitched in the 1940s for the Rockford Peaches, one of the original teams in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. She was the last surviving member of the Peaches.
She died peacefully in her sleep at the John Scott Nursing home in Quincy, Massachusetts.
“We are terribly sad to report that former Rockford Peaches and Kenosha Comets pitcher, Mary Pratt passed away on May 6th. She was 101 years old,” the AAGPBL wrote on its Twitter account.
We are terribly sad to report that former Rockford Peaches and Kenosha Comets pitcher, Mary Pratt passed away on May 6th. She was 101 years old. Mary was the last known original Peaches player that played on the 1943 team. Her stories, her energy will be missed for a long time. pic.twitter.com/dKFlbbBzf8
— AAGPBL Official (@AAGPBL) May 8, 2020
“Mary was the last known original Peaches player that played on the 1943 team. Her stories, her energy will be missed for a long time.” The league was immortalized in the 1992 film which was directed by Penny Marshall and starred Tom Hanks and Geena Davis.
Born in 1918 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Pratt joined the inaugural season of the AAGPBL and pitched for five years (1943-47).
The Hall of Fame remembers Mary Pratt, who starred in the @aagpbl as a member of the original 1943 Rockford Peaches and later with the Kenosha Comets. Pratt, pictured in the front row, fourth from the left, passed away on Wednesday. https://t.co/DykT88BdRf pic.twitter.com/Ry6Nl4DIOv
— National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum âš¾ (@baseballhall) May 8, 2020
She later served on the AAGPBLs board of directors and became a pioneer in fighting for equal opportunities for girls and women in sports. In her youth, she played basketball, softball, volleyball, lacrosse, field hockey, and tennis.
She has been inducted into the New England Sports Museum, Boston University Hall of Fame, and Boston Garden Hall of Fame.
At her 100th birthday party in 2018 she reflected fondly on her time as an athlete. “The good things I used to think about sports …. memories, you live on with them, because baseball is baseball, whether its today, or tomorrow or 50 years ago,” she said.
