The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Is Born

On February 20, 1943, Chicago Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley and Brooklyn Dodgers executive Branch Rickey drew up the charter for the All-American Girls Softball League. The league was conceived as a way to keep baseball in the public eye while male players left for World War II military service. By the time it launched its first games on May 30, 1943, the league had shifted toward overhand pitching and baseball-sized diamonds, and its name eventually changed to the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

Four teams competed in the inaugural season: the Racine Belles, South Bend Blue Sox, Kenosha Comets, and Rockford Peaches. Attendance peaked at over 900,000 in 1948, and more than 600 women played in the league before it folded after the 1954 season. The AAGPBL stood as the only professional women's baseball league in American history until decades later, and its legacy gained wide recognition through the 1992 film "A League of Their Own."

February 20 is also the birthday of Sam Rice, born in 1890 in Morocco, Indiana. Rice played 20 seasons for the Washington Senators and accumulated 2,987 hits, falling just 13 short of 3,000. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1963 by the Veterans Committee. Rice is remembered for a controversial catch in Game 3 of the 1925 World Series, when he tumbled over the outfield fence while chasing a fly ball. Whether he held it remained a mystery for decades. Rice sealed a letter explaining what happened, to be opened only after his death. When it was read in 1974, it confirmed he had held on.