Dorothy Kamenshek, standout female baseball player, dead at 84

For once, there might really have been crying in baseball. Dorothy Kamenshek, who was a standout at first base in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and has been called the greatest female baseball player ever, died Monday in Cathedral City, Calif. She was 84.

Kamenshek was known for her ability to steal bases and to field her position during the 1940s on a circuit that inspired the movie, "A League of Their Own." The first baseman who went by the nicknames of "Dottie" and "Kammy" is said to have been the inspiration for Geena Davis' catcher role in the film, which included the famous quote by Tom Hanks' bemused character, "There's no crying in baseball!"

A lefthanded batter and thrower, she was encouraged to take up sports as a youngster in Cincinnati. Her father died when she was 9 and her mother wanted her to get involved in activities. When Kamenshek was a teenager, she was spotted by a scout for the league that was begun as a World War II diversion by Chicago Cubs owner Phil Wrigley. She passed a tryout at Wrigley Field and played 10 seasons for the Rockford Peaches.

She had a league-high career batting average of .292 and stole 657 bases - sliding frequently though the marketing-oriented league rules required the players to wear short skirts. Sports Illustrated included her on its list of top 100 women athletes of the 20th century.

"I never considered myself the best player in the league, other people did," she told Marquette Magazine in an interview published earlier this year. "I just went out and played every game to the best of my ability."

She turned down an offer from a men's minor league team in Fort Lauderdale because she considered it a publicity stunt. Nonetheless, Wally Pipp, Lou Gehrig's predecessor as first baseman for the Yankees, once called her "the fanciest-fielding first-baseman I've ever seen, man or woman."

After she retired from baseball in 1953, her long-term injuries led her to study physical therapy in college.

Working at a bakery to help pay tuition, Kamenshek graduated from Marquette at 33. She eventually moved to Southern California and became chief of the Los Angeles County Crippled Children's Services Department, supervising 100 physical therapists before she retired in 1980.

She had several illnesses in later years, including a stroke in 2001 that left her in a wheelchair and prevented her from attending women's league reunions.

Information on funeral arrangements was unavailable.