Delores Brumfield

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Delores Brumfield
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
Infield/outfield utility
Born: (1932-05-26)May 26, 1932
Prichard, Alabama, U.S.
Died: May 29, 2020(2020-05-29) (aged 88)
Prescott, Arkansas, U.S.
Batted: Right
Threw: Right
Teams
Career highlights and awards
  • Four postseason appearances (1948–1950, 1953)
  • Led all
    fielding average
    (1950)
  • Women in Baseball – AAGPBL Permanent Display
    at Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (1988)

Delores Brumfield [White] (May 26, 1932 – May 29, 2020) was an American baseball player. White played as a

utility infielder/outfielder from 1947 through 1953 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m), 125 lb., she batted and threw right-handed.[1]

In 1947 Delores Brumfield became one of the youngest players to join the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League at the age of 14. Throughout much of her career, Brumfield exhibited a versatility to play most positions with the exception of

fielding average for all position players in 1950 and finished second in the batting title race in 1953. Following her baseball retirement, she earned a master's degree and doctorate in physical education and worked as a teacher and coach for 40 years.[2]

Born in Prichard, Alabama, Delores was the oldest of three children into the family of Earl Henry and Miriam McKay (née Turner) Brumfield. Her father was an auto mechanic, while her mother stayed at home until World War II, when she started as an office worker before becoming an office manager for an insurance firm.[3]

At an early age Brumfield learned to play

Havana, Cuba. Her parents did not like the idea, but they agreed after a league's player, Margaret Holgerson, offered to serve as a chaperone for their daughter during the trip.[4]

At 15, Brumfield entered the league in 1947 with the South Bend Blue Sox, a squad managed by Chet Grant, a former Notre Dame football player and the sports editor for the South Bend Tribune. She obtained her nickname ״Dolly״ that season, and it stuck with her for the rest of her career. Grant worked hard with Brumfield, spending significant amount of time teaching and encouraging her. When he moved to the Kenosha Comets the following season, he selected her from the player pool. I attribute a lot of my success in the league to Chet, she explained in an interview.[4][5]

Brumfield had a .117 batting average in her rookie season and .142 as a sophomore. She raised her average to .212 in 1949, while playing for new manager Johnny Gottselig. She also improved in other areas, dropping her strikeouts to only 26 in 274 at bats (one in each 10.54 AB), while raising her on-base percentage from .225 to .289 and her slugging from .153 to .248.[1]

Her most productive season came in 1950, when she posted career numbers in

fielding average, for the best mark among position players.[1][6]

In 1951 Brumfield batted a team-high .273 average and tied for ninth in the league in doubles (14). She was traded to the

second base, but struggled until the manager Jimmie Foxx put her at first base for a double header. She went six-for-eight, including a home run, which prompted Foxx to use her at first in a regular basis. Unfortunately, near the end of the season she broke her left ankle in a home-plate collision and lost the rest of the season and the playoffs.[4][7]

During her last season of play, in 1953, Brumfield batted .332 to finish second behind teammate Joanne Weaver (.346), while surpassing another teammate, Betty Foss (.321), and Rockford Peaches' Alice Deschaine (.315). Fort Wayne, with Bill Allington at the helm, clinched the regular season title but lost to the Kalamazoo Lassies in the best-of-three first round. Despite her successful year, Brumfield suffered a prolonged case of anemia during the regular season and decided to concentrate in her college education. Playing in the league allowed me to pay for my college education, she claimed.[4][8]

Brumfield had been attending college during the offseason. She graduated from Alabama College for Women (1954) with a degree in health, physical education and recreation. She then attended the University of Southern Mississippi, receiving her master's degree (1959) and doctorate (1969) in physical education. In 1977 she married Joe White, from Gurdon, Arkansas, becoming known as Dr. Delores ״Dee״ White. She took up teaching at Henderson State University and retired in 1994 after 40 years of dedicated work, being honored with the title professor emeritus.[3]

In 1988, she became part of Women in Baseball, a permanent display based at the

Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, which was unveiled to honor the entire All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. She later served as president of the AAGPBL Players Association
for a long term.

Besides this, her work and legacy also have been recognized by a number of individuals and organizations. She gained induction into the Henderson's Reddie Hall of Honor in 1998. In 2003, she was invited to the White House by President

Dickey-Stephens Park, the home of the Texas League's Arkansas Travelers.[3]

She died on May 29, 2020, in Prescott, Arkansas, at the age of 88.[9]

Career statistics

Batting

GP AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB TB BB SO BA OBP
SLG
533 1767 215 408 61 17 4 160 107 515 247 176 .231 .325 .291

Fielding

GP
PO
 A E TC DP FA
498 3841 453 95 4389 193 .978

[8]

Sources

  1. ^ a b c "All-American Girls Professional Baseball League – Delores White". Retrieved 2019-03-27.
  2. ISBN 0-7864-3747-2
  3. ^ a b c "Delores ״Dolly״ Brumfield White – Biography by Fred Worth". Archived from the original on 2012-01-19.
  4. ^ a b c d The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
  5. ^ 1947 South Bend Blue Sox. Retrieved 2019-03-27.
  6. ISBN 0-7864-3747-2
  7. ^ 1952 Fort Wayne Daisies. Retrieved 2019-03-27.
  8. ^ a b All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Record Book
  9. ^ "Obituary for Delores White". Welch Funeral Home. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
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