Faye Dancer

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Faye Dancer
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Batted: Right
Threw: Right
debut
1944,, for the Minneapolis Millerettes
Last appearance
1950,, for the Peoria Redwings
Career statistics
Hits 488
Runs 323
Stolen bases 352
Win–loss record11-11
Strikeouts  43
Earned run average2.28
Teams
Career highlights and awards

Faye Katherine Dancer (April 24, 1925 – May 22, 2002) was a

right-handed.[1]

Women in baseball

The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League flourished in the 1940s when the

Madonna, Lori Petty and Rosie O'Donnell, that brought many of the real players a rebirth of celebrity with the first season of the AAGPBL. [citation needed
]

Early life

Born in 1925 in Santa Monica, California, Faye Dancer was the third of four children into the family of James and Olive (née Pope) Dancer. Her father worked as an inspector for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. He later became an appliance store owner and sponsored a men's local softball team for a long time. While attending Santa Monica High School, the young Dancer played softball for a girls' team called the Dr Peppers, which was sponsored by the historic soft drink company. She also attended University High School in West Los Angeles, where she broke an all-city basketball record after shooting 42 baskets in just one minute. She ran an obstacle course in 9.4 seconds and fast-walked the half mile in 2 minutes and 42 seconds, and enjoyed kicking balls with the boys.[2]

After her graduation in 1941, Dancer started to play professional softball in a southern California league. In 1944, Dancer signed a contract for $75 a week, a sizeable sum in those days and also the top salary for any player in the AAGPBL. As an aside, when retired in 1950, she was earning $125 per week. Her greatest attribute was her stunning speed, which made her an adept base stealer. In her brief five-season career, she stole 358 bases, averaging 70 steals per season with a career-high 108 in her final year. She also was the first player in the league to hit two home runs in a game, and the first to belt two grand slams in a single season. Sometimes she pitched, posting an 11–11 record with 43 strikeouts and a 2.28 ERA in 25 appearances. Her career was shortened by a serious back injury, but the impression Dancer left on the league and her teammates was one of dedication, hustle and fun.

Professional career

Dancer entered the AAGPBL in 1944 with the expansion

extra bases
and two grand slams.

In search of a new horizon, the Millerettes moved in 1945 to

first base
or as an emergency pitcher.

In 1945, Dancer dropped to .195 with 44 runs and 29 RBI, but posted a league-best three home runs. The next year she rebounded with a .250 average, 56 runs, and 43 RBI. In 1947, after 29 games with the Daisies, she was traded to the Peoria Redwings. Dancer finished the season with a combined average of .237, 51 runs and 26 RBI. In 1948 for Peoria, she batted .272 with a career-high 89 runs, six home runs, 34 RBI, and ranked second behind Sophie Kurys with 30 stolen bases. A litany of injuries forced her to retire following that season.[4]

Dancer tried a return with the Redwings in 1950, but a herniated disk from a sliding injury and a chipped vertebra forced her permanent retirement after just 49 games. She hit .207 with 25 runs, 34 RBI, and amassed 108 stolen bases – by that time a league season record. She never appeared on any All-Star team or played in the playoffs.[4]

During the off-season, Dancer worked as an electronics technician in the

Howard Hughes Aircraft Company. Following her baseball career, she labored for a power generator company in Santa Monica for 35 years and also opened an electronics business with her fellow player and longtime friend Pepper Paire.[5]

The AAGPBL folded in 1954, in part because

Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum since November 5, 1988 honors those who were part of this unforgettable experience. Dancer, along with the rest of the AAGPBL players, is now enshrined in the venerable building at Cooperstown, New York. She joined more than 75 other former AAGPBL players for the opening of the exhibit, where her baseball glove and spikes
are on permanent display, as well as her most famous photo that depicts her hustle and all-out play in 1948, while sliding into third base to avoid a tag. The void the league filled during wartime was inspiration for the aforementioned film, which brought a rejuvenated interest to the history of women's baseball.

Dancer lived in Santa Monica until moving in with her brother Richard to

Los Angeles, California in 1990. Shortly thereafter, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Within a month of diagnosis, she underwent surgery to remove her left breast along with 18 lymph nodes and lost her longtime job.[6]

In 2001, the Sacramento River Cats team had Dancer threw out the first pitch to Pepper Paire. After that she received chemotherapy treatment.[7]

Death

Dancer died, aged 77, in 2002 after undergoing cancer surgery at the UCLA Medical Center.[8][9]

This same year she was elected to the National Women's Baseball Hall of Fame.[10]

Personal life

Dancer never allowed her antics off the field to interfere with playing baseball. She frequently played with injuries, sustained from diving for fly balls or running into teammates or stands. A tough and free spirit lady, she was known as the AAGPBL joker and an inveterate rule breaker, kicking against league structures on her private life. Dancer smoked and drank, and after her fiancé Johnny was killed in action during World War II, she never really considered marrying anybody else, despite having a significant number of boyfriends.

Anecdote

Before the 1945 season, Dancer and Paire stopped in Arizona to watch Jim Thorpe, an American sports legend and a U.S. Olympic champion of the 1912 Stockholm Games. At the time, he had a baseball team called The Thunderbirds, but did not have enough money to pay for the team's hotel rooms, so both girls offered to stay and play in a ball game to get Thorpe out of his financial bind.[11]

Batting statistics

GP AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB BA
591 2072 323 488 53 14 16 193 352 .236

References

  1. ^ Wiles, Tim. "Faye Dancer". Society for American Baseball Research. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
  2. ^ All-American Girls Professional Baseball League – Faye Dancer Archived March 31, 2019, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
  3. ^ "Dirt on Their Skirts: The Minneapolis Millerettes". June 27, 2014. Archived from the original on March 31, 2019. Retrieved March 31, 2019.
  4. ^
    ISBN 0-7864-3747-2
  5. ISBN 0-313-31174-9
  6. ^ "Our Sports Central". Archived from the original on June 4, 2011. Retrieved January 3, 2010.
  7. ^ "Faye Dancer". The Telegraph, London. June 18, 2002. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
  8. ^ McLellan, Dennis (June 1, 2002). "Faye Dancer, 77; West L.A. Native Starred in Pro Baseball League". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
  9. ^ Martin, Douglas (June 9, 2002). "Faye Dancer, Free-Spirited Baseball Star, Dies at 77". The New York Times. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
  10. ^ "National Women's Baseball Hall of Fame Inductees". Archived from the original on October 3, 2008. Retrieved November 4, 2011.
  11. ^ "Confessions of an All-American Girl: An Interview with Faye Dancer - John H. Halway, Illinois Periodicals Online". Archived from the original on June 17, 2011. Retrieved January 3, 2010.
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