Helen Filarski

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Helen Filarski
Detroit, Michigan
Died: September 13, 2014(2014-09-13) (aged 90)
Harper Woods, Michigan
Batted: Right
Threw: Right
Teams
Career highlights and awards
  • Best season
    third base
    (1946)
  • Championship Team (1945)
  • Four postseason appearances (1945–1946, 1948–1949)
  • Women in Baseball – AAGPBL Permanent Display at Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (1988)

Helen Filarski (later Steffes; May 11, 1924 – September 13, 2014) was an American baseball player. She was an infielder and outfielder who played from 1945 through 1950 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5 ft 2 in (1.57 m), 125 lb., she batted and threw right-handed.[1]

Career

Nicknamed "Fil", Helen played on a championship team and won a season title as the best defensive

line drive hitter, she was able to be patient and swing at good pitches at the same time, as evidenced by her .309 career on-base percentage and her 1.81 walk-to-strikeout ratio. After her playing days, she coached hundreds of girls for more than 40 years.[1][2]

Born in

second base, before finally settling in at third base.[1]

During a local tournament Filarski was invited to a tryout for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in

Chicago, Illinois. She made the trip and accepted an offer contract because the money was so much better than she could make in the factory.[4]

Filarski entered the league in 1945 with the Rockford Peaches, playing for them two years before joining the Peoria Redwings (1947), Kenosha Comets[5] (1947) and South Bend Blue Sox (1948–1950).[1][6]

In her rookie season for the Peaches she helped them win the Championship Title that year. Her biggest contribution during the postseason came in the final best-of-seven series, against the

runs batted in,[2] though in the series she got knocked out and lost her two front teeth after a frightening collision with a base runner.[4]

In 1946, Filarski was the best defensive player at third base with a .932

extrabases (12) and on-base percentage (.314). Eventually, she also traveled to San Juan, Puerto Rico for a baseball tournament.[2]

Filarski did not return to the league after marrying Donald Steffes in 1951. The couple raised six children, four boys and two girls. She continued to be active in sports by coaching her children's teams, and also coached a softball team in Mount Clemens, Michigan for 30 years, extending her coaching knowledge into the early 2000s. In addition, her hobby activities included photography and playing basketball and bowling.[1][4]

In 1988, Filarski 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.[citation needed
]

Filarski died on September 13, 2014, in Harper Woods, Michigan, at the age of 90.[7]

Career statistics

Batting

GP AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB TB BB SO BA OBP
SLG
 OPS
534 1683 189 318 25 15 1 141 115 376 248 137 .189 .293 .223 .517

Fielding

GP
PO
 A E TC DP FA
513 866 1224 300 2390 99 .874

[2]

Sources

  1. ^ a b c d e Helen Steffes – Biography / Obituary. All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
  2. ^
    ISBN 0-7864-3747-2
  3. ISBN 0-7864-2100-2
  4. ^ a b c Encyclopedia of Women and Baseball
  5. National Baseball Hall of Fame
    . Retrieved April 2, 2019.
  6. ^ 1945 Rockford Peaches. Retrieved April 2, 2019.
  7. ^ "Helen Steffes obituary". Retrieved April 2, 2019.
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