Isabel Álvarez
Isabel Álvarez | |
---|---|
Havana, Cuba | |
Died: June 6, 2022 Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S. | (aged 88)|
Batted: Left Threw: Left | |
debut | |
1949 | |
Last appearance | |
1954 | |
Teams | |
| |
Career highlights and awards | |
|
Isabel "Lefty" Álvarez (October 31, 1933 – June 6, 2022)[1] was a Cuban pitcher and outfielder who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League between the 1949 and 1954 seasons. She batted and threw left-handed.[2]
Isabel Álvarez was the youngest
Early life
Álvarez was born and raised in
From 1948 to 1949 seven Cubanas played in the AAGPBL: Isora del Castillo, Luisa Gallegos, Mirtha Marrero, Migdalia Pérez, Gloria Ruiz, Zonia Vialat and Álvarez. At the age of 15, she joined the league with the encouragement of her mother, who felt the United States offered better opportunities than Cuba did. Álvarez had difficulty communicating in her new country, but credited some teammates with helping her through the rough times.[6][7][8]
Career
Álvarez moved around for a while, as the AAGPBL shifted players as needed to help teams stay afloat. She entered the league in 1949 with the Chicago Colleens, playing for them two years before joining the Fort Wayne Daisies (1951) and then found herself on the move again, this time to the Battle Creek Belles (1951), and then the Kalamazoo Lassies (1953) and Grand Rapids Chicks (1954), before returning to the Daisies in the league's final year (1954).[2]
Álvarez had three teammates in Chicago who were also from Cuba, and helped each other with the unfamiliar language and customs. When she moved to Fort Wayne, she had no one went without her Cuban teammates. Her most productive season came in 1950 with the Colleens, when she posted a 6–6 record and hit a career-high .256 in 12 games. She pitched 13 games with the Daisies in 1951, earning two wins and no losses with seven
Later life
By the time the league disbanded, she had become a U.S. citizen. Many years later, she returned to Cuba to visit her family and to try to locate some of the early AAGPBL players, in order to make a documentary titled Cuba on My Mind: The Baseball Journey of Isabel Alvarez. The film was made possible with support from the Indiana Humanities Council.[9]
A longtime resident of Fort Wayne, she was an active reporter and columnist for Touching Bases, the AAGPBL Players Association newsletter, and as an AAGPBL and NEIBA member.[9][10]
Tributes and recognition
Álvarez is part of the AAGPBL permanent display at the
The character of Esti González from the 2022 reboot series A League of Their Own based on the 1992 movie of the same name is partially based on Álvarez.
Career statistics
Pitching
GP | W | L | W-L% | ERA | IP | H | RA | ER | BB | SO |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
13 | 2 | 0 | 1.000 | 3.71 | 34 | 41 | 29 | 14 | 26 | 7 |
Batting
GP | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | BA | OBP |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
105 | 251 | 15 | 48 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 18 | 3 | 14 | 19 | .195 | .238 |
Fielding
GP | PO |
A | E | TC | DP | FA |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
65 | 53 | 12 | 8 | 73 | 0 | .890 |
Sources
- ^ "'I think Rockford will be proud': New Amazon series shows different side of Rockford Peaches". Rock River Current. 8 June 2022. Archived from the original on 8 June 2022. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
- ^ a b c "All-American Girls Professional Baseball League – Isabel Alvarez". Archived from the original on 2019-03-16. Retrieved 2019-03-25.
- ^ "All-American Girls Professional Baseball League History". Archived from the original on 2019-03-02. Retrieved 2019-03-25.
- ^ a b "Chican@ and Latin@ Studies – Article by Don Cobian". Archived from the original on 2010-06-10. Retrieved 2010-05-04.
- ISBN 978-1-57356-120-4
- ^ All-American Professional Baseball League Players Roster Archived 2011-04-30 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Women Sports Foundation". Archived from the original on 2010-06-20. Retrieved 2010-05-04.
- ISBN 978-0-7864-2100-8
- ^ a b "News-Sentinel.com – Baseball changed forever the life of local woman". Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2010-05-04.
- ^ "NEIBA Hall of Fame Class of 2008". Archived from the original on 2011-07-07. Retrieved 2010-05-04.
- ^ Gramling, Chad. "NEIBA HOF Class of 2008". NEIBA. Archived from the original on 29 April 2012. Retrieved 29 April 2012.
- ^ "Cuban Sports Hall of Fame Members". Archived from the original on 2003-04-08. Retrieved 2012-01-07.
- ^ Cuban Player a Hit in Baseball Heyday. Article by Marino Martinez Peraza Archived 2019-03-28 at the Wayback Machine. All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Retrieved 2019-03-25.
- ISBN 0-7864-3747-2
Further reading
- "Cuban pitcher found home as Daisy | Professional | Journal Gazette". www.journalgazette.net. 30 May 2018. Retrieved 2019-02-17.
- Doran, Terry, Latin Nights: The Baseball Journey of Isabel Alvarez, retrieved 2019-02-17
- Johnson, Susan E. (1994). When women played hardball. Seattle: Seal Press. OCLC 29255689.
- Sargent, Jim (2013-04-12). We were the all-American girls : interviews with players of the AAGPBL, 1943-1954. Jefferson, North Carolina. ) - interview with Álvarez