Jean Cione
Jean Cione | |
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First base / Outfield | |
Born: Rockford, Illinois | June 23, 1928|
Died: November 22, 2010 Bozeman, Montana | (aged 82)|
Batted: Left Threw: Left | |
debut | |
1945 | |
Last appearance | |
1954 | |
Teams | |
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Career highlights and awards | |
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Jean S. Cione [″Cy″] (June 23, 1928 – November 22, 2010) was a pitcher who played from 1945 through 1954 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5' 8", 143 lb., She batted and threw left-handed.[1]
Brief profile
Born in
Early years
Cione attended grades 1–12 in the Rockford Public School System, where she graduated in 1946. At school she used to play softball. Cione later worked at J. L. Clarke, where she played on the company's girls team. She also taught herself the accordion, after being motivated by the piano music of Frankie Carle.[2][5]
As she grew up, Cione showed an intense interest in athletics and outdoor activities, developing a practice that was to continue throughout the rest of his life. When she turned seventeen, she attended an All-American Girls Professional Baseball League tryout held at Racine under the direction of Max Carey. She passed the test and was offered a contract to play in the league.[2]
AAGPBL career
Cione entered the AAGPBL in 1945 with the Rockford Peaches, a team based in her hometown of Rockford which was managed by Bill Allington. Other five teams competed in the 110–game regular season: the Fort Wayne Daisies, the Grand Rapids Chicks, the Kenosha Comets, the Racine Belles, and the South Bend Blue Sox.[2][6]
The 1945 Peaches roster featured a perfect mix of experience and motivated young players, such as
Rockford took the AAGPBL pennant with a 67–43 record, surpassing Fort Wayne (62–47), Grand Rapids (60–50), Racine (50–60), South Bend (49–60) and Kenosha (41–69). In the best-of-five Series playoffs, runnerup Fort Wayne defeated fourth-place Racine in four games; first-place Rockford eliminated third-place Grand Rapids in four games, and Rockford won the league championship by beating Fort Wayne in five games.[8]
The Muskegon Lassies and Peoria Redwings were added as expansion teams for the 1946 season. Cione was sent to the Redwings, as the AAGPBL shifted players as needed to help new teams stay afloat. In 1947 she returned to Rockford. It was clear she was back where she belonged.[6][9]
By April 1947, all of the league's players were flown to
The next year Cione then found herself on the move again, this time to Kenosha (1948–1951), and then the Battle Creek Belles (1952) and Muskegon Belles (1953), before returning to Rockford in the league's final year (1954). Her most productive season came in 1950, when she won 18 games and hurled a pair of no-hitter in August: a 12–inning game against Grand Rapids and a seven-inning game against her former Rockford teammates. In 1952 she went 2–5, but sported a 3.24 ERA and made the All-Star team.[2]
In between seasons, Cione graduated from high school and went on to study at Eastern Michigan University, University of Illinois and University of Michigan.[11]
Career statistics
Pitching
GP | W | L | W-L% | ERA | IP | H | RA | ER | BB | SO | WHIP |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
169 | 75 | 65 | .536 | 2.31 | 1195 | 852 | 461 | 307 | 460 | 411 | 1.10 |
Batting
GP | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | TB | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
758 | 2447 | 240 | 548 | 67 | 27 | 8 | 247 | 86 | 693 | 232 | 299 | .224 | .291 | .283 |
Fielding
GP | PO |
A | E | TC | DP | FA |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
758 | 4163 | 593 | 148 | 4904 | 153 | .979 |
Life after baseball
Following her baseball retirement, Cione received a bachelor's degree from Eastern Michigan University before earning her master's degree at the University of Illinois. From there, Cione took up teaching physical education in elementary school for a decade and then returned to EMU, where she taught sports medicine for nearly three decades. She was EMU's first women's athletic director as her alma mater established a women's athletic program, attaining gender equity in the sports programs there.[11][12]
Honors and awards
Jean Cione is part of Women in Baseball, a permanent display based at the
A League of Their Own
The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League folded in 1954. Lady pitchers, catchers, and fielders drifted into obscurity until 1992 when the film
Jean Cione died at the age of 82 in Bozeman, Montana, where she had moved after retiring in 1992.[11]
Sources
- ISBN 978-0-7864-3747-4
- ^ a b c d e f g "All-American Girls Professional Baseball League website – Jean Cione Autobiography". Archived from the original on 2011-06-15.
- ISBN 978-0-7864-2100-8
- ^ "Baseball Almanac – Unassisted Triple Plays in Major League Baseball History". Archived from the original on 2011-03-10. Retrieved 2010-12-18.
- ^ "FlickRiver.com – AAGPBL biographies and pictures". Archived from the original on 2011-07-26. Retrieved 2010-12-18.
- ^ a b c "All-American Girls Professional Baseball League History". Archived from the original on 2009-08-28.
- ^ 1945 Rockford Peaches Archived 2019-03-30 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2019-03-28.
- ^ a b "All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Records". Archived from the original on 2009-09-07.
- ^ 1946 Peoria Redwings Archived 2019-01-27 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2019-03-28.
- ^ All-American Girls Professional Baseball League – Photo Gallery Archived 2010-09-17 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c "Bozeman Daily Chronicle – A Bozeman baseball legend dies at 82".
- ^ Rockford-Register-Star.com – Rockford native and Peaches pitcher dies Archived 2010-12-01 at WebCite
- ^ All-American Girls Professional Baseball League History Archived 2009-08-28 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame – Jean Cione Archived 2019-03-29 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2019-03-28.
- ^ "Eastern Michigan University Athletic Hall of Fame Inductees". Archived from the original on 2010-12-15. Retrieved 2010-12-18.
- ^ IMDb.com – A League of Their Own (1992 film)