Katie Horstman
Katie Horstman | |
---|---|
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League | |
Utility player | |
Born: Minster, Ohio | April 14, 1935|
Bats: Right Throws: Right | |
Teams | |
| |
Career highlights and awards | |
|
Catherine Horstman [″Horsey″] (born April 14, 1935) is a former female utility player who played from 1951 through 1954 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m), 150 lb., she batted and threw right-handed.[1]
Overview profile
A dependable and versatile utility, Horstman excelled as a
Early life
A native of Minster, Ohio, Horstman was the youngest girl in a home of six children. Whenever they played baseball she did it. She started to play on the Catholic Youth Organization softball team in Minster since the fifth grade. At 16, she was invited to tryouts for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, and signed a contract for $250 a month to play with the Kenosha Comets before the 1951 season.[4][5]
AAGPBL career
Horstman started 1951 with Kenosha but was traded to the Fort Wayne Daisies during the midseason, playing for them until the demise of the league in 1954. In her rookie season, she pitched, caught and played at outfield, hitting a combined .256 batting average in 38 games, and going 3–0 with nine strikeouts and a 2.35 earned run average in six pitching appearances. Fort Wayne reached the playoffs, but lost to the South Bend Blue Sox in the first round, two games to one. Horstman saw more action in 1952, appearing at third base and pitching. She hit .250 in 90 games, and posted a 5–2 record with 28 strikeouts and a 2.35 ERA in ten decisions. The Daisies advanced to the playoffs for the second year in a row, this time finishing in first place with a 67–42 record, but again lost the first round, 2-to-1, to the Rockford Peaches.
In 1953, Horstman hit .292 with 46
During what turned out to be the league's final season, the girls hit a regulation-sized baseball. The strong Daisies lineup won the title with a 54–40 record. Once more, Joanne Weaver led all hitters with a remarkable .429 average and a best-ever 29 home runs, while her older sister Betty hit .352 with 14 homers and 54 RBI. Other contributions came from Geissinger, who hit a second-best .377 average with 26 homers and a league-high 91 RBI. Meanwhile, Horstman posted career numbers in average (.328), home runs (16), hits (98), doubles (13), RBI (55), runs (68), total bases (163) and slugging (.545). She played at third, caught and pitched, adding to her resume a 10–4 mark with 46 strikeouts and a 2.85 ERA. In the playoffs, Fort Wayne dispatched the Grand Rapids Chicks (2-to-1) and Kalamazoo did the same with the Blue Sox.
1954 Championship Title
In Game 1 of the AAGPBL Series, the Kalamazoo Lassies defeated the Fort Wayne Daisies 17–9 behind a four-hit, seven strong innings from June Peppas, who also helped herself by hitting 2-for-4, including one home run. Her teammates Carol Habben and Fern Shollenberger also slugged one each, and Chris Ballingall belted a grand slam. Pitching star Maxine Kline, who had posted an 18–7 record with 3.23 ERA for the Daisies during the regular season, gave up 11 runs in six innings and was credited with the loss. Hortsman connected two home runs for the Daisies in a lost cause, and her teammate Joanne Weaver slugged one.
The Daisies bounced back in Game 2, hitting five home runs against the Lassies to win, 11–4. Horstman started the feat with a two-run home run to open the score in the first inning. In the rest of the game, Betty Weaver Foss added two homers with five RBI, while her sister Joanne and Geissinger added solo shots. Peppas, Nancy Mudge and Dorothy Schroeder homered for Kalamazoo.
In Game 3, the Daisies won the Lassies, 8–7, fueled again by a heavy hitting by Joanne Weaver, who hit a double, a triple and a three-run home run in five at bats, driving in four runs.
In Game 4, starter Gloria Cordes helped Kalamazoo to tie the series, pitching a complete game victory over the Daisies, 6–5. Habben drove in two runs who marked the difference, while Kline suffered her second loss of the Series.
In decisive Game 5, Peppas pitched a clutch complete game and went 3-for-5 with an RBI against her former Daisies team, winning by an 8–5 margin to give the Lassies the Championship title in the AAGPBL's last ever game. She received support from Balingall (3-for-4) and Schroeder, who drove in the winning run in the bottom of the eight. Peppas finished with a .450 average in the Series and collected two of the three Lassies victories, to become the winning pitcher of the last game in the league's history.[8]
In four playoff appearances, Horstman was a .255 hitter (13-for-49) with three home runs and seven RBI in 15 games, including seven runs, three doubles and one stolen base, dividing her playing time at third base or catching.[9]
Allington All-Stars
When the league was unable to continue in 1955, Horstman joined several other players selected by former Daisies manager Bill Allington to play in the national touring team known as the All-Americans All-Stars. The team played 100 games, each booked in a different town, against male teams, while traveling over 10,000 miles in the manager's station wagon and a Ford Country Sedan. Besides Horstman, the Allington All-Stars included players as Joan Berger, Gloria Cordes, Jeanie Descombes, Betty Foss, Mary Froning, Jean Geissinger, Gertrude Dunn, Maxine Kline, Dolores Lee, Magdalen Redman, Ruth Richard, Dorothy Schroeder, Jean Smith, Dolly Vanderlip and Joanne Weaver, among others.[10]
Statistics
Batting
GP | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
308 | 1057 | 164 | 302 | 42 | 14 | 23 | 150 | 28 | 104 | 61 | .286 | .350 | .420 | .770 |
Pitching
GP | W | L | W-L% | ERA | IP | H | ER | BB | SO | WHIP |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
49 | 29 | 11 | .725 | 2.50 | 313.0 | 202 | 87 | 122 | 140 | 1.0351 |
Combined fielding
GP | PO | A | E | TC | DP | FA |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
245 | 307 | 411 | 63 | 781 | 28 | .919 |
Life after baseball
In the 1960s, Horstman graduated from Medical Record Librarian School. She later joined the
Horstman has been named Midwest Athletic Conference League Coach in all sports numerous times, and has been inducted in five halls of fame in baseball and track. In 1988, she attended to the opening of a permanent display at the
Retired, but very active, Horstman has played
References
- ^ "Catherine Horstman – Profile". All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
- ^ Baseball Historian entry
- ^ The Diamond Angle - Interview by Lou Parrotta
- ISBN 0-7864-3747-2
- ISBN 0-7864-2100-2
- ISBN 0-7864-3747-2
- ^ "1953 AAGPBL All Star Team". All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
- ^ "League History". All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
- ^ "Encyclopedia of Baseball Catchers entry". Archived from the original on 2011-06-04. Retrieved 2010-02-20.
- ISBN 0-275-94735-1
- ^ "Ohio Women's Hall of Fame biography". Archived from the original on 2022-11-25. Retrieved 2010-02-20.
- ^ "Ohio Association of Track and Cross Country Coaches Hall of Fame - Class of 1986". Archived from the original on 2009-05-31. Retrieved 2010-02-20.