Pepper Paire
Pepper Paire | |
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All-American Girls Professional Baseball League | |
Catcher/Infielder | |
Born: Los Angeles, California, US | May 29, 1924|
Died: February 2, 2013 Los Angeles, California, US | (aged 88)|
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |
debut | |
1944 | |
Last appearance | |
1953 | |
Teams | |
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Career highlights and awards | |
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Lavone A. "Pepper" Paire Davis (May 29, 1924 – February 2, 2013) was a baseball catcher and infielder who played from 1944 through 1953 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5 ft 4 in (1.63 m), 138 lb., she batted and threw right-handed.[1][2]
Overview profile
An All-Star catcher, Paire was a fine defensive player with good range on the field and a strong throwing arm. She exhibited an aggressive catching style, leading to a broken collarbone in her rookie season. She suffered numerous injuries thereafter, but kept on playing. Basically a
In 60 playoff games, she hit .211 with one home run and 16 RBI, including one triple and seven stolen bases.[1][3][4]
Early life
Lavone A. Paire was the daughter of Charles Edward Pair from Montana and Hortense Theresa (née LaPage) Paire Blazek from South Dakota. A native of
AAGPBL career
Paire entered the league in 1944 with the Minneapolis Millerettes. She hit .240 in 60 games as a rookie catcher and was moved to the Fort Wayne Daisies in 1945. That season she slipped to .196 as a shortstop, but paced the Daisies with 39 RBI and led the league with the fewest strikeouts (six). Then she found herself on the move again, this time to the Racine Belles from 1946 through 1947 and then the Grand Rapids Chicks from 1948 to the 1952 midseason, when she returned to the Daisies until her final season in 1953. She also moved around the field over the years, repeating at shortstop (1946), catching again (1947), and switching to third base (1948), before establishing herself as a catcher for the rest of her career.[1]
In 1946 Paire hit a solid .238 with 59 RBI in 101 games for the league champion Belles, in a year characterized by strong pitching and low batting averages. Batting crown winner Dorothy Kamenshek led hitters with a .316 mark while pitchers Connie Wisniewski and Joanne Winter tied for a league-lead 33 wins.[1]
Paire was one of two hundred players to attend the first AAGPBL spring training outside the United States, which was held in 1947 in Cuba at the Gran Stadium de La Habana. She enjoyed a good year, batting .226 with 50 RBI and recording career numbers in hits (97), runs (35), doubles (14), and stolen bases (18).[1][6][7]
Paire earned an All-Star Team berth in 1948, a year in which she caught a career-high 114 games and hit .186 with 24 runs and 27 RBI. She caught 110 games in both 1949 and 1950, improving her averages to .205 and .249, respectively. In 1950 she topped the league with 70 RBI and led all catchers with a .979 fielding percentage. After that, she hit a career-high .264 with 56 RBI in 1951, and shared catching duties with Rita Briggs in her last two seasons for the Daisies.[1][3][5]
Life after baseball
Subsequently, Paire played amateur softball and
Paire also coauthored the Official Song of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League along with
In December 2009, Paire released her own book, Dirt in the Skirt, to set the record straight on her life and fellow players from the AAGPBL. The book includes forewords by Penny Marshall and Tom Hanks.[12]
Paire was inducted into the National Women's Baseball Hall of Fame in 2013. [13]
Death
On February 2, 2013, Paire died of natural causes in
Career statistics
Batting
GP | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | TB | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
926 | 3164 | 251 | 713 | 79 | 15 | 2 | 400 | 79 | 828 | 308 | 117 | .225 | .295 | .262 |
Fielding
GP | PO |
A | E | TC | DP | FA |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
899 | 2564 | 1501 | 239 | 4304 | 101 | .945 |
Sources
- ^ a b c d e f "All-American Girls Professional Baseball League website – Lavonne (Paire) Davis entry". Archived from the original on 2012-05-26. Retrieved 2011-09-13.
- ISBN 978-0-313-29884-4
- ^ a b c "Encyclopedia of Baseball Catchers –Pepper Paire page". Archived from the original on 2011-12-15. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
- ^ a b c "The Diamond Angle – An interview with Pepper Paire". Archived from the original on 2010-04-15.
- ^ a b "Pepper Paire Davis website". Archived from the original on 2010-04-16.
- ^ "All-American Girls Professional Baseball League History". Archived from the original on 2009-08-28. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
- ^ "SABR Project – Betsy Jochum biography by Jim Sargent". Archived from the original on 2011-08-06. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
- ^ Biographical Dictionary of American Sports
- ^ "All-American Girls Professional Baseball League – Victory Song". Archived from the original on 2012-01-18. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
- ^ "IMDb.com – A League of Their Own (1992 film)". Archived from the original on 2019-02-22. Retrieved 2018-06-29.
- YouTube
- ^ "Dirt in the Skirt – Autobiography of Pepper Paire Davis". Archived from the original on 2010-01-02. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
- ^ "National Women's Baseball Hall of Fame inductees". Archived from the original on 2010-02-27. Retrieved 2017-06-12.
- ^ "Paire-Davis, 'League of Their Own' inspiration, dies at 88". USA Today. Associated Press. February 3, 2013. Archived from the original on February 4, 2013. Retrieved February 3, 2013.