Induction Year: 2001

The Grand Rapids Chicks played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League from 1945 to 1954 and won league championships in 1947 and 1953.
The franchise originated in 1944 in Milwaukee, Wis., as the Milwaukee Chicks and that first team won the AAGPBL championship. Difficulty competing with the then male minor league franchise called the Milwaukee Brewers for ticket sales, the franchise moved to Grand Rapids after that first year.
Success continued with the Chicks making the playoffs every year until the league folded following the 1954 season.
The Grand Rapids teams had their share of league stars including Players of the Year Connie Wisniewski in 1945 and Alma Ziegler in 1950. League pitching titles were won by Chicks pitchers in 1944 and 1945 by Wisniewski, Mildred Earp in 1947, Alice Haylett in 1948 and Ziegler in 1950. Additionally, several Chicks made All-Star teams from 1946-1954 including Wisniewski, Ziegler, Earp, Haylett, Ruth Lessing, Merle Keagle, Doris Satterfield, Earlene Risinger, Eleanor Moore and Joyce Ricketts.
The Chicks played their home games at the now defunct South High School in Grand Rapids, with the exception of 1950-1952 when games were played at Bigelow Field in Wyoming Township. After a fire destroyed Bigelow Field, the Chicks returned to South High School through 1954.
In 1988 about 150 of the over 500 women known at the time to have appeared in the AAGPBL, and 300 family members and other interested parties, appeared at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., and were honored with the grand opening of the Women in Baseball exhibit. The Grand Rapids Press sent a reporter to Cooperstown to document the event.
In 1992, Penny Marshall, inspired by a visit to Cooperstown that prompted her to seek out the story of the league, directed the movie A League of Their Own starring Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Madonna and Rosie O’Donnell. The screenplay was written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel from a story by Kelly Candaele and Kim Wilson. The late Dolly Niemiec-Konwinski of Caledonia and other former Chicks were extras in the final scene of the movie depicting a reunion of the league players at the 1988 Cooperstown ceremonies.
The AAGPBL was formed by Philip K. Wrigley, the chewing-gum mogul who has inherited the Major League’s Chicago Cubs franchise from his father. Many minor league teams were disbanded and Major League teams lost talented players as young men went off to serve the Armed Forces in World War II. Wrigley wanted to keep his baseball fan base and formed the league with women.