The National Girls Baseball League (NGBL) played from 1944 to 1954 and was a rival of the better known All American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Based in the Chicagoland area, the league was originally named the National Girls Softball League but rebranded as the National Girls Baseball league for the 1946 season. The NGBL evolved out of the high-quality amateur Chicago Metropolitan Softball League, which had attracted some of the best women athletes in the country during the 1930s and 1940s.

NGBL founders Emery A. Parichy, a local businessman, Ed Kolski, a 1932 Notre Dame graduate and a local Republican politician, and Charles Bidwill, owner of the Chicago Cardinals football team, had been involved with the Metropolitan Softball League and took their teams professional to compete with the salaries offered by the AAGPBL, which had begun playing in 1943. The two leagues often competed to sign players, but eventually came to an uneasy agreement to respect contracts. Nevertheless, many players switched between the two leagues in different seasons. Despite its name, the NGBL never adopted overhand pitching (like the rival AAGPBL) and instead maintained underhanded pitching throughout its existence; so the sport on the diamond was more akin to modern fastpitch softball.

Unlike the AAGBL, the National Girls Baseball League did not require players to wear skirts on the field, and many teams and players wore shorts. The National Girls Baseball League also allowed a more diverse set of players on the field. Except for some players from Cuba, the AAGPBL employed only white athketes. The National Girls Baseball League, in contrast, fielded at least one African American player, outfielder Betty Chapman, who played for the Music Maids in 1951, as well as Chinese American, Gwen Wong, a pitcher for the Bloomer Girls in 1947, and Japanese American Nancy Ito, shortstop for the Bloomer Girls in 1953.

Franchises in the National Girls Baseball League included the Parichy Bloomer Girls/Wilson-Jones Bloomer Girls (1944-1954), the Chicago Bluebirds (1944-1954), the Chicago Chicks (1944-1948), the Brach Kandy Kids (1944), the Tungsten Sparks (1944-1947), the Rauland Radar Queens/Match Corp Queens/Tony Piet Queens/Alemite Queens (1945-1954), the Rockola Music Maids/Music Maids/Maids (1945-1953), the Chicago Cardinals (1947-1950), the Rockolas/Rockola Chicks (1949-1951), the Thillens Checashers (1951-1952), the Amphenol Belles (1952), and the All-Stars/Chicago Jewels (1954).

The league disbanded after the 1954 season due to decreasing attendance and financial difficulties.

Sources

In addition to the plentiful information about the league in the magazines/programs in this collection, the following sources were also helpful in documenting the history of the National Girls Baseball League:

William E. McMahon, Helen E. Nordquist, Merrie A. Fidler, “The International Girls Baseball League,” Baseball Research Journal (Fall 2016): https://sabr.org/journal/article/the-international-girls-baseball-league/

Bill McMahon, "Alice Kolski,” SABR Biography Project: https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/alice-kolski/

Adam Chu, “Their Turn At Bat: National Girls Baseball League” [website] https://www.nationalgirlsbaseballleague.com/

Jerry Crimmins, “Girls Baseball League Founder Emery A. Parichy,” Chicago Tribune 1992 January 11, D17.