Fern Battaglia

Fern Battaglia
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
Third base / Second base
Born: (1931-01-06)January 6, 1931
Chicago, Illinois
Died: March 15, 2001(2001-03-15) (aged 70)
Bensenville, Illinois
Batted: Right
Threw: Right
Teams
Career highlights and awards
  • Women in Baseball – AAGPBL Permanent Display
    at Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (1988)

Fern Gertrude Battaglia (January 6, 1931 – March 15, 2001) was an infielder who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5' 4", 120 lb., she batted and threw right handed.[1][2]

Born in Chicago, Illinois, the diminutive Fern Battaglia joined the league in 1950 with her hometown Chicago Colleens, by then a player development team. She split time between third and second bases in her rookie year, batting .204 (51-for-250) with one home run and 29 runs batted in in 67 games, gaining a promotion to the Battle Creek Belles for the 1951 season.[3][4]

She then played half a season with the Belles before returning home to take care of her ill mother. Battaglia posted a .167 average in just 18 games and did not return to the league for a second season.[5]

After that she was employed by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), teaching at public schools in the Chicago area.[5]

In 1988, Fern received further recognition when she became part of Women in Baseball, a permanent display based at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, which was unveiled to honor the entire All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

She was a longtime resident of Bensenville, Illinois, where she died in 2001 at the age of 70.[2][6]

Career statistics

Batting

GP AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB BB SO BA OBP
19 60 5 10 1 0 0 4 4 6 8 .167 .242

Fielding

GP PO A E TC DP FA
19 38 21 5 64 5 .922

[3][5]

Sources

  1. ^ The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: A Biographical Dictionary – W. C. Madden. Publisher: McFarland & Company, 2005. Format: Softcover, 295 pp. ISBN 978-0-7864-2263-0, OCLC 60387152
  2. ^ a b "Ancestry.com – All results for Fern G Battaglia".
  3. ^ a b "All-American Girls Professional Baseball League – Fern Battaglia". Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  4. ^ 1950 Chicago Colleens. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  5. ^ a b c The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: A Biographical Dictionary – W. C. Madden. Publisher: McFarland & Company, 2005. Format: Softcover ISBN 978-0-7864-2263-0 OCLC 60387152
  6. ^ Social Security Death Master File – Persons born 06 January 1931