Goshen native honored for playing in women's professional baseball league

Aug. 7—SOUTH BEND — The smile couldn't come off of Shirley Salisbury's face. She had been practicing for this all day, and now was her moment to shine.

Sitting in her wheelchair, Salisbury's great niece, Olivia, pushed Shirley out to the infield of Four Winds Field. She was put about 15 feet from home plate, baseball in hand, and getting ready to do something she's done for most of her life: throw a baseball.

Salisbury threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the South Bend Cubs game Thursday. The 86-year-old cocked her right arm back and fired the ball toward Cubs player Blake Whitney at home plate. The ball only traveled a few feet, but that didn't matter. Salisbury just being there was historic in itself.

Back in 1953, at the age of 17, Salisbury played for the South Bend Blue Sox, one of the founding members of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League that played from 1943-1954. The league started when most U.S. men were fighting during World War II. It was a historic league for women's sports, with the 1992 film "A League of Their Own" spotlighting the league decades later.

After throwing the first pitch, Whitney gave Salisbury the ball back. The baseball rarely left her hands the rest of the evening.

"We didn't have balls like this ... it wasn't this heavy," Salisbury said.

SALISBURY'S PLAYING DAYS

A Goshen native, Salisbury played outfield and was a pitcher for the Sox. She made her season debut Thursday, June 25, 1953 against the Grand Rapids Chicks, getting the start in right field. Her debut night was dubbed "Goshen Night," and a whole section of the stands was reserved for fans from Goshen.

Salisbury actually missed the final three weeks of her junior year at Goshen High School to be part of spring training for the team, per an old newspaper article. Her father, Howard, made sure to note that she was going to make up for that in her senior year.

While Salisbury only played in 10 games with the Blue Sox, she also had a successful career playing in women's softball leagues around the area. Shirley's brother, Bob, is four years younger than his sister. He still has plenty of memories of Shirley's playing days all these years later.

"I remember I was about 14 years old when Shirley was playing, and we used to go to the games in South Bend," Bob said. "We got to know some of these girls that played. It was interesting because, back in those days, that was right after the war. People were getting back; the men were in the service and the gals were playing ball. It was kind of a neat time."

HONORING HER LEGACY

Thursday's first pitch was organized between the Cubs and the Waterford Crossing Senior Living Center in Goshen, where Salisbury lives. The senior center has a "Live a Dream" program, where residents can get a chance to do something they've always wanted to do in their lives.

"When you decide to live at a Trilogy campus, we make a promise to you — that it's never too late to go on a new adventure, and there's no adventure too great or too small," Jenna Barghahn, life enrichment director at Waterford, said in a statement. "That's why, thanks to our [Live] a Dream program, we have residents who have touched the clouds in a hot air balloon, taken a motorcycle ride on the back of a police cycle, tilled the soil in a combine one last time, and had lunch with their 99-year-old sister."

Salisbury's first pitch was part of a bigger celebration of the AAGPBL at Four Winds Field as well. The South Bend Cubs have done a couple of these events in recent years, including one in 2018 when a 97-year-old South Bend resident and former Blue Sox player, Betsy Jochum, was honored. Women from The History Museum in South Bend were dressed in old uniforms from the AAGPBL and sharing information about the league's history on the concourse of the stadium throughout the evening Thursday.

"The South Bend Blue Sox team was remembered in South Bend by a lot of people, and I think it's neat they're honoring the people who are still left," Bob said. "I think there's only five now that are still with us."

Being able to honor the legacy of the women's baseball league means a lot to Shirley's sister-in-law, Jeanette Salisbury, as well.

"It's awesome; it really is," Jeanette Salisbury said. "It's very meaningful for the family and I'm sure for anybody that remembers them playing. It was long ago, but people will remember and they'll go, 'Oh yeah, that was really, really cool.' That was an unusual time for women to be playing, so it was pretty neat she did that."

The memories of her playing days have deteriorated for Salisbury, as she was diagnosed with dementia in recent years. Looking at old pictures of her playing days bring back some of the memories, family members say, but she still struggles to remember most things on a daily basis.

Being able to have her family there on Thursday meant the world to Salisbury.

"Lovely ... I can see them. They're laughing," Salisbury said.

Austin Hough can be reached at austin.hough@goshennews.com or at 574-538-2360. Follow him on Twitter at @AustinHoughTGN.