
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 13, 1995                   TAG: 9507140084
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: W-14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: STEWART MACINNIS SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES &WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

I'D HAVE GIVEN MY RIGHT ARM' TO PLAY BALL

For three glorious months in 1945, Aileen Elliot's life dream was on the verge of coming true: She was training to become the pitcher for the South Bend Blue Sox, a team in the professional women's baseball league that emerged during the war years.

Then one day, even before she had played a game, her leg muscles cramped beyond endurance, permanently sidelining her.

"I had worked a lifetime to get to that point," says Elliot, a resident of Raleigh Court. "I made it to where I wanted to go, but then I didn't make it.

"I loved to sit up in the stands and watch the game. Nobody knew how badly I wanted to play the game. I would have given my right arm - and you need your right arm to pitch - I would have given it if I could have gone on and played."

Her baseball career ended at the age of 24. But, now at 72, she only catches and give pointers to her 11-year-old granddaughter.

Elliot played all sorts of sports when she was growing up in southern Illinois during the Depression. She played on a girls' softball team for years but wasn't happy. She really wanted to play baseball.

"When I was coming up, parents looked down on a girl getting out in the field and playing ball," she says. "My dad got to the point where he'd just tell me not to get hurt. He couldn't stop me.

"I played ball as long as my body would let me. I regret that my legs from the knees caps gave me fits and yet I'm as healthy as they come."

In more recent years, Elliot, a retired sales clerk who followed her children to Roanoke, has enjoyed the game mostly as a fan and with her grandchildren.

Granddaughter Jamie A. Bourgeois, whom Elliot watches after school, now plays ball. Elliot, says she didn't push her but she certainly didn't discourage her.

"She heard me talking about the game, and she had seen me throwing with her brother when he was playing," Elliot says.

"I worked with him on his pitching. I guess she picked up on it from that. She loves to play ball."

Jamie's brother, John Paul, played recreational baseball for five years.

Elliot says she plans to teach her year-old great-grandson the game when he's old enough.

by CNB