THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 3, 1995 TAG: 9505030560
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 124 lines
When Lavonne ``Pepper'' Paire-Davis steps gingerly onto the diamond at Harbor Park, steadied by her silver cane, her ceremonial first pitch before game two of tonight's doubleheader will be a righthanded fastball slotted straight for the strike zone.
But that will only be the windup for the Hall of Fame catcher, an original member of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League, which inspired the movie ``A League of Their Own.''
Paire-Davis is in town to pitch another game.
Baseball. For women.
``I know what it's like for your dream to come true. Mine did,'' says Paire-Davis, an animated woman of 70. ``Baseball was the thing I had the most fun doing. It was like breathing. And to get paid doing it . . .''
Paire-Davis wants more women to get that chance. As a kid, she figured her passion for baseball would have to be played out on the softball field, and that, she says, ``is like playing checkers when you know how to play chess. I wanted to play hardball.''
After high school, Paire-Davis, enrolled as an English major at UCLA and took a job as a welder's assistant in the Long Beach shipyards. But she admits she spent the bulk of her time playing softball in three leagues sponsored by area industrial plants.
``Don't get me wrong,'' she says, ``I was glad to be playing softball. But I'd rather have played competitive baseball.''
The All American Girls Professional Baseball League was born in 1943, due to Phillip Wrigley's fears that the major league baseball season would be interrupted by World War II. In '43, only Chicago-area softball teams were scouted for talent. But in 1944, Paire-Davis was one of six players from California chosen to play in the league.
She played for 10 years and helped her teams win four pennants - one with the Racine Belles, one with the Grand Rapids Chicks and two with the Fort Wayne Daisies.
In the film, Geena Davis' character, a catcher for the Rockford Peaches, is modeled after Paire-Davis - who never played for the Rockford team.
``That's Hollywood,'' Paire-Davis, the film's technical advisor, explains. ``They had to take 10 teams and 12 years and make it into two hours.''
Recalling the 120-game schedule, played over four months, she says, ``You had to love it. They only carried 15 players on a team - not pitchers, ballplayers.
``We played every night of the week, doubleheaders on Sundays and holidays, and traveled on about a 1938 school bus. When we left Grand Rapids, Mich., at midnight, we would ride almost 400 miles to Rockford, Ill., get there at 10 or 11 in the morning - if the bus didn't break down and we didn't have to push it - get into uniform and go out and play a Sunday afternoon doubleheader.''
The league never officially folded, Paire-Davis says, but was ``temporarily suspended'' after 1954, with war no longer a threat to the major leagues.
Also ``temporarily suspended'': a woman's chance to play in the big leagues.
Our league happened by accident,'' Paire-Davis says. ``But I don't see why it has to be that way.''
Richard Spano, eastern regional director of the National Adult Baseball Association, doesn't think so either. Spano thinks anybody who wants to play baseball should be able to do so, and in the next five years he'd like to see pro baseball established for women. At present, the Colorado Silver Bullets are the only touring professional women's team.
``I have a 10-year-old niece,'' Spano says, ``and when the family at the dinner table (asked), `What do you want to do when you grow up?' she said, `I want to be a shortstop for the New York Mets.' And the answer was, `Gee, that's nice, Anna Marie. When you grow up, you'll grow out of that.'
``Ideally, I would like a situation where a little girl the age of 9 or 10 would say, `I want to play shortstop for the New York Mets,' and they'll say, `OK. Great.' ''
``We proved women can play baseball very skillfully and very competitively,'' Paire-Davis says. ``I don't happen to believe we can do it against a men's team in a team-contact sport on any kind of a daily basis because I don't believe you could give up that kind of handicap. But it has nothing to do with skill.''
Spano brought Paire-Davis to town to promote the Women's National Adult Baseball Association, which is in its second season. Tonight, Davis will sit at a booth in Harbor Park and will autograph her baseball cards, all the while encouraging women to sign up for the local women's league.
Most people don't even realize women are playing baseball in Hampton Roads, says league commissioner Rhonda Koenigsberg.
``It's great recreation, and it costs less than a gym,'' she says.
The league has four teams but is looking for more players. Games are played Sundays at Fairlawn Recreation Center in Norfolk and at War Memorial Stadium in Hampton. All women 18 to 65 are invited to join. The league will hold a workout at the recreation center Sunday afternoon at 2 for all interested, and everybody makes the team, no cuts.
Paire-Davis wants this to be the beginning, and she's putting all her energy into it. Last year, she made 68 appearances nationwide on behalf of the National Adult Baseball Association, in addition to 33 weekends signing baseball cards with the Legendary Ladies of Baseball.
If Paire-Davis could write the script for women to have a league of their own, there'd be a 12-to-17 league and a recreational league for women who just love to play. That would lead to a competitive league, and from that, she says, you'd build your professional league.
``This is a crucial year,'' she explains. ``We need to get the support; we need to get the financial help and sponsors.''
Koenigsberg adds that the help of of schools and parents also is needed
``Right now, there's no outlet for little girls to play baseball, just softball,'' she says. ``We need to integrate it with the schools.''
Koenigsberg herself didn't grow up playing baseball, but last year, meeting Paire-Davis motivated her to pick up a glove for the first time.
That brings a smile to Paire-Davis. ``I can't honestly tell you I knew the history we were making back then,'' she says. ``I can tell you we knew we were doing something special.'' MEMO: Interested in playing women's baseball? Call Rhonda Koenigsberg at
463-3446.
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO COURTESY LAVONNE PAIRE-DAVIS
Color photo
LAWRENCE JACKSON/Staff
``I know what it's like for your dream to come true. Mine did,''
says Pepper Paire-Davis, who played 10 years in the All American
Girls Professional Baseball League. She will be at Harbor Park
tonight - to promote women's baseball.
by CNB