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'A bunch of girls having a good time'40 years ago, Hagerstown Mollystoured region as girls of summerHAGERSTOWN (AP - They didn’t have a league of their own, and their fields of dreams were more like diamonds in the rough.They were never the home team, so they didn’t get much notice locally, but they played to crowds that would make some minor league teams blush with envy.Forty years ago, the Hagerstown Mollys were the girls of summer.“We were just there to have fun,” said Roda HeJmintoller, 58, the Mollys’ third baseman and cleanup hitter, “We knew when we went to play we weren’t going to win many games, but it was just a bunch of girls, playing as friends, having a good time.”Ms. Heimintoiler was described in posters as “a big rangy girl” who “comes up with hard hit balls with the grace of a champion,”The Mollys, who played about 75 games in three seasons before disbanding in 1952, toured the mid-Atlantic region. They played exhibition games against all-star teams of men on military bases and in small towns, such as BrookviUe and Grafton, W.Va., and Luray, Va. They played to big crowds in the days when communities still did things together on weekends. They once played before 5,000 fans at Fort George G. Meade.They were tough too. They beat teams from Edensburg and McKeesport, both in Pennsylvania.“They were pretty good. They all had athletic ability, said Lee Smith, 65, a post office retiree who lives in Williamsport. “They could catch the bail, they could throw the ball, andthey could run. They didn’t embarrass themselves.”The games sometimes had an element of vaudeville - a Molly jumping on the back of a base runner, hidden-ball tricks, mock arguments with umpires - but always there was a desire to win And if that meant sliding to break up a double play or beat a throw, that’s what the Mollys did, skirts flying, skin scraping.“Strawberries, blueberries and everything,” Ms. Heimintoiler says, describing various skin tones that followed skids.Not ail the Mollys were women. Up to three men played key positions,including catcher and shortstop. Les Smith played shortstop and pitched some Jerry Kendle of Smithsburg wore the catcher's gear between cigars for $25 a game.“We had to give ’em (the other team) some competition,” said Mr. Kendle, 61. “Boy they used to bear down on us They’d ease up on the girls.Ease up isn’t quite the way Janet “Sis” Young remembers it Their opponents were always gentlemen, but when the games were close, chivalry was benched.“That’s when you would think, ‘uh-oh, you’re really in trouble now’, Young,’ ” she said. “You could see intheir eyes that they wanted to show how hard they could hit the ball.”Ms. Young, 62, a classmate of Mr. Kendle’s at Hagerstown High School, was a wiry right-handed pitcher with a biting overhand curve.
Newspaper Details
News
Frederick, Maryland, US
Mon, Nov 02, 1992
Page 51
Full Page
Clipped by
Onondaga C.
NY, USA 16 Apr 2020
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