NotAboutEgo
09-26-2007, 10:31 AM
Very cool article... I played for Jeneane in a women's baseball tournament back in 2004 in Denver, Colorado. She's a very nice lady and really knows baseball and how to manage. I've run into her here and there at other women's baseball tournaments around the country.
__________________________________________________ ____________
Pursuing a league of her own
By Sherry Grindeland
Seattle Times Eastside bureau
MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Jeneane Descombes Lesko, who played with the Grand Rapids Chicks of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League from 1953-54, still plays ball: with the Bellevue Bulldogs, a coed softball team. Here, she takes a swing at a tournament in Auburn.
After half a century, Jeneane Descombes Lesko has returned to baseball, a comeback she hopes will change women's sports in Washington. Lesko played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, subject of the 1992 movie "A League of Their Own," about the short-lived women's professional baseball league formed when male players were drafted during World War II.
The former pro pitcher is organizing the Washington Women's Baseball Association, an elite competitive women's hardball league for players 14 and older. She coaches and sometimes plays on the only team in the league, the Washington Stars.
So far, the amateur team plays in a Pierce County men's rec league, but Lesko is working to develop eight women's teams next season. Local women's teams do not typically play hardball, which is why, if Lesko's league succeeds, it could make local sports history. Other hardball women's leagues exist in several states, including Colorado, California, New York and Florida. The first Women's Baseball World Series was held in Canada in 2001.
Building a league is challenging. The women, many of them teens, distribute phone books and hold car washes to raise money. Lesko and the dozen or so core members plan to visit area high schools to recruit players.
Lesko also plays outfield with the Bellevue Bulldogs Co-Ed Senior Softball team.
"I never talked about it"
Until Hollywood called, this bulldog about baseball hadn't shared her history, not even with her three sons. Only when she was invited to Cooperstown, N.Y., for filming the final scenes of "A League of Their Own," did she talk about her 1953-54 career with the Grand Rapids Chicks.
As a left-handed pitcher, she compiled a 10-9 record in the waning days of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). "I never talked about it until the movie," said the 69-year-old Bellevue woman.
Baseball, she explained, wasn't a family passion. Her sons tried Little League but favored soccer. If there was a family sport, it was golf ; Lesko and her husband were briefly professional golfers in the 1960s. Plus, whenever she mentioned her career, no one seemed interested.
Jeneane Lesko will star in the opening ceremonies of the Girls Junior Softball World Series at noon Sunday, Everest Park, 500 Eighth St. S., Kirkland. Series games will be daily Sunday through Aug. 20 with the championship game at 4 p.m. Aug. 21 www.jrsoftballworldseries.com
See the movie
"A League of Their Own," the 1992 film about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, will play at dusk today at Skyline High School, 1122 228th Ave. N.E., Sammamish. The movie will be preceded by Rockaway playing classic rock at 7 p.m. Information: 425-898-0660 or www.ci.sammamish.wa.us/SummerNights.aspx
Things have changed since release of the film. Fans track down the surviving players to beg for autographs. Others clamor to join the group's Players Association and attend the annual reunions.
The town tomboy
Baseball, Lesko said, was fun. "I was the tomboy of Lakeview, Ohio," she said. "I cleaned windows, carried newspapers and was the batgirl for the local men's team. During warm-ups, I would catch with the team. One day the coach told me about tryouts for the AAGPBL."
Because she was in college, she missed spring training in 1953. She joined the team right after finals and was sitting on the bench.
Then she got her big chance: "In the eighth inning, the pitcher was in trouble," Lesko said. "The score was tied, there was one out, the bases loaded and the coach put me in to pitch. I struck out one and got one to hit into the infield."
When it was her turn to bat, she drove in the winning run.
"That was good luck," she said. "From there I had to work on concentration and control."
Her best game was a one-hitter she pitched in Illinois against the Rockford Peaches, but the Chicks lost. The opposing pitcher threw a no-hitter.
The women's teams played in small venues, drew 5,000-6,000 fans a game and were top stories in local newspapers. They would board the team bus after a night game, travel to the next stop, usually arriving about 2 a.m. The women would be up early for a 10 a.m. practice and then play a game, repeating the schedule for 112 games.
"I was paid $100 a month, which was good money then," Lesko said. "I was so naive, so small town. We were poor, and I had never eaten a steak except cube steak. When I got my first paycheck, I ordered my first T-bone steak. It was so good; I loved it."
Film not entirely accurate
Characters in "A League of Their Own" were mostly composites of players and personnel, she said. Some things were dramatized, such as the adversarial relationship with chaperones and male managers in dressing rooms.
"The chaperones were our best friends. Sure we short-sheeted their beds occasionally, but we relied heavily on them," she said. And "men managers were never allowed in a room where the girls dressed."
After the league folded at the end of the 1954 season, Lesko continued playing two more summers with a traveling all-star team. After college, she focused her athletic abilities on golf. Eventually, she turned pro and married another golf pro, Tom Lesko. In 1976, they visited friends in Seattle.
"We've been here ever since," Lesko said.
Lesko has been feted at Safeco Field twice. Once was to honor AAGPBL players, but the most inspirational was when the stadium opened, and old-timers from several leagues took positions on the field.
"There was a pitcher from the old Rainiers on the mound, so I was in left field," Lesko said. "When I looked up at the stands, it was an exhilarating feeling. I wished I could have played in front of such a crowd."
Sherry Grindeland: 206-515-5633 or sgrindeland@seattletimes.com
Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/eastsidenews/2002004062_league13e.html
__________________________________________________ ____________
Pursuing a league of her own
By Sherry Grindeland
Seattle Times Eastside bureau
MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Jeneane Descombes Lesko, who played with the Grand Rapids Chicks of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League from 1953-54, still plays ball: with the Bellevue Bulldogs, a coed softball team. Here, she takes a swing at a tournament in Auburn.
After half a century, Jeneane Descombes Lesko has returned to baseball, a comeback she hopes will change women's sports in Washington. Lesko played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, subject of the 1992 movie "A League of Their Own," about the short-lived women's professional baseball league formed when male players were drafted during World War II.
The former pro pitcher is organizing the Washington Women's Baseball Association, an elite competitive women's hardball league for players 14 and older. She coaches and sometimes plays on the only team in the league, the Washington Stars.
So far, the amateur team plays in a Pierce County men's rec league, but Lesko is working to develop eight women's teams next season. Local women's teams do not typically play hardball, which is why, if Lesko's league succeeds, it could make local sports history. Other hardball women's leagues exist in several states, including Colorado, California, New York and Florida. The first Women's Baseball World Series was held in Canada in 2001.
Building a league is challenging. The women, many of them teens, distribute phone books and hold car washes to raise money. Lesko and the dozen or so core members plan to visit area high schools to recruit players.
Lesko also plays outfield with the Bellevue Bulldogs Co-Ed Senior Softball team.
"I never talked about it"
Until Hollywood called, this bulldog about baseball hadn't shared her history, not even with her three sons. Only when she was invited to Cooperstown, N.Y., for filming the final scenes of "A League of Their Own," did she talk about her 1953-54 career with the Grand Rapids Chicks.
As a left-handed pitcher, she compiled a 10-9 record in the waning days of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). "I never talked about it until the movie," said the 69-year-old Bellevue woman.
Baseball, she explained, wasn't a family passion. Her sons tried Little League but favored soccer. If there was a family sport, it was golf ; Lesko and her husband were briefly professional golfers in the 1960s. Plus, whenever she mentioned her career, no one seemed interested.
Jeneane Lesko will star in the opening ceremonies of the Girls Junior Softball World Series at noon Sunday, Everest Park, 500 Eighth St. S., Kirkland. Series games will be daily Sunday through Aug. 20 with the championship game at 4 p.m. Aug. 21 www.jrsoftballworldseries.com
See the movie
"A League of Their Own," the 1992 film about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, will play at dusk today at Skyline High School, 1122 228th Ave. N.E., Sammamish. The movie will be preceded by Rockaway playing classic rock at 7 p.m. Information: 425-898-0660 or www.ci.sammamish.wa.us/SummerNights.aspx
Things have changed since release of the film. Fans track down the surviving players to beg for autographs. Others clamor to join the group's Players Association and attend the annual reunions.
The town tomboy
Baseball, Lesko said, was fun. "I was the tomboy of Lakeview, Ohio," she said. "I cleaned windows, carried newspapers and was the batgirl for the local men's team. During warm-ups, I would catch with the team. One day the coach told me about tryouts for the AAGPBL."
Because she was in college, she missed spring training in 1953. She joined the team right after finals and was sitting on the bench.
Then she got her big chance: "In the eighth inning, the pitcher was in trouble," Lesko said. "The score was tied, there was one out, the bases loaded and the coach put me in to pitch. I struck out one and got one to hit into the infield."
When it was her turn to bat, she drove in the winning run.
"That was good luck," she said. "From there I had to work on concentration and control."
Her best game was a one-hitter she pitched in Illinois against the Rockford Peaches, but the Chicks lost. The opposing pitcher threw a no-hitter.
The women's teams played in small venues, drew 5,000-6,000 fans a game and were top stories in local newspapers. They would board the team bus after a night game, travel to the next stop, usually arriving about 2 a.m. The women would be up early for a 10 a.m. practice and then play a game, repeating the schedule for 112 games.
"I was paid $100 a month, which was good money then," Lesko said. "I was so naive, so small town. We were poor, and I had never eaten a steak except cube steak. When I got my first paycheck, I ordered my first T-bone steak. It was so good; I loved it."
Film not entirely accurate
Characters in "A League of Their Own" were mostly composites of players and personnel, she said. Some things were dramatized, such as the adversarial relationship with chaperones and male managers in dressing rooms.
"The chaperones were our best friends. Sure we short-sheeted their beds occasionally, but we relied heavily on them," she said. And "men managers were never allowed in a room where the girls dressed."
After the league folded at the end of the 1954 season, Lesko continued playing two more summers with a traveling all-star team. After college, she focused her athletic abilities on golf. Eventually, she turned pro and married another golf pro, Tom Lesko. In 1976, they visited friends in Seattle.
"We've been here ever since," Lesko said.
Lesko has been feted at Safeco Field twice. Once was to honor AAGPBL players, but the most inspirational was when the stadium opened, and old-timers from several leagues took positions on the field.
"There was a pitcher from the old Rainiers on the mound, so I was in left field," Lesko said. "When I looked up at the stands, it was an exhilarating feeling. I wished I could have played in front of such a crowd."
Sherry Grindeland: 206-515-5633 or sgrindeland@seattletimes.com
Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/eastsidenews/2002004062_league13e.html