Lillian Jackson

Who is Lillian Jackson?

Lillian Jackson was an outfielder who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5 ft 6 in, 125 lb, she batted and threw right-handed.

Lillian Jackson was one of the original founding members of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in its 1943 inaugural season.

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Jackson was not involved in sport as a child. She began playing basketball and softball at age 18, while attending Isaac Litton High School. She later took classes at Nashville Business College and played on their softball team, where she was spotted by a AAGPBL scout who invited her to the final tryouts of the league at Wrigley Field. Once the final cut was made, Jackson and another 59 of the 280 girls who tried out were chosen to become the first women to ever play professional baseball. She was relocated to the Rockford Peaches.

Jackson saw little action during her rookie year. She was traded to the expansion Minneapolis Millerettes before the 1944 season. One of her teammates, Faye Dancer, gained notoriety by her practical jokes on and off the ball field, especially on the chaperones. One day, Dancer said Jackson ran the bases and the outfield like a ״Bird Dog״, and it stuck throughout her career. That season Jackson posted a .201 average, a pretty good performance considering it was a dominant pitching league and no batters surpassed .300 on the year. She also scored 23 runs and stole 24 bases in just 58 games.