Josephine D'Angelo

Who was Josephine D'Angelo?

Josephine "Jo Jo" D'Angelo was an American baseball left fielder who played from 1943 through 1944 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5 ft 0 in, 135 lb., she batted and threw right-handed.

Josephine D'Angelo was one of the sixty original players to join the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League for its inaugural season. A hard to strikeout hitter, D'Angelo set an all-time record in the league for the lowest strikeouts in a single season. As an outfielder, she had sure hands and a strong and accurate arm for balls up the middle and double plays.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, D'Angelo grew up playing sandlot ball with her neighborhood kids at an early age, most of them boys, but did not start participating in an organized league until she was at high school. At the age of 13, she put on her first uniform with the De Young Floral on the southside of Chicago. The next year she joined the Raab Taylors and received a symbolic emolument as a player, when they paid her $1.00 a night for playing for the team.

Following her graduation at Harper High School, D'Angelo took her first job at age 18, working in the steel mills from 1942 to 1943. The money the young steel worker received allowed her to make a down payment toward college savings. By the time, Philip K. Wrigley, founder of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, had scouts all over the United States and Canada signing girls for tryouts. About 500 of them attended the call. Of these, only 280 were invited to the final try-outs at Wrigley Field in Chicago where 60 were chosen to become the first women to ever play professional baseball. D'Angelo was one of them, and was assigned to the South Bend Blue Sox. The other founding teams were the Kenosha Comets, Racine Belles and Rockford Peaches.