by Barbara Gregorich (Author)
Research Notes for Women at Play, Volume 3 is the final volume in Barbara Gregorich's Research Notes series - a collection of newspaper articles, interviews, and public records that served as the raw materials from which she wrote her award-winning book, Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball (Harcourt 1993). Volume 3 covers the 1920s and 1930s, concluding the story of Maud Nelson, the most important figure in the early history of women in baseball. It also contains the story of the Philadelphia Bobbies, Eddie Ainsmith, and Leona Kearns - and their disastrous trip to Japan to play against men's teams in 1925. This resulted in the abandonment of three players and the death at sea of one of them.Contrasted to the tragedy of that story, Volume 3 also contains the exciting story of Margaret Gisolo, who helped lead her 1928 American Legion Junior Baseball team to the state championship. Margaret later played for Maud Nelson's All-Star Ranger Girls. Margaret's diaries of 1933 and 1934 are included. The book concludes with Nellie Kearns, Leona's younger sister who, along with Margaret, played for the All-Star Ranger Girls.A reader going through this volume from beginning to end may feel she/he is reading a novel. Or deciding a court case. Or perhaps reconstruction a "what really happened" crime scene. Volume 3 is a climactic conclusion to the Research Notes for Women at Play series.
Author Biography
Barbara Gregorich's baseball writing started with the well-received novel She's on First. This story of the first female major leaguer was praised by Publishers Weekly, which wrote that "all baseball fans will appreciate Gregorich's sure feel for the game . . . the baseball scenes are crackerjack, and readers should end up wondering, 'Why not?'" After writing the fictional version of women in baseball, Gregorich began the long job of researching the true story of women who played hardball. The result of that research was Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball, published by Harcourt, 1993. Women at Play won the SABR-Macmillan Award for Best Baseball Research of the Year. In 2013 Women at Play was included in Ron Kaplan's 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. The work that went into researching women who played baseball (from 1875 onward) was intense, and the accumulated articles filled several file boxes. In 2010 Gregorich published Research Notes for Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball, Volume I, offering the most important of the newspaper articles she had found - some in their entirety and some in summary. Volume II followed in 2013 and Volume III in 2015, concluding the Research Notes series. In addition to writing about baseball, Gregorich has written the mystery novels Dirty Proof and Sound Proof. She has also written the well-received Guide to Writing the Mystery Novel: Lots of Examples, Plus Dead Bodies. Gregorich studied at Kent State University, the University of Wisconsin, and Harvard. She worked as an English instructor, a typesetter and a letter carrier. She lives in Chicago with her husband, Phil Passen.