Betsy Jochum, Last Original AAGPBL Player, Dies at 104

South Bend, Indiana – Betsy Jochum, the last surviving member of the original 60 players in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL), passed away on May 31 at her home in South Bend, Indiana, at the age of 104. Her death was confirmed by Carol Sheldon, vice president of the league’s players association. Jochum's passing marks the end of an era for the pioneering women who formed the league dramatized in the 1992 film “A League of Their Own.”

Born on February 8, 1921, in Cincinnati, Ohio, Anna Katherine "Betsy" Jochum displayed athletic prowess from a young age, setting city records in baseball throwing before joining the AAGPBL. In 1943, she became one of the inaugural players for the South Bend Blue Sox, earning $50 a week, a significant sum at the time. "When I got picked to play in the league, it was amazing," Jochum told The South Bend Tribune in 2012. "I was actually going to get paid for playing a game. Girls didn’t do that back then."

During her six seasons with the Blue Sox (1943-1948), Jochum was a versatile and impactful player, primarily an outfielder but also pitching in her final season. She led the league in batting with a .296 average in 1944 and was known for her speed, once stealing seven bases in a single game. Her powerful hitting earned her the nickname "Sockum Jochum" and "Sultana of Swat."

After retiring from baseball in 1948 rather than accepting a trade, Jochum pursued a career in education, earning bachelor's and master's degrees in physical education. She taught at Muessel Elementary/Junior High School in South Bend for 26 years. The AAGPBL, which had largely faded from public memory, experienced a resurgence in interest following the release of "A League of Their Own." Jochum often remarked, "Without the movie, nobody would have ever heard about us."

Jochum’s legacy as a trailblazer for women in sports is cemented through her contributions to the AAGPBL. Her South Bend Blue Sox uniform is preserved in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, and she was inducted into the Ohio Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999. Her life exemplified the determination and talent of the women who broke barriers in professional baseball during World War II.