Betsy Jochum facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Betsy Jochum
Jochum in the 1946 South Bend Blue Sox Yearbook
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
Outfielder, pitcher, first base
Born: (1921-02-08)February 8, 1921 Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.
Died: May 31, 2025(2025-05-31) (aged 104) South Bend, Indiana, U.S.
Batted: Right Threw: Right
Teams
South Bend Blue Sox (1943–1948)
Career highlights and awards
All-Star Game (1940) Three playoff appearances (1946-'48) Batting crown champion (1944) Single-season leader in: Hits and Doubles (1943) Hits and Singles (1944) Tied a league record for the most stolen bases in a single game (seven, on August 2, 1944) Ohio Baseball of Fame Induction (1999)

Betsy "Sockum" Jochum (February 8, 1921 – May 31, 2025) was an amazing American baseball player. She played as an outfielder and pitcher in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) from 1943 to 1948. Betsy was 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighed 140 pounds. She batted and threw with her right hand.

Meet Betsy Jochum

Betsy Jochum was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was one of the first 60 players to start the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Betsy was a great leadoff hitter because she was one of the fastest runners in the league's early years. She almost never struck out, only 104 times in 2,401 turns at bat. She was also a fantastic defender with a strong throwing arm. During her six seasons, she was an All-Star, won a batting title, and stole 354 bases. She even pitched for a whole season!

How the League Started

In 1942, Philip K. Wrigley, who owned the Chicago Cubs baseball team, decided to create a professional baseball league for women. He was worried that Major League Baseball might stop playing in 1943 because of World War II. At that time, women mostly played softball. So, the new league created a special game that mixed rules from both softball and baseball.

Wrigley sent scouts all over the United States, Canada, and even Cuba to find talented women for tryouts. About 500 women came to try out. Only 280 were invited to the final tryouts in Chicago. From those, 60 players were chosen to be the first women to play professional baseball.

The players were put onto four teams: the Kenosha Comets, Racine Belles, Rockford Peaches, and South Bend Blue Sox. The first spring training happened on May 17, 1943, at Wrigley Field. Betsy Jochum and Dorothy Kamenshek were two of the six women from Ohio chosen for the new league. Betsy joined the Blue Sox, and Dorothy played for the Peaches.

Betsy's Early Life

Betsy's parents, Frank and Katherine Jochum, were German-speaking Hungarians. They moved to the United States and arrived at Ellis Island before World War I. Her father worked as a carpenter. Betsy had an older brother, Nicholas, and a younger sister, Frances. They grew up in a close family that valued each other above all else.

Betsy started playing sandlot ball (informal baseball games) when she was eight. By age 12, she was playing organized softball. At Hughes Center High School, she played many sports for girls, including basketball, volleyball, track and field, and softball.

After high school, Betsy went to Cincinnati Business School. She learned to use a comptometer, which was an early type of mechanical calculator. She worked in a meat packing house and played semi-professional softball for the company team. Her team played in national softball tournaments. In 1938, during a competition in Connecticut, she threw a ball 276 feet. This was the second-best throw, only behind Babe Zaharias, who set a national record of 296 feet! Later, Betsy worked at a dairy company doing comptometer work before signing her professional baseball contract.

Playing Professional Baseball

Betsy Jochum during the 1947 Season

Betsy Jochum joined the AAGPBL in 1943 and played her entire six-year career with the South Bend Blue Sox. The Blue Sox were one of only two teams to play in every AAGPBL season. Betsy played center field and left field. She also pitched and played first base when the regular first baseman was injured. Over time, the league changed its rules, making the base paths longer, the pitching distance farther, and the ball smaller. These changes affected players' statistics.

In her first year, 1943, Betsy had a .273 batting average. She led the league in turns at bat (439), hits (120), singles (100), and doubles (12). She also stole 66 bases and scored 70 runs. She was chosen for the All-Star Game, which was the first night game ever played at Wrigley Field on July 1, 1943.

In 1944, Betsy led the league with a .296 batting average. This was very good, especially because it was a "dead-ball era" in the league, meaning it was harder to hit for power. She also had her best year for games played (112), runs (72), hits (128), and stolen bases (127). She even stole seven bases in one game on August 2!

Betsy's batting average dropped to .237 in 1945, but she bounced back in 1946 with a .250 average. That year, she had 64 runs, 73 stolen bases, and a career-high 63 runs batted in (RBI). The Blue Sox made the playoffs for the first time in 1946 but lost in the first round.

In 1947, the league's spring training was held in Havana, Cuba. New rules allowed pitchers to throw with a full sidearm motion. Many hitters had trouble adjusting to this new pitching style. Betsy's average dropped to .211, but she still had 42 RBI, 36 runs, and 44 stolen bases. For the second year in a row, South Bend made the playoffs but lost again in the first round.

In 1948, the league changed to overhand pitching. Betsy, with her strong arm, was a natural choice to become a pitcher in her final season. She pitched a great first game, allowing only two hits. At one point, she had a record of 13 wins and 6 losses. She finished the season with 14 wins and 13 losses. When she wasn't pitching, her manager, Marty McManus, used her in the outfield, at first base, or as a pinch-hitter. Even though her batting average was lower that year (.195), Betsy contributed 14 of her team's 57 wins. She had an excellent 1.51 earned run average (ERA) and struck out 103 batters while walking only 58 in 215 innings. South Bend lost in the first round of the playoffs for the third straight year.

Betsy's Baseball Stats

Here are some of Betsy Jochum's career statistics:

Batting

Fielding

Pitching

Life After Baseball

Betsy Jochum left the league after the 1948 season. She had been traded to the Peoria Redwings, but she decided to retire. After her baseball career, Betsy earned bachelor's and master's degrees in physical education from Illinois State University. She taught physical education to girls at Muessel Elementary/Junior High School in South Bend for 26 years. She retired from teaching in 1983.

After retiring, Betsy enjoyed playing golf and bowling. She also helped gather and organize items for the Northern Indiana Historical Society about the AAGPBL.

In November 1988, Betsy and her former teammates finally received special recognition. The Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York created a permanent display dedicated to the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. In 1999, Betsy was inducted into the Ohio Baseball Hall of Fame. Her South Bend Blue Sox uniform has even traveled as part of an exhibit by the Smithsonian Institution called Sports: Breaking Records, Breaking Barriers. Betsy once said in an interview, "Women should have their own major league and minor leagues plus the sponsors to make it go."

Betsy Jochum lived in South Bend, Indiana, for many years. She turned 100 years old in February 2021. Betsy passed away in South Bend on May 31, 2025, at the age of 104.