| During World War II, it seemed that the end of | | | | league would begin losing money due to lack of |
| Major League Baseball was eminent. The United | | | | interest. |
| States was in a recession, and young men who | | | | However, President Roosevelt convinced him |
| would typically be out on the baseball diamond | | | | otherwise. With new jobs opening up in factories |
| entertaining the crowds (that couldn't afford the | | | | where men had to leave the workplace to enter |
| tickets anyway) were needed to fight in the war. | | | | the Armed Forces, women were left to fill the |
| At the same time, there was an air of disgust | | | | positions. Seeing their ability to pick up where the |
| toward the sport, as the remaining high-paid | | | | men left off, Wrigley decided that women could |
| sports stars were continuing to play a child's | | | | play baseball (instead of their usual softball). Seeing |
| game while their loved ones were being killed on | | | | that there was already an interest in women's |
| the battlefield. | | | | softball, they created a mixture of the two |
| Americans were so busy preparing for food, | | | | sports for the women to play, with an underhand |
| clothing, gas, and other daily items to go into | | | | pitch with a 12-inch ball being used with a standard |
| shortage and rationing, they couldn't be bothered | | | | baseball rule book. |
| to spend time relaxing in a ballpark. Philip Wrigley | | | | The girls wore skirts (to appear as ladies) and |
| (who owned the Wrigley chewing gum factory) | | | | were well paid. Wrigley himself invested $100,000 |
| was the owner of the Chicago Cubs at the time | | | | of his own money to fund the league, paying |
| and was concerned for the future of baseball. The | | | | each of the first four teams $22,500 for the first |
| president of the professional league himself | | | | season and using the remaining $10,000 to run the |
| wanted to shut down the sport, thinking that the | | | | league office in Chicago. |