Ernestine “Teeny” Petras, whose hometown was Haskell, started playing in the All American Girls Professional Baseball League in 1944 with Milwaukee Chicks (who later became the Grand Rapids Chicks). She played from 1949-1951 with the Kenosha Comets before ending her career in 1952 with the Battle Creek Belles. In 1944, Teeny’s salary started at $75 per week. By the end of her baseball career, she was making $500 per week.
During her time in the All American Girls Professional Baseball League, she was the league’s top fielding shortstop in 1945, 1946, 1947, 1950 and 1951. Suburban Trends columnist Howard Lee Ball, who knew Teeny, described her as “one heck of a baseball player. She was just as competitive as they come and a golden glove on the defense.”
Ernestine also played basketball for the New Jersey Amazons in 1947-1949.
The 1992 movie “ A League of Their Own” was based on the life of the women in the AAGPBL. Teeny and her teammates on the Grand Rapids Chicks were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York in November of 1988.
Here is a link to Teeny’s page on the All American Girls Professional Baseball Team website: https://www.aagpbl.org/profiles/ernestine-petras-teeny/22
You can find out more about her on her Wikipedia entry at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernestine_Petras
