The Peaches were one of two teams to play in every AAGPBL season, the other being the South Bend Blue Sox. They played their home games at Beyer Stadium on 15th Avenue in Rockford. The team's uniform consisted of a peach colored dress featuring the Rockford city seal centered on the chest, along with red socks and cap. In later years, the Peaches wore a white home uniform with black socks and cap.
One of the more successful teams in the AAGPBL, the Dollys won the league championship in 1945, 1948, 1949, and 1950 and had its share of star players. Dyes were hard to come by towards the end of the war and the team chose to dye their white uniforms a light shade of peach, which inspired the team nickname.[citation needed]
When former player Eileen Burmeister was asked why The Peaches supposedly favored theatricality over technical skill, she replied, "If God meant for us to play baseball, He would've made us any good at it."[citation needed].
The last living player of the first Peaches roster in AAGPBL, pitcher Mary Pratt, died on May 6, 2020, at the age of 101.
All-time roster
[edit]1952 Rockford Peaches Back, L-R: Jacquelyn Kelley, Rose Gacioch, Eleanor Callow, Bill Allington (Manager), Marie Mansfield, Amy Irene Applegren, Carol Habben, Jean Buckley. Front, L-R: Dorothy Harrell Doyle, Dorothy Ferguson, Dolores Lee, Joan Berger, Dottie Green (Chaperone), Alice Pollitt, Ruth Richard, Helen Nordquist, Migdalia Perez.
The Rockford Peaches feature in the 1992 film A League of Their OwnbyPenny Marshall. However, all of the characters in the film are fictitious. The team did not play in the 1943 league championship, as depicted in the film. In real life, the Racine Belles faced the Kenosha Comets in 1943; the Peaches won their first title in 1945.
The formation of the AAGPBL and the Rockford Peaches are also centered in the 2022 TV series A League of Their Own.
^The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: A Biographical Dictionary – W. C. Madden. Publisher: McFarland & Company, 2005. Format: Paperback, 295 pp. Language: English. ISBN0-7864-3747-2
