Janet Rumsey
Encyclopedia
Janet Jeree Rumsey was a pitcher
who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
. Listed at 5' 8", 135 lb., she batted and threw right handed.
An All-Star pitcher, Janet Rumsey was a member of two champion teams of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during the final four years of its existence. She posted a 39-43 career record and a 2.33 earned run average
in 105 pitching appearances, and has the distinction of hurling the last no-hitter
in the league's history, while leading in several pitching categories in its last ever season.
Born in Moores Hill, Indiana
, Janet was one of four children in the family of Lawrence L. and Mabel M. (Maffey) Rumsey. She was a 1949 graduate of Burney High School, and credited her father for introducing her into baseball. I used to play catch with my father. He'd hit fungoes to me, she explained in an interview. In school the girls did not have a softball team, but she was allowed to play on a boys' baseball team in junior high.
In 1950, Rumsey saw a short film on the Fort Wayne Daisies
AAGPBL team and decided to send them a letter. After that, she was invited to a tryout, but she did not make the grade. A year later, she tried again and received a new chance with the South Bend Blue Sox
. She tried out at first base and the outfield
, but South Bend manager
Karl Winsch
saw that she a strong arm and turned her into a pitcher.
Rumsey entered the league in 1951 with South Bend, as part of a pitching staff that included Jean Faut
, Lillian Faralla
, Dorothy Mueller
and Louise Arnold
. During the midseason, she was loaned to the ill-fated Battle Creek Belles
, as the AAGPBL shifted players as needed to help some teams stay afloat. Nevertheless, she rejoined the Blue Sox late in the year in time to help the team in the playoffs. She finished the year with a combined 4-8 mark and a 2.52 ERA, while pitching as a reliever
in the final series. South Bend clinched the league title and the final playoffs.
In 1952 Rumsey improved to 9-10 with a 2.33 ERA, leading her team with 26 games pitched. Second place South Bend defeated fourth place Grand Rapids Chicks
in the first round of the playoffs, two games to one, advancing to the best-of-final series to face the Rockford Peaches
. Rumsey started Game 4 of the series with her team against the wall, 2-to-1. She hurled a complete game, allowing the Peaches one unearned run while defeating Rose Gacioch
in a 10-inning pitching duel, by a score of 2–1. In decisive Game 5, Jean Faut
drove in
two runs and held the Peaches to three runs to clinch the series.
South Bend went through a poor season in 1953 and Rumsey suffered with the team, posting a 11-19 mark and a 2.42 ERA, though she finished second in the league in innings pitched
(249), third in shutout
s (4) and seventh in strikeout
s (86).
Rumsey and the Blue Sox returned in 1954 for what turned out to be the league's final season. As the circuit moved to a smaller, livelier baseball and increased the length of the basepaths, the hitters gradually developed an advantage. Joanne Weaver
of the Fort Wayne Daisies
batted a remarkable .429 average and 29 home run
s to set AAGPBL all-time records in a single season. Her teammate Jean Geissinger
hit .377 with 26 home runs and a league-high 91 runs batted in, while Betty Foss
, another Fort Wayne slugger, hit .352 with 14 homers and 54 RBI.
By then, Rumsey had perfected a a sidearm curveball
, a sinker
and a heavy fastball
. This arsenal of pitches led to her selection to the on the league's last All-Star team. In spite of pitching in a hitters' year, she posted a 15-6 record with a 2.16 ERA and 89 strikeouts in 169 innings of work, including five shutouts. Rumsey also led the league in ERA, finished second to Fort Wayne's Maxine Kline
in wins, shutouts and innings pitched (18, 6 and 181), was third in winning percentage
(.750), while tying with Grand Rapids' Eleanor Moore
for the most complete game
s (21). In addition, she hurled the last no-hitter in the league's history. On August 24 she had a perfect game
against Grand Rapids, until she walked
a batter. The next batter got a ball through the infield, but the runner was forced at second (base) to preserve the no-hitter, she recalled. The season ended and the league folded shortly after the game.
Following her baseball career, Rumsey worked in the accounting department at Cummins Engine Company
from 1955 until 1985. Following her retirement, she continued her activity by playing golf
and tennis
.
Since 1988 Rumsey is part of Women in Baseball, a permanent display based at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York
, which was unveiled to honor the entire All-American Girls Professional Baseball League rather than individual baseball personalities.
Rumsey, who never married, was a long time resident of Columbus, Indiana
, where she died at the age of 76.
Pitcher
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throwsthe baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the...
who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was a women's professional baseball league founded by Philip K. Wrigley which existed from 1943 to 1954. During the league's history, over 600 women played ball.-History:...
. Listed at 5' 8", 135 lb., she batted and threw right handed.
An All-Star pitcher, Janet Rumsey was a member of two champion teams of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during the final four years of its existence. She posted a 39-43 career record and a 2.33 earned run average
Earned run average
In baseball statistics, earned run average is the mean of earned runs given up by a pitcher per nine innings pitched. It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number of innings pitched and multiplying by nine...
in 105 pitching appearances, and has the distinction of hurling the last no-hitter
No-hitter
A no-hitter is a baseball game in which one team has no hits. In Major League Baseball, the team must be without hits during the entire game, and the game must be at least nine innings. A pitcher who prevents the opposing team from achieving a hit is said to have "thrown a no-hitter"...
in the league's history, while leading in several pitching categories in its last ever season.
Born in Moores Hill, Indiana
Moores Hill, Indiana
Moores Hill is a town in Sparta Township, Dearborn County, Indiana, United States. The population was 597 at the 2010 census.-History:Platted in 1839 by Adam Moore and Andrew Stevens, it originally contained nine lots adjacent to Moore 's gristmill. Many early settlers in the town were Methodist...
, Janet was one of four children in the family of Lawrence L. and Mabel M. (Maffey) Rumsey. She was a 1949 graduate of Burney High School, and credited her father for introducing her into baseball. I used to play catch with my father. He'd hit fungoes to me, she explained in an interview. In school the girls did not have a softball team, but she was allowed to play on a boys' baseball team in junior high.
In 1950, Rumsey saw a short film on the Fort Wayne Daisies
Fort Wayne Daisies
The Fort Wayne Daisies were a women's professional baseball team that played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League...
AAGPBL team and decided to send them a letter. After that, she was invited to a tryout, but she did not make the grade. A year later, she tried again and received a new chance with the South Bend Blue Sox
South Bend Blue Sox
The South Bend Blue Sox were a women's professional baseball team who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League...
. She tried out at first base and the outfield
Outfield
The outfield is a sporting term used in cricket and baseball to refer to the area of the field of play further from the batsman or batter than the infield...
, but South Bend manager
Manager (baseball)
In baseball, the field manager is an individual who is responsible for matters of team strategy on the field and team leadership. Managers are typically assisted by between one and six assistant coaches, whose responsibilities are specialized...
Karl Winsch
Karl Winsch
Karl Edgar Winsch was a pitcher and manager in Minor league baseball. Listed at 5' 10", 180 lb., Winsch batted and threw right-handed....
saw that she a strong arm and turned her into a pitcher.
Rumsey entered the league in 1951 with South Bend, as part of a pitching staff that included Jean Faut
Jean Faut
Jean Anna Faut [Winsch/Eastman] is a former female starting pitcher who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5' 4", 137 lb., she batted and threw right handed....
, Lillian Faralla
Lillian Faralla
Lillian Faralla [Lil] is a former female pitcher and utility who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. She batted and threw right-handed.-A brief history:...
, Dorothy Mueller
Dorothy Mueller
Dorothy Mueller [Bajda] was a pitcher who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League between the and seasons. Listed at 5' 11", 160 lb., Mueller batted and threw right handed...
and Louise Arnold
Louise Arnold (baseball)
Louise Veronica Arnold [Lou] was a female pitcher who played during four seasons for the South Bend Blue Sox of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5' 5", 145 lb., she batted and threw right-handed.The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was a circuit...
. During the midseason, she was loaned to the ill-fated Battle Creek Belles
Battle Creek Belles
The Battle Creek Belles were a women's professional baseball team that played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League...
, as the AAGPBL shifted players as needed to help some teams stay afloat. Nevertheless, she rejoined the Blue Sox late in the year in time to help the team in the playoffs. She finished the year with a combined 4-8 mark and a 2.52 ERA, while pitching as a reliever
Relief pitcher
A relief pitcher or reliever is a baseball or softball pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed due to injury, ineffectiveness, fatigue, ejection, or for other strategic reasons, such as being substituted by a pinch hitter...
in the final series. South Bend clinched the league title and the final playoffs.
In 1952 Rumsey improved to 9-10 with a 2.33 ERA, leading her team with 26 games pitched. Second place South Bend defeated fourth place Grand Rapids Chicks
Grand Rapids Chicks
The Grand Rapids Chicks were a women's professional baseball team based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League from 1945 to 1954, winning championships in 1947 and 1953....
in the first round of the playoffs, two games to one, advancing to the best-of-final series to face the Rockford Peaches
Rockford Peaches
The Rockford Peaches were a team in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League playing out of Rockford, Illinois for the entire existence of the league from 1943 to 1954....
. Rumsey started Game 4 of the series with her team against the wall, 2-to-1. She hurled a complete game, allowing the Peaches one unearned run while defeating Rose Gacioch
Rose Gacioch
Rose M. Gacioch [gay'-sotch] was a right fielder and pitcher who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5' 6", 160 lb., Gacioch batted and threw right-handed...
in a 10-inning pitching duel, by a score of 2–1. In decisive Game 5, Jean Faut
Jean Faut
Jean Anna Faut [Winsch/Eastman] is a former female starting pitcher who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5' 4", 137 lb., she batted and threw right handed....
drove in
Run batted in
Runs batted in or RBIs is a statistic used in baseball and softball to credit a batter when the outcome of his at-bat results in a run being scored, except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play. The first team to track RBI was the Buffalo Bisons.Common nicknames for an RBI...
two runs and held the Peaches to three runs to clinch the series.
South Bend went through a poor season in 1953 and Rumsey suffered with the team, posting a 11-19 mark and a 2.42 ERA, though she finished second in the league in innings pitched
Innings pitched
In baseball, innings pitched are the number of innings a pitcher has completed, measured by the number of batters and baserunners that are put out while the pitcher on the pitching mound in a game. Three outs made is equal to one inning pitched. One out counts as one-third of an inning, and two...
(249), third in shutout
Shutout
In team sports, a shutout refers to a game in which one team prevents the opposing team from scoring. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball....
s (4) and seventh in strikeout
Strikeout
In baseball or softball, a strikeout or strike-out occurs when a batter receives three strikes during his time at bat. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters....
s (86).
Rumsey and the Blue Sox returned in 1954 for what turned out to be the league's final season. As the circuit moved to a smaller, livelier baseball and increased the length of the basepaths, the hitters gradually developed an advantage. Joanne Weaver
Joanne Weaver
Joanne Weaver [″Joltin' Jo″] was a right fielder who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League...
of the Fort Wayne Daisies
Fort Wayne Daisies
The Fort Wayne Daisies were a women's professional baseball team that played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League...
batted a remarkable .429 average and 29 home run
Home run
In baseball, a home run is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to reach home safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team in the process...
s to set AAGPBL all-time records in a single season. Her teammate Jean Geissinger
Jean Geissinger
Jean Louise Geissinger-Harding [″Dutch″] is a former infielder and outfielder who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League for the Fort Wayne Daisies and Grand Rapids Chicks...
hit .377 with 26 home runs and a league-high 91 runs batted in, while Betty Foss
Betty Foss
Betty Foss [Fossey] was a infielder and outfielder who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5' 10", 180 lb., she was a switch-hitter and threw right-handed. She started her career as Betty Weaver but changed her last name to Foss after marrying...
, another Fort Wayne slugger, hit .352 with 14 homers and 54 RBI.
By then, Rumsey had perfected a a sidearm curveball
Curveball
The curveball is a type of pitch in baseball thrown with a characteristic grip and hand movement that imparts forward spin to the ball causing it to dive in a downward path as it approaches the plate. Its close relatives are the slider and the slurve. The "curve" of the ball varies from pitcher to...
, a sinker
Sinker (baseball)
In baseball, a sinker , is a type of fastball pitch which has significant downward and horizontal movement. The sinker is known for inducing a lot of ground balls...
and a heavy fastball
Fastball
The fastball is the most common type of pitch in baseball. Some "power pitchers," such as Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens, have thrown it at speeds of 95–106 mph and up to 108.1 mph , relying purely on speed to prevent the ball from being hit...
. This arsenal of pitches led to her selection to the on the league's last All-Star team. In spite of pitching in a hitters' year, she posted a 15-6 record with a 2.16 ERA and 89 strikeouts in 169 innings of work, including five shutouts. Rumsey also led the league in ERA, finished second to Fort Wayne's Maxine Kline
Maxine Kline
Maxine Kline [Randall] is a former female starting pitcher who played from through with the Fort Wayne Daisies of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League...
in wins, shutouts and innings pitched (18, 6 and 181), was third in winning percentage
Winning percentage
In sports, a winning percentage is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. It is defined as wins divided by wins plus losses . Ties count as a ½ loss and a ½ win...
(.750), while tying with Grand Rapids' Eleanor Moore
Eleanor Moore
Eleanor Moore [Warner] is a former pitcher who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5' 10", Moore batted and threw right-handed...
for the most complete game
Complete game
In baseball, a complete game is the act of a pitcher pitching an entire game without the benefit of a relief pitcher.As demonstrated by the charts below, in the early 20th century, it was common for most good Major League Baseball pitchers to pitch a complete game almost every start. Pitchers were...
s (21). In addition, she hurled the last no-hitter in the league's history. On August 24 she had a perfect game
Perfect game
A perfect game is defined by Major League Baseball as a game in which a pitcher pitches a victory that lasts a minimum of nine innings and in which no opposing player reaches base. Thus, the pitcher cannot allow any hits, walks, hit batsmen, or any opposing player to reach base safely for any...
against Grand Rapids, until she walked
Base on balls
A base on balls is credited to a batter and against a pitcher in baseball statistics when a batter receives four pitches that the umpire calls balls. It is better known as a walk. The base on balls is defined in Section 2.00 of baseball's Official Rules, and further detail is given in 6.08...
a batter. The next batter got a ball through the infield, but the runner was forced at second (base) to preserve the no-hitter, she recalled. The season ended and the league folded shortly after the game.
Following her baseball career, Rumsey worked in the accounting department at Cummins Engine Company
Cummins
Cummins Inc. is a Fortune 500 corporation that designs, manufactures, distributes and services engines and related technologies, including fuel systems, controls, air handling, filtration, emission control and electrical power generation systems...
from 1955 until 1985. Following her retirement, she continued her activity by playing golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
and tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
.
Since 1988 Rumsey is part of Women in Baseball, a permanent display based at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York
Cooperstown, New York
Cooperstown is a village in Otsego County, New York, USA. It is located in the Town of Otsego. The population was estimated to be 1,852 at the 2010 census.The Village of Cooperstown is the county seat of Otsego County, New York...
, which was unveiled to honor the entire All-American Girls Professional Baseball League rather than individual baseball personalities.
Rumsey, who never married, was a long time resident of Columbus, Indiana
Columbus, Indiana
Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Bartholomew County, Indiana, United States. The population was 44,061 at the 2010 census, and the current mayor is Fred Armstrong. Located approximately 40 miles south of Indianapolis, on the east fork of the White River, it is the state's 20th largest...
, where she died at the age of 76.
Pitching statistics
| GP Games pitched In baseball statistics, games pitched is the number of games in which a player appears as a pitcher; a player who is announced as the pitcher must face at least one batter, although exceptions are made if the pitcher announced in the starting lineup is injured before facing a batter, perhaps while... | W | L | W-L% | ERA Earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average is the mean of earned runs given up by a pitcher per nine innings pitched. It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number of innings pitched and multiplying by nine... | IP Innings pitched In baseball, innings pitched are the number of innings a pitcher has completed, measured by the number of batters and baserunners that are put out while the pitcher on the pitching mound in a game. Three outs made is equal to one inning pitched. One out counts as one-third of an inning, and two... | H Hit (baseball) In baseball statistics, a hit , also called a base hit, is credited to a batter when the batter safely reaches first base after hitting the ball into fair territory, without the benefit of an error or a fielder's choice.... | RA Run (baseball) In baseball, a run is scored when a player advances around first, second and third base and returns safely to home plate, touching the bases in that order, before three outs are recorded and all obligations to reach base safely on batted balls are met or assured... | ER Earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average is the mean of earned runs given up by a pitcher per nine innings pitched. It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number of innings pitched and multiplying by nine... | BB Base on balls A base on balls is credited to a batter and against a pitcher in baseball statistics when a batter receives four pitches that the umpire calls balls. It is better known as a walk. The base on balls is defined in Section 2.00 of baseball's Official Rules, and further detail is given in 6.08... | SO Strikeout In baseball or softball, a strikeout or strike-out occurs when a batter receives three strikes during his time at bat. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters.... | WHIP Walks plus hits per inning pitched In baseball statistics, walks plus hits per inning pitched is a sabermetric measurement of the number of baserunners a pitcher has allowed per inning pitched. It is a measure of a pitcher's ability to prevent batters from reaching base... |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 105 | 39 | 43 | .476 | 2.33 | 551 | 375 | 242 | 158 | 262 | 259 | 1.20 |