The People Who Made the Dream, a Reality
The All American Girls' Professional Baseball League was the idea of Philip Wrigley (right), the owner of the Chicago Cubs, and Branch Rickey, the general manager for the Brooklyn Dodgers ("AAGBL Formed, 1943" 1). Philip Wrigley was a huge part of this league forming. He was born on December 5, 1894 in Chicago, Illinois. He grew up in a very wealthy family because his father owned the world famous chewing gum franchise, Wrigley's Chewing Gum Company. Wrigley graduated from Philips Academy in 1914, and then he entered his father's chewing gum franchise. Wrigley then married Helen Blanche Atwater and they had three children together ("Philip Wrigley" 1-2). Then, by 1943 he had been thinking about starting a women's league for about one year because he knew World War II was hurting Major League Baseball. So, he started the All American Girls' Professional Baseball League ("Classy Athletes" 1). Wrigley recruited Max Carey and Jimmie Foxx to coach the league's first four teams ("AAGBL Formed, 1943" 1). Ken Sells, another one deeply involved in the league, was the All American Girls' Professional Baseball League's first president (Fincher, Jack 274). City leaders were also a huge part of the foundation of this league. They paid $22,500 for each franchise in support that women's professional baseball was a patriotic effort to provide diversion for wartime workers laboring under pressure ("AAGBL Formed, 1943" 1) . Philip Wrigley, the backbone to the foudation of the All American Girls' Professional Baseball League, unfortunately ended his support for the league in 1944, only about a year after the league first started ("Philip Wrigley" 2). At that time, Arthur Meyerhoff, the advertising executive, purchased Wrigley's share of the league, and administered the league until 1950. After that, the league went one until about 1954 ("194.