After attending a tryout, she signed a contract with the AAGPBL and played on the Chicago Colleens and Springfield Sallies rookie teams in 1950, before joining the league with the Grand Rapids Chicks a year later.

[1] It was widely reported that Bays hit a home run at the original Yankee Stadium during an exhibition game between the Colleens and Sallies.

Afterwards, she returned home to play fastpitch softball for the Bisbee Copper Queens club.

[1] Bays was part of the AAGPBL permanent display at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, opened in 1988, which is dedicated to the entire league rather than any individual figure.

In December 2012, she was honored posthumously when the Bisbee High School Board named its softball field after her.