Collins played her rookie season (1944) for the Minneapolis Millerettes and spent the rest of her career with the Fort Wayne Daisies.

[2] Philip Wrigley, owner of the Chicago Cubs, started the League in 1943 because he thought fans would forget about baseball because of World War II.

[4] Her father was a Standard Oil Company welder and former semipro baseball player in the Los Angeles area and her mother was of an English-German-Italian background.

[5] On her father's side, Collins had a couple of distant relatives who played professional baseball in the MLB.

[6] Her father built a backstop in their backyard where they would practice a lot, but sometimes they would go to the school's softball field to provide more of a challenge for Collins.

[4][5] While working as a bat girl during a bad game in 1935, the manager of the Mark C. Bloome softball team pulled Collins away from her bat girl job and placed her on the pitcher's mound in front of thousands of fans at Wrigley Field (Los Angeles).

[6] Once the United States entered into World War II, they mandated blackouts across the country, so many softball games had to be canceled.

[6] In 1944, Bill Allington, Collins's former manager for her softball teams growing up, recommended that she try out for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL).

[9] Minneapolis' manager, Bill Allington, the man who recruited Collins into the AAGPBL, was described as being very intense but also very caring towards his players.

[12] At one point, the Fort Wayne Daisies were even described as being similar to the famous Yankees because they recruited the most talented players and dominated the league.

Many Fort Wayne Daisy fans would ask her for autographs and local florists would even send her flowers every time she pitched a shutout.

[5] After watching both baseball games, Harvey Collins, who had spent four years in the Navy during World War II, mentioned to his friend that he wanted to meet Dottie.

While four-months pregnant during the 1948 season, Collins finally decided to bench herself in the middle of the first game of a doubleheader.

[19] After retiring from baseball in 1950, Collins started working for General Electric Company in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

[17] She won the Fort Wayne All-City Golf Championship twice, and even was able to share the trophy one time with her husband Harvey.

[17] Collins was not able to stay away from sports for very long after she retired, and she soon started working part-time while also raising her family.

[17] Collins was also very active in her community by promoting youth sports through the Elks Club in Fort Wayne during the late 1950s, into the 1960s and 1970s.

In 1987, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association was formed in South Bend, Indiana.

[20] In 1992, Marshall decided to create the movie A League of Their Own, partially inspired by Collins's life and career.

[20] Collins was able to serve as a technical director on the set and helped make sure authenticity was being kept, especially when actual baseball was being played.