Gloria Cordes

Gloria Cordes Elliott (September 21, 1931 – March 13, 2018) was an American starting pitcher who played from 1950 through 1954 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

[1] Gloria Cordes was one of 25 players who made the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League clubs hailed from New York City and State, including Muriel Bevis, Mildred Deegan, Nancy Mudge, Betty Trezza and Margaret Wigiser.

When the teams stopped for an exhibition game at Yankee Stadium in 1949, Cordes tried out for the league and was invited to another tryout in South Bend, Indiana, the following year.

It was a very bad season for the Lassies, who relocated to Kalamazoo, Michigan, in the middle of the year, and posted the worst record of the league with 36 wins, 73 losses and two ties.

Cordes stayed with the Belles when the team moved from Racine, Wisconsin, to Battle Creek, Michigan, for the 1951 season, but was sent back to the Lassies during the midseason.

She finished with a 16–8 record and a 1.44 ERA and lowered drastically her numbers of the previous season, cutting her walks from 96 to 52, by increasing her strikeouts from 70 to 84, and allowing 12 fewer hits (168 to 156) in 34 more innings (179 to 213).

Besides this, she finished fifth in the league in innings, third in strikeouts, sixth in wins and second in ERA to Jean Faut, who set an all-time, single-season record of 0.93 (.51 ahead of Cordes).

In the first round of the playoffs, Kalamazoo defeated the Fort Wayne Daisies and advanced to the best-of-three game Championship Series only to lost to the Grand Rapids Chicks, 2–0.

[citation needed] In Game 1 of the AAGPBL Series, the Kalamazoo Lassies defeated the Fort Wayne Daisies 17-9 behind a four-hit, seven strong innings from June Peppas, who also helped herself by hitting 2-for-4, including one home run.

Pitching star Maxine Kline, who had posted an 18–7 record with 3.23 ERA for the Daisies during the regular season, gave up 11 runs in six innings and was credited with the loss.

[8][9] When the league was unable to continue in 1955, Cordes joined several other players selected by former Daisies manager Bill Allington to play in the national touring team known as the All-Americans All-Stars.

Besides Cordes, the Allington All-Stars included players as Joan Berger, Gertrude Dunn, Betty Foss, Jean Geissinger, Katie Horstman, Maxine Kline, Dolores Lee, Ruth Richard and Dorothy Schroeder, between others.