Jean Anna Faut [Winsch/Eastman] (January 17, 1925 – February 28, 2023) was an American starting pitcher who played from 1946 through 1953 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

She compiled a lifetime record of 140–64 with a 1.23 earned run average in 235 pitching appearances, registering the lowest career ERA for any pitcher in the league.

But both teams lost their franchises by the end of the year and were replaced by the Grand Rapids Chicks and the Fort Wayne Daisies in the 1945 season.

[7][8] In 1946 the AAGPBL made significant changes in its rules, extending the length of the base paths and pitching distance and decreasing the size of the ball.

Faut posted an 8–3 record with 21 strikeouts and a 1.32 earned run average in 12 outings, including nine starts, eight complete games, and a pair of two-hitters in 81 innings of work, ranking third in ERA and winning percentage (.727).

Grand Rapids' star Connie Wisniewski led the circuit in ERA (0.96) and shared with Racine's Joanne Winter the wins title (33), while Fort Wayne's Dorothy Collins topped in strikeouts (294) and shutouts (17).

More than half of the batters averaged under .200, while the highest marks were recorded by Rockford's Dorothy Kamenshek (.316), South Bend's Bonnie Baker (.286), Racine's Sophie Kurys (.286), Grand Rapids' Merle Keagle (.284) and Kenosha's Audrey Wagner (.281).

[11][12][8] The first AAGPBL spring training outside the United States was held in 1947 in Havana, Cuba, as part of a plan to create an International League of Girls Baseball.

Before starting the season, Faut married Karl Winsch, a former Philadelphia Phillies pitching prospect from East Greenville, near her hometown.

The couple established their initial residence in South Bend, Indiana, where she worked in the off-season for Ball-Band, a local division of the United States Rubber Company.

[1][8] In 1947 South Bend earned a respectable fourth place in the eight-team league with a 57–54 record, although was beaten by Grand Rapids in the first round of the playoffs, three to two games.

In that season also were incorporated the Chicago Colleens and the Springfield Sallies, and the AAGPBL expanded to a historical peak of ten teams divided into Eastern and Western Divisions.

That season, Grand Rapids' Alice Haylett went 25–5 with a league-best 0.77 ERA, while Racine's Joanne Winter finished 25–12 and led in strikeouts (248).

For the next year, the Colleens and the Sallies became rookie training teams, playing in exhibition games, recruiting new talent as they toured through the South and East.

Faut posted a 24–8 record with a 1.10 ERA in 34 games, allowing 47 runs (36 earned) on 136 hits and 118 walks, while striking out 120 in 261 innings of work.

She pitched flawlessly and faced the minimum 27 batters, but still did not qualify for a perfect game, since she allowed an eighth-inning walk to Dorothy Schroeder, who later was erased on a double play.

[13] The new rule did not disrupt Faut; she finished 21–9 behind a 1.12 ERA in 36 games, allowing 64 runs (36 earned) on 175 hits and 104 walks while striking out 118 over 290 innings.

Meanwhile, Winsch enjoyed an auspicious managerial debut, Nevertheless, when he became manager of the team, it made the situation even stickier and increased Faut's isolation from her teammates.

[1][18] Faut reached her peak of the season on July 21, when she hurled a perfect game against the visiting Rockford Peaches at Playland Park.

The competition she faced in that special game was among the best highlights of her career, because Rockford would end the season battling South Bend for the league championship.

[citation needed] Nevertheless, Faut overcame internal conflicts to command the circuit with a 20–2 mark in 23 starts for a .909 winning percentage, setting the all-time single season for this category.

Faut was the winning pitcher in the first contest in a 2–1 complete game, in which she got out of a no-outs, bases-loaded jam in the ninth inning, surrendering just one unearned run.

South Bend handily defeated the Chicks in the second game, 6–1, with Faut delivering two RBI and relieving in the ninth to seal the victory.

It was a contest rocked by controversy as Faut lost the first game, delivering a sub-par performance when she surrendered an uncharacteristic seven runs on 13 hits.

In spite of everything that had gone wrong, Faut still returned to post a 17–11 record and produced a league-best 1.51 ERA in 29 games, though league offensive levels were increasing.

By her final season, only overhand pitching was allowed, the ball was a lively cork-centered ten inches, and the basepaths were seventy-five feet.

In addition, she was included in the All-Star team for the fourth time, and once again won the Player of the Year honors, although South Bend finished fifth and missed the playoffs.

On September 6, 1953, the Blue Sox management and around 1,500 fanatics honored their longtime diamond ace with a Jean Faut Night before a game at Playland Park.

After collecting four hundred dollars in gifts, Faut ended her baseball career that evening with a 3–0, nine-hit defeat to the visiting Grand Rapids Chicks.

Divorced from Winsch in 1968, she married again in 1977 to Charles Eastman, a resident of Rock Hill, South Carolina who worked as a salesman for Textron Corporation.