Joanne Winter

Joanne Emily Winter [Jo] (November 24, 1924 – September 22, 1996) was a pitcher who played from 1943 through 1950 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

Athletically inclined, she participated in basketball, soccer, swimming, volleyball, track and field, tennis, and handball as a youth in Maywood, a western suburb of Chicago.

In addition, she spent much of her free time training in a gymnasium owned by Jocko Conlan, a local hero and an umpire with Major League Baseball experience.

At 18, she heard about Philip K. Wrigley and his remarkable experiment in creating a women's professional baseball league.

Winter had a hard time dealing with the changes as she struggled to keep mentally focused, recording a 22–45 mark between 1944 and 1945.

On the other hand, Winter collected four wins in all series, including three against Rockford, despite allowing 19 base runners in a 1–0 shutout victory over the Peaches in decisive Game Six.

Winter was able to make the adjustment to overhand pitching before the 1948 season, when Leo Murphy, former Pittsburgh Pirates catcher and Belles manager, helped her convert to a three-quarters delivery during spring training.

She responded by leading the league with 256 strikeouts and 329 innings while tying in victories (25) with Alice Haylett, joining the All-Star team for a third time and helping Racine garner another pennant.

At the end of 1950 the Belles lacked the financial resources to keep the club playing in Racine and opted to move to Battle Creek, Michigan for the 1951 season.

Winter, along with original Belles Dapkus, English, Kurys and Perlick, were disappointment and decided not to make the move.

[15] After that, Winter and several other primarily underhand pitchers rejoined the Admirals of the National Girls Baseball League for a higher salary.

But like many of her AAGPBL colleagues, Winter was relatively unknown until the 1992 film A League of Their Own by filmmaker Penny Marshall was exhibited for the first time.