R.I.P. Margaret (Callaghan) Maxwell

Vancouver native Margaret (Callaghan) Maxwell played eight seasons in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) from 1944 to 1951. Photo Credit: AAGPBL Archives

By Kevin Glew

Canadian Baseball Network

Margaret Maxwell, who was an infielder for eight seasons in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL), passed away on January 11 at the age of 97.

Maxwell, whose maiden name was Callaghan, played professionally in the AAGPBL with her sister, Helen, and it’s been reported that they were the inspiration behind the iconic sister characters, Dottie Hinson (played by Geena Davis) and Kit Keller (played by Lori Petty), in the classic movie, “A League of the Own.”

After growing up playing fastball and other sports in Vancouver, alongside her sister, who was 15 months younger than her, Maxwell was working as a crew chief in a Boeing plant in Richmond, B.C., when she was convinced to try out for the AAGBL.

With so many men serving in the war, Chicago Cubs owner, Philip Wrigley, feared baseball would be forgotten in the early ’40s. So to maintain interest in the sport, the legendary executive dispatched scouts across North America to find the best female players to compete in the AAGPBL.

Maxwell impressed and cracked the roster of the Minneapolis Millerettes in 1944, before landing with the Fort Wayne Daisies from 1945 to 1948. She finished her career with tenures with the South Bend Blue Sox (1949), Peoria Redwings (1950-51) and Battle Creek Belles (1951).

During her playing career, she was a sure-handed infielder who played primarily third base. She led the league in fielding percentage at that position in 1944 and 1945. At the plate, the 5-foot-3 B.C. native was a versatile hitter who could drop down a bunt with precision and also club the ball a long way.

"In 1947 she hit a tremendous home run in South Bend that went clear out of the park and was thought to be the longest home run ever hit in the AAGPBL," says a sentence in her biography on the official AAGPBL website.

Following her baseball career, Maxwell raised two sons, Dale and Guy, and worked in a drug store and as a dietary assistant. In her later years, she lived in Delta, B.C.

She was one of 64 Canadian women that played in the AAGPBL that were inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Marys, Ont., in 1998.

She died after a brief illness and leaves behind her son, Dale. She was predeceased by her other son, Guy.

You can leave online condolences here.