Bennett: For Max Carey, there was no decrying women in baseball
From Mark Bennett at the Terre Haute Tribune-Star on August 19, 2018, with mention of SABR member Jim Nitz:
Max Carey was not Jimmy Dugan.
Carey was indeed a famous retired big-league baseball star when he agreed to manage a team in the fledgling All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. That’s where his parallels end with Jimmy Dugan, the fictional character played by Tom Hanks in the classic 1992 movie “A League of Their Own.” Hanks portrayed an irascible, hard-drinking, carousing, washed-up slugger so disinterested in the women’s team he managed, the Rockford Peaches, that he slept through their early-season games.
Carey shared lessons from his 20-season Hall of Fame career with his AAGPBL players, and bragged about their proficiency. The Terre Haute native, who died in 1976, not only managed two of the league’s teams, but also served as its president from 1945 to ’50 — the AAGPBL’s heyday.
“He was a perfect gentleman,” the late Sylvia Wronksi, a pitcher for Carey’s 1944 Milwaukee Chicks, told baseball researcher Jim Nitz in 1993. “I have no clue who Hanks was supposed to be like, but it sure wasn’t Carey.”
Legends say Hanks’ Jimmy Dugan was loosely based on another ex-big-league star, Jimmie Foxx, who managed one season in the AAGPBL.
Rrad the full article here: http://www.tribstar.com/features/valley_life/for-terre-haute-s-max-carey-there-was-no-decrying/article_74aa0097-62e3-5ba0-aab3-a6209722eb13.html
Originally published: August 24, 2018. Last Updated: August 24, 2018.