Shirley Kleinhans

Shirley Kleinhans [Sommer] (November 2, 1928 – August 23, 2001) was an American pitcher who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.[1][2]

Shirley Kleinhans
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
Pitcher
Born: November 2, 1928 Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin
Died: August 23, 2001 (aged 72) Plymouth, Wisconsin
Batted: Right Threw: Right
Teams
South Bend Blue Sox (1948)
Career highlights and awards
Women in Baseball – AAGPBL Permanent Display at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (since 1988)

Kleinhans joined the league with the South Bend Blue Sox club during its 1948 season. Her career was cut short because of a back injury.[1]

Born in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin,[2] Kleinhans was the daughter of Edward W. Kleinhans and Olga M. Schmidt.[3] She worked on her parents’ farm and attended Howards Grove High School in Wisconsin, where she graduated in 1946.[1]

Afterwards, Kleinhans went on to play dartball for 17 years and worked at the Winnebago Indian School in Wisconsin. She married George A. Sommer in 1957. They raised two children, while operating a cattle farm and then a rabbit farm.[1]

She died in 2001 in Plymouth, Wisconsin, at the age of 72.[3]

In 1988 Kleinhans was inaugurated a permanent display at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at Cooperstown, New York, that honors those who were part of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Kleinhans, along with the rest of the girls and the league staff, is included at the display/exhibit.[4]

Sources

1. Heaphy, Leslie A.; May, Mel Anthony 2006). McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-2100-8
2. "Shirley Sommer – Profile". All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Retrieved 2019-05-30.
3. Obituary. Find A Grave Memorial. Retrieved on April 28, 2017.
4. Before A League of Their Own. National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Retrieved on September 5, 2016.