As the World Series gets underway tonight, Major League Baseball will take the next step toward crowning its 2023 champion. Spoiler alert: The team will not be from Wisconsin.
Yes, the Brewers’ quest to deliver the city’s first MLB title since 1957 ended sooner than we would’ve liked. Fortunately, the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum (NBHFM) has stepped in to help us mitigate that disappointment by turning the spotlight on two Wisconsin teams that won championships years before the Braves in the mid-’50s.
This morning, the NBHFM unveiled a collection of officially licensed, limited-edition bobbleheads commemorating the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) champions. As you may remember from A League of Their Own, the Racine Belles captured the first title in 1943, although that fictionalized account had them defeating the Rockford Peaches. In fact, the Belles swept the Kenosha Comets, three games to none, in what was almost certainly not known as the WI-32 series.
In addition to Racine (which also won the 1946 championship), the Milwaukee Chicks are part of the collection thanks to their 1944 crown — a 4-3 series win, once again over the Comets. The rest of the Midwest-heavy group includes the Peaches (four-time champs), the Grand Rapids Chicks and South Bend Blue Sox (two each), and the Kalamazoo Lassies (one).
"We’re excited to release bobbleheads of the six teams to claim championships in the 12-year history of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, including the Milwaukee Chicks and Racine Belles,” National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum co-founder and CEO Phil Sklar said in a release. “The women who played in the AAGPBL were role models that paved the way for women in professional sports and beyond, and we think these new bobbleheads are the perfect tribute.”
The NBHFM partnered with the AAGPBL to create the new line just in time for the league’s 80th anniversary, with a total of 1,943 bobbleheads produced in honor of the inaugural season. The entire collection is available now on the NBHFM website, as well as at the hall of fame itself, which is right across the way from our Walker’s Point studios at 170 S. 1st St.
