Saskatchewan baseball icon Mary 'Bonnie' Baker recognized in new Heritage Minute

A trailblazer in women’s baseball and the rumoured inspiration behind one of the leading characters in the movie "A League of Our Own" is now the face of Historica Canada’s newest Heritage Minute.

Mary “Bonnie” Baker, born and raised in Regina, was a two-time all-star catcher in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL).

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She was one of 64 Canadians to play in the league’s 12-season history. She played from 1943 to 1952.

“Bonnie Baker was a perfect image for the league,” American sports historian Merrie Fidler told CTV News.

“She was an outstanding model and also an outstanding ball player.”

Baker appeared on the cover of Time Magazine in 1945 and was profiled in SPORT magazine in 1947. In 1950, she became the first female player to also be hired as a team manager in the AAGPBL.

“She had a manager’s contract. There were other women who stepped in and finished out of season helping to manage a team but she was the first one hired,” Fidler said.

Baker was considered one of the older players in the league, according to Fidler. Most of the players were recruited in their late teens or early 20s, but Baker would have been 25 years old when she started playing professionally.

“She took a lot of those girls under her wing,” said Baker’s daughter, Maureen, in an intervie with CTV News. “She was the person who people went to in need, if they needed help with anything, they just went to her.”

Baker continued playing organized ball long after she retired from the AAGPBL.

Maureen remembers always being at a ball diamond growing up, but she said it took her awhile to realize how successful her mother was in the sport.

“It didn’t really dawn on me that she was that special. Over the years, of course, it was made very clear,” Maureen said.

In 1964, Baker took on a new challenge, becoming the country’s first female radio sportscaster.

Baker has been inducted into the Regina, Saskatchewan and Canadian Sports Halls of Fame and the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

Baker died in 2003. In 2015, Baker was honoured with a commemorative mural in Regina’s Central Park where the baseball legend used to practice on evenings and weekends.

With all the posthumous accolades and, most recently, the Heritage Minute, Maureen said her mom would be surprised, but honoured.

“She didn’t really think that she was doing anything more special than anybody else was,” she said.