Dottie Wiltse Collins

<p> As World War II depleted the available manpower available to the major and minor leagues Chicago Cubs owner Phillip Wrigley came up with a plan to ensure baseball would continue in the war years: the creation of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The inaugural season in 1943 was so successful that two additional teams were added for 1944.</p><p> One of the players brought in to fill the rosters of the new teams was Dottie Wiltse a star softball player from Southern California. Assigned to the newly formed Minneapolis Millerettes Wiltse went on to become one of the dominant players in the AAGPBL. During her six-year career with the Millerettes and the Fort Wayne Daisies Dottie Wiltse Collins (married to Harvey Collins in 1946) pitched in 223 games with a 117-76 record 1205 strikeouts and an earned run average of 1.83.</p><p> Based on extensive research and interviews with Collins and other principals this work covers the pitcher's early career as a softball player her triumphs in professional baseball and her part in the renewed interest in the women's league in the late 1980s.</p>