Lillian Faralla
{{Short description|American baseball player (1924–2019)}}
{{Infobox baseball biography
| name = Lillian Faralla
| image =
| image_size = 200px
| caption =
| team = All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
| position = Pitcher / Utility
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1924|7|29}}
| birth_place = San Pedro, California
| death_date = {{death date and age|2019|7|26|1924|7|29}}
| death_place =
| bats = Right
| throws = Right
| debutyear = {{by|1946}}
| finalyear = {{by|1951}}
| teams =
- Peoria Redwings (1946)
- Fort Wayne Daisies (1947)
- South Bend Blue Sox (1948–1949, 1951)
- Kalamazoo Lassies (1950)
|highlights=
- Championship team (1951)
- Three playoff appearances (1948-1949, 1951)
- Pitched two no-hitters in the same season (1949)
}}
Lillian "Lil" Faralla (July 29, 1924 – July 26, 2019) was a female pitcher and utility who played from {{by|1946}} through {{by|1951}} in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. She batted and threw right-handed.[http://www.aagpbl.org/profiles/lillian-faralla-lil/395 Lillian Faralla]. All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Retrieved 2019-04-12.
A brief history
The early 1940s saw unprecedented numbers of women entering the public realm in numerous traditionally male occupations. The World War II left scores of businesses, including baseball, without adequate labor. Driven by the fear that Major League Baseball would be shut down for the duration of the war, Chicago Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley created a women's league as a backup plan to keep baseball alive. The circuit existed from 1943 to 1954. It eventually became known as the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL).{{cite news|url=http://www.aagpbl.org/history/league-history|title=All-American Girls Professional Baseball League History|access-date=2019-03-31}}
Early life
A native of San Pedro, California, Faralla started playing softball when she was 14 years old for a team in her hometown. She played for six years with four different teams in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, being traded back and forth a couple of times when other teams had injuries, because she was able to fill in since she played a number of positions. A hard-throwing pitcher, she also appeared at second base, third, and right field.{{cite web|url=http://www.thediamondangle.com/archive/aug05/faralla.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130203182356/http://www.thediamondangle.com/archive/aug05/faralla.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2013-02-03|title=The Diamond Angle – An interview with Lillian Faralla|access-date=2019-03-31}}
AAGPBL career
Faralla entered the league in 1946 with the Peoria Redwings, playing for them one year before joining the Fort Wayne Daisies (1947), South Bend Blue Sox (1948–1949), Kalamazoo Lassies (1950), and coming back to South Bend (1951). She posted a career-high 19 victories in 1949, but her career milestone came in 1949, when she pitched two no-hitters in that season. She reached the playoffs with the Blue Sox in all three seasons she played for them, including the championship team in 1951.[http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?a=v&v=l&bid=2457&pid=19609 SABR Biography Project – Article by Jim Sargent]{{cite news|url=https://coronadotimes.com/news/2017/01/21/in-a-league-of-her-own-92-year-old-lil-faralla-shares-her-experiences-playing-in-the-all-american-girls-professional-baseball-league/|last=Cornelius|first=Coree|title=In a League of Her Own – 92 Year Old Shares Experience in Girls Baseball League|work=The Coronado Times, Coronado, California|date=2017-01-21|access-date=2019-03-31}}{{cite news|url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_667495|title=Baseball, signed by the 1951 South Bend Blue Sox|work=National Museum of American History|access-date=2019-03-31}}
"Women should have their own league (...) The game should be adapted for women players (...) Enjoying something you like to do and getting paid for it", Faralla recalled in an interview. It was the lessons of baseball, taught by AAGPBL managers as Bill Allington, that the women would remember most about their time in the field of play. After the circuit folded in 1954, many of them would go on to coach softball and baseball themselves for schools and other organizations with teams.[http://www.uwlax.edu/urc/JUR-online/PDF/2004/grawozburn.pdf The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: Pioneers in Their Own Right – Clement C. GrawOzburn, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse]
In November 1988 Faralla the entire AAGPBL was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York.The Celebrity Black Book – Jordan McAuley. Publisher: Mega Niche Media, 2007. Format:Paperback, 768pp. Language: English. {{ISBN|0-9707095-8-7}} She died on July 26, 2019.[https://sheriffsrelief.org/fallen-officer/end-of-watch/faralla-lillian/ Lillian Faralla's obituary]
Career statistics
Batting
| class="wikitable" | SLG | |||||||||||||
| align=center
| 266 | 607 | 43 | 127 | 10 | 3 | 3 | 63 | 25 | 152 | 63 | 99 | .209 | .284 | .250 |
Pitching
| class="wikitable" | |||||
| align=center
| 140 | 55–55 | .500 | 392 | 238 | 2.00 |
Sources
{{Reflist|2}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Faralla, Lillian}}
Category:All-American Girls Professional Baseball League players
Category:Peoria Redwings players
Category:Fort Wayne Daisies players
Category:South Bend Blue Sox players
Category:Kalamazoo Lassies players
Category:Baseball players from Los Angeles