Vancouver’s Margaret Callaghan played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League from 1944 to 1951. Margaret played eight seasons in the AAGPBL with five teams, four of those seasons alongside younger sister Helen Callaghan on the Minneapolis Millerettes and the Fort Wayne Daisies.
Her glove and one of the “girls” baseballs she used while playing are part of the BC Sports Hall of Fame collection.
Margaret was known as one of the league’s best infielders and a solid hitter. On one occasion, it’s believed she hit the longest home run ever by a woman to that point in time. Her blazing base running also made her one of the most feared base-stealers in the game.
Helen was a strong centerfielder with blistering speed on the base paths. She ended up setting the league’s all-time record for stolen bases—354 in 388 games. She was also a powerhouse at the plate. In her second AAGPBL season, she led the league with a .299 batting average as well as hits (122), total bases (156), doubles (17), and home runs (3).
Girls league formed during WWII
Chicago’s P.K Wrigley formed the AAGPBL in 1943 while the men’s major leagues were decimated by many top players called into the services during World War II. The idea behind the first professional women’s baseball league was to keep the ballparks in use and boost morale on the home front. Within a few seasons, nearly a million spectators were taking in games.
Margaret and Helen were spotted by AAGPBL scouts while playing for Vancouver’s Western Mutuals at the 1943 World Softball Championships in Detroit.
After they retired from professional play and started families—Margaret in Vancouver, Helen in southern California—they didn’t talk much about their baseball careers and, likewise, the AAGBL was mostly forgotten after the league ceased operations in 1954. Their own children weren’t aware their mothers had been star ball players until much later.
Next generation carried on legacy of Helen and Margaret
Helen played catch and hit grounders to her son Casey Candaele when he was young. He later played in the major leagues with the Montreal Expos and Houston Astros. And in a full circle moment, Casey returned to his mother’s hometown in 2019 to manage the Vancouver Canadians. Helen and Casey stand as the only mother and son ever to have both played pro baseball.
Another son of Helen’s, Kelly Candaele, was so inspired by Aunt Margaret’s amazing scrapbooks depicting their baseball careers that he filmed a PBS documentary on their time in the AAGPBL.
The film revived interest in the league and soon attracted Hollywood. Few realize it today, but the end result was the stories of two Vancouver baseball players becoming the basis for the beloved 1992 feature film A League of Their Own directed by Penny Marshall and starring Geena Davis, Lori Petty, Madonna, and Tom Hanks. The characters played by Davis and Petty are loosely based on Margaret and Helen.
Margaret donated her glove and ball to the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 2007, just before the Callaghan sisters were inducted into the Hall of Fame’s Pioneer category.
Helen died in 1992 and Margaret in 2019.
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