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Vivian Anderson (baseball)

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Vivian Anderson
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
Third base
Born: (1921-04-21)April 21, 1921
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Died: December 21, 2012(2012-12-21) (aged 91)
Brookfield, Wisconsin
Batted: Right
Threw: Right
Teams
Career highlights and awards
  • Championship team member (1944)
  • Women in Baseball – AAGPBL Permanent Display at Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (1988)
  • Miller Park Walls of Honor (2001)

Vivian Anderson [Sheriffs] (April 21, 1921 – December 21, 2012) was an infielder who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during the 1944 season. Listed at 5 ft 2 in (1.57 m), 140 lb., she batted and threw right-handed.[1]

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Vivian Anderson played with her hometown Milwaukee Chicks in their championship season. Unfortunately, she severely injured two fingers of her throwing hand that shortened her playing career in her rookie year.[2]

At age of 13, Vivian began playing softball in a league which required its players to be 16. "I cheated on my age a little," she admitted in an interview. She attended West Division High School in Milwaukee, where she played in the school baseball and basketball teams. In 1942 she married Daniel Anderson, her assistant coach, just when she turned 21 years old. She was spotted by AAGPBL scouts while playing in a Milwaukee league, and sent her an invitation to the league's spring training camp at Peru, Illinois.[3][4]

״Andy״, as her teammates nicknamed her, tried out at third base and learned the skills of the game from Chicks' manager Max Carey, to become the first player from her hometown on the Milwaukee team. The strong-armed third sacker was later joined by pitcher Sylvia Wronski, making them the only two Milwaukee natives to play for their hometown Chicks.[4][5]

On May 27, 1944, Anderson started at third base and batted eighth in the order during the Chicks’ inaugural game at Borchert Field, a home contest. She scored the first-ever Chicks’ run, after reaching base on an infield single, in a 5–4, 11-inning loss to the South Bend Blue Sox. But her baseball career ended abruptly in a round trip during her 11th game of the season. The ball, the base and the runner all came together at the same time, she explained. As a result, she fractured her index and middle fingers on her right hand. A doctor advised immediate amputation of her fingers, but another said he could fix them. She would choose the second option, being replaced in the Chicks roster by Doris Tetzlaff.[1]

Milwaukee clinched the 1944 AAGPBL title with a best-of-seven series victory over the Kenosha Comets. Always a team player who wanted to support her manager and teammates, Anderson accompanied the Chicks to all seven of those games played at Kenosha's Lake Front Stadium, because the Milwaukee Brewers were using Borchert Field for their American Association league playoffs.[1][6]

After healing, Anderson moved to Chicago and played for the National Girls Baseball League Chicago Bluebirds for the next two years. She then returned to her hometown, eventually landing with the semi-professional Milwaukee Jets. She divorced her husband after World War II and worked for Allied Van Lines moving company in office management, the secretarial field, public relations, loan closing, dispatching, and credit/collections. At age 83, she worked part-time in an office, namely for a national furniture mover, Barrett Moving and Storage Co., agent for United Van Lines, just to keep busy, before retiring in 2010 at the age of 89.[3][4][1]

In her spare time, Anderson continued to be active in sports playing field hockey and basketball. Also a talented bowler for 50 years, she belonged to the local 600 club.[1]

She is part of Women in Baseball, a permanent display based at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, which was unveiled in 1988 to honor the entire All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Besides this, in 2001 she was honored by having her name added to the Wall of Honor inside Miller Park, home of the National League Milwaukee Brewers, during what turned out to be the first induction in the ballpark. The same year she participated in the SABR convention held in Milwaukee.[1][7]

Vivian Anderson never left her hometown area and continued to live in her own home as late as 2012.[1][8]

Career statistics

Batting

GP AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB BB SO BA OBP SLG
11 34 3 5 0 0 0 1 1 6 1 .147 .275 .147

Fielding

GP PO A E TC DP FA
10 22 22 7 51 1 .863

[1][9]

Sources

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Vivian Sheriffs – Biography / Obituary. All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Retrieved 2019-04-11.
  2. ^ The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: A Biographical Dictionary – W. C. Madden. Publisher: McFarland & Company, 2005. Format: Softcover, 295 pp. Language: English. ISBN 978-0-7864-2263-0
  3. ^ a b "The Diamond Angle – Interview with Vivian Anderson". Archived from the original on 2012-02-04. Retrieved 2019-04-11.
  4. ^ a b c The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
  5. ^ 1944 Milwaukee Chicks. Retrieved 2019-03-25.
  6. ^ All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Record Book – W. C. Madden. Publisher: McFarland & Company, 2000. Format: Softcover, 294pp. Language: English. ISBN 978-0-7864-3747-4
  7. ^ - Walls of Honor exhibit at Miller Park
  8. ^ Uebelherr, Jan. "Vivian Sheriffs - Sheriffs was in a league of her own". Jsonline.com. Retrieved 2013-01-01.
  9. ^ All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Record Book
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