Former Peaches Star Dies

mystateline.com
Reported by: Scott Leber
Wednesday, May 19 2010

Rockford, Illinois-Ask just about anyone who saw Dorothy Kamenshek play, they'll tell you she was not only the best player on the Rockford Peaches. She was also the best player in the entire All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

Kamenshek died Monday at the age of 84.

Kamenshek played for the Peaches from 1943-1952. She played first base and she batted leadoff.

Seven times she was named a AAGPL All-Star. Twice she led the league in batting average. She retired as the league's all-time leader in batting average.

In 1946 she stole 109 bases. She was the Pete Rose of women's baseball years before Pete Rose arrived in Major League Baseball.

"The people that went and watched the Peaches would say she was the best first baseman in the league," said former Rockford Peach Barbara Thompson to WTVO. "I know somebody had said she would have played for any man's hardball team. And she enjoyed the game. She was good to the young players."

"She was the best there was," said former teammate Helen Waddell Wyatt. "There was nobody that would play first base any better than she could. No man or woman. She worked at it. Every day she practiced fielding in her hotel room and her bed room. She tried everything she could to be a better ball player."

Kamenshek was a native of Cincinnati. She lived in California after her playing career ended.