Challenges and triumphs underscore Dirt on Their Skirts: The Story of the Young Women Who Won the World Championship. Set in Racine, Wisconsin, in 1946, the story is told from the point of view of young Margaret, who goes with her parents and brother to the final game of the 1949 season of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The Racine Belles are playing the Rockford Peaches. The story opens at the beginning of the 14th inning when the score is tied at zero to zero. Margaret, who aspires to be a professional baseball player, is rooting for her home team. An avid fan, Margaret idolizes her favorite players, Sophie “the Flint Flash” Kurys and Betty “Moe” Trezza. Plenty of play-action description will satisfy today’s young sports enthusiasts. Although the story is fictionalized, the details are drawn from press clippings and personal accounts of an exciting game that went into extra innings. Authors Rappaport and Callan include as an endnote the actual box scores for the game, as well as photographs of the some of the players, then and now. (Ages 5-9)

"You have to be tough to play baseball in a skirt".

And you had to be really, really good to play in the 1946 championship game between the Racine Belles and the Rockford Peaches. Sitting in the stands, Margaret thrilled to every crack of the bat, stolen base, and pulse-pounding play. Someday she hoped to join her heroes like Sophie "the Flash" Kurys and Betty "Moe" Trezza. But for now she concentrated all her energy and passion for the game on this amazing fourteenth inning. As the pitcher's ball hurtled toward the plate, Margaret could almost feel what it would be like to be in that batter's position, arms tensed, bat held high, just ready to make that baseball fly ...

Doreen Rappaport, Lyndall Callan, and acclaimed artist E.B. Lewis take young readers back to a historic game in the annals of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Based on written accounts and on the memories of the players themselves, this exciting story is for all those playground heroines and sandlot sluggers whose hearts beat a little faster whenever they hear the words ...

"Play ball!"