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Simply the Best

Kamenshek caught the attention of baseball fans.

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100. Dorothy Kamenshek, Baseball

1925-
Best all-around player of the All-American Girls Baseball League

While American men were fighting in World War II, Dottie Kamenshek was tearing up the fields for the All-American Girls Baseball League. A lefthanded first baseman, Kamenshek won back-to-back batting titles in 1946 and '47 and was selected to seven All-Star teams (1943, 1946-51). An outstanding bunter and contact hitter, she struck out just 81 times in 3,737 career at-bats. Her forte was placing the ball down either baseline. An unselfish player, she could sacrifice or go for the fence, depending on the situation. She was also an ardent student of the game, and she studied major leaguers avidly. In her 10-year career with the Rockford (Ill.) Peaches, her team won four league championships. Her abilities were so impressive that the Fort Lauderdale club of the Florida International Baseball League -- a team in a men's minor league -- offered to buy her contract; Rockford refused the offer. In 1950, after the Peaches fell apart in the sixth game of the championship series, Kamenshek rallied her teammates to win the final game, slapping out two singles, a triple, a homer and driving in five runs. Despite wearing a back brace, she still managed to hit .345 and steal 63 bases in 1951, her final season.

They said it: "[Dorothy Kamenshek's] the fanciest-fielding first-baseman I've ever seen, man or woman." -- New York Yankees first baseman Wally Pipp

--Susan Brody

Athletes were selected by Sports Illustrated For Women, Sports Illustrated and CNN/SI editors, writers and correspondents who considered the athletes' on-field performance and achievements, plus their contributions to women's sports. Because athletic achievement was a key criterion, women whose contributions were made solely in administration and coaching are not included.