Annabelle Lee

Annabelle Lee Harmon (January 22, 1922 – July 3, 2008) was an American female pitcher who played from through with four teams of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Listed at , 120 lb, Lee was a switch-hitter and threw left-handed. She was born in Los Angeles, California. She was the aunt of Bill Lee, a former Boston Red Sox and Montreal Expos pitcher.

Early life and early career Anabelle Lee grew up in a home where baseball was considered of vital importance, as her father was an early 1920s baseball standout for the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League, while her nephew Bill Lee pitched in Major League Baseball for the Boston Red Sox and Montreal Expos. According to Bill Lee, his aunt "was the best athlete in the family. She taught me how to pitch." She played her first season in the AAGPBL with the expansion franchise Minneapolis Millerettes.

AAGPBL career Lee was allocated to the expansion Minneapolis Millerettes in 1944. "I was excited and scared all at the same time; I was thrilled to leave behind my $95-a-month bank clerk's position for an $85-a-week", she recalled in an interview. With the guidance of her father, Lee excelled at sports at a very early age. "To teach me pitching accuracy, he made me throw a baseball through a tire hung from a tree and then at a strike zone painted on an old mattress", she added. She pitched a perfect game on July 29, 1944 against the Kenosha Comets, the first in league history.

Using underhand fastball pitching in her first season, Lee posted an 11–14 record with a 2.43 ERA in 29 appearances, and the 9th-best ERA in the league. She allowed 96 runs, 39 of them unearned, and struck out 56 batters. The Millerettes, managed by Bubber Jonnard, compiled the worst mark of the league (45–72) and finished last in both halves of the season, 8½ games back of fifth place overall, 26½ out of first. Besides this, she hurled a no-hitter the next season and posted a solid career 2.25 earned run average during her seven years in the league.

According to Lee, "I was a junkball pitcher, but I had a great knuckleball". In her debut season, she combined with Wiltze (20–16, 1.88 ERA) for 31 of the 45 victories of the helpless Millerettes. The team received some pretty good performances from Helen Callaghan, who hit .287 (2nd in the league) and Faye Dancer (.274, 44 extra bases), who became the first girl to hit two home runs in a single game and two grand slams in a regular season. Playing their home games at Nicollet Park, the Millerettes could not compete with the local Minneapolis Millers. In addition, Minneapolis was far from the other five cities in the league, forcing the team to spend most of the season on the road. As a result, the team was replaced by the Fort Wayne Daisies in the 1945 season.

When asked about the 1992 film A League of Their Own, a fictionalized account of activities in the AAGPBL created by Penny Marshall, Lee said the film was about 70% accurate. In real life, the managers never entered the women's dressing rooms, she mused. It was a time when women took over men's positions as they went off to war, not only in the field of manufacturing, but on the field of dreams, she concluded.

Lee is part of the AAGPBL permanent display at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at Cooperstown, New York, opened in , which is dedicated to the entire league rather than any individual player.

AAGPBL perfect games Pitcher(s) Season Team OpponentAnnabelle Lee Minneapolis Millerettes Kenosha CometsCarolyn Morris Rockford Peaches Fort Wayne DaisiesDoris Sams Muskegon Lassies Fort Wayne DaisiesJean Faut South Bend Blue Sox Rockford PeachesJean Faut South Bend Blue Sox Kalamazoo Lassies