Josephine Lenard

Veronica Josephine Lenard (September 2, 1921 – February 7, 2007), nicknamed "Bubblegum", was an American center fielder who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Listed at 5' 4", 130 lb., she batted and threw right-handed.

A native of Chicago, Illinois, she grew up playing baseball with her brother and the other boys in the streets of her neighborhood. Playground ball was the next step, then into the high school league and on to a Chicago amateur girls softball team. She was in school when she learned that there was a nationwide effort to recruit women to play in a new Midwest professional softball/baseball league.

Lenard attended a AAGPBL tryout and made the grade, starting a professional career that spanned ten years. A consistent line-drive hitter who used the entire field and excelled at slap bunting for base hits, she was a skillful contact hitter with a near perfect eye for the strike zone and seldom struck out. By the time her AAGPBL career ended in 1953, Lenard had driven in 351 runs to place her ninth on the career RBI list for the league, despite hitting only one home run in just over 3400 at bats. She also collected 520 stolen bases and walked 481 times against only 234 strikeouts for a 2.06 BB/K ratio. A natural center fielder, she possessed a strong and accurate throwing arm.

Lenard entered the league in 1944 with the Rockford Peaches, playing for them two years before joining the Muskegon Lassies (1946-'49), Peoria Redwings (1949), Kenosha Comets (1950-'51) and South Bend Blue Sox (1952-'53). In her rookie season, she hit a .211 average and stole 68 bases, while leading the circuit with 10 triples. Her most productive season came in 1947, when she hit a career-high .261 with 38 RBI in 111 games and was selected for the All-Star team. She also made four trips to the playoffs with four teams, including for the championship winners in 1945 and 1952.