Phyllis Koehn

Phyllis C. Koehn [″Sugar″] (September 15, 1922 – May 28, 2007) was an American pitcher and utility who played from through for six different teams of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Listed at 5' 5", 120 lb., Koehn batted and threw right-handed. She was born in Madison, Wisconsin.

By the fall of 1942, World War II had caused many Minor League Baseball teams to disband. Young men were being drafted into the armed services, and many feared the worst for Major League Baseball. Philip K. Wrigley, who was in charge both of the Wrigley Company and the Chicago Cubs National League club, searched for a possible solution to this dilemma. The answer was to establish a women's professional baseball league as a promotional sideline to maintain the public interest in baseball.

A versatile and dependable player, Koehn was able to play all positions except catcher, playing mainly as a starting pitcher. She entered the AAGPBL in 1943 with the Kenosha Comets, playing for them two and a half years before joining the South Bend Blue Sox (1945-'48), Peoria Redwings (1948), Racine Belles (1948-'49), Fort Wayne Daisies (1949) and Grand Rapids Chicks (1950). In her rookie season, she hit a respectable .238 batting average with four home runs, considering the league's dead-ball era.

Koehn started 1945 in good form. At one point during the season she was second in the league with 18 runs batted in, but Kenosha traded her to South Bend along with Pauline Pirok (first with 20 RBI) in exchange for Lois Florreich (.243 BA) and Dorothy Schroeder (.179 BA). Her most productive season came in 1946, when she won a career high 22 games as a pitcher after the league expanded to eight teams. She made seven playoffs appearances with Kenosha (1943-'44), South Bend (1946-'47), Racine (1948), Fort Wayne (1949) and Grand Rapids (1950), but could not reach the league finals. She was also one of two hundred players to attend the first AAGPBL spring training outside the United States, which was held in 1947 in Cuba at the Gran Stadium de La Habana.

Career statistics Pitching GPWLW-L%ERAIPHRAERBBSOWHIP 124 48 54 .471 2.55 886 631 393 251 413 234 1.19 Batting Fielding GPPOAETCDPFA 410 657 541 106 1304 18 .921