SR1766 100TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR1766 LRB100 22103 MST 40408 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The Rockford Peaches were a women's professional baseball team that played from 1943 through 1954 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League; and

WHEREAS, With America's entry into World War II, several major league baseball executives decided to start a new professional baseball league with women players in order to maintain baseball in the public eye while the majority of men were away; and

WHEREAS, The Rockford Peaches played their home games at Beyer Stadium on 15th Avenue in Rockford; they won league titles in 1945, 1948, 1949, and 1950; and

WHEREAS, Rockford Peaches who were named to all-star teams included Dorothy Kamenshek, Lois Florreich, Dorothy Harrell, Carolyn Morris, Alice Pollitt, Ruth Richard, Rose Gacioch, Eleanor Callow, and Joan Berger; and

WHEREAS, The Rockford Peaches were immortalized in the 1992 film, A League of Their Own, which was directed by Penny Marshall and starred Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Lori Petty, Madonna, and Rosie O'Donnell, and gave us the classic line "There's no crying in baseball!"; and

WHEREAS, The International Women's Baseball Center, in partnership with Friends of Beyer Stadium, will hold a series of events on May 30 through June 3, 2018 to celebrate the Rockford Peaches' 75th anniversary; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we declare the week of May 30 to June 5, 2018 as "Rockford Peaches Week" in the State of Illinois; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be presented to the International Women's Baseball Center, Friends of Beyer Stadium, and the City of Rockford.