Jean Faut

Jean Faut beats out a bunt to get her first professional hit on the 1946 Opening Day at Fort Wayne.^[12]

In 1946 the AAGPBL made significant changes in its rules, extending the length of the base paths and pitching distance and decreasing the size of the ball. Later in the season the league allowed a sidearm pitching delivery, permitting the pitchers to add a curveball or sinker to their repertoire of fastball and changeup, all of which Faut had hurled before joining the league. All of these rules changes were designed to make the game more exciting and more like men's baseball. In her rookie season Faut appeared in 101 games, mostly at third base, hitting a .177 (61-for-344) average with 40 runs batted in while scoring 37 runs. She committed 60 errors at third for a .893 fielding percentage. When the sidearm motion was approved, Blue Sox manager Grant included her on the pitching staff for the rest of season. Faut posted an 8–3 record with 21 strikeouts and a 1.32 earned run average in 12 outings, including nine starts, eight complete games, and a pair of two-hitters in 81 innings of work, ranking third in ERA and winning percentage (.727).^[1][11][13]

That season, South Bend led the circuit in team batting with a .220 average, while finishing third in fielding with an average of .943. While her batting average seems low, Faut had never faced underhand pitching, which gave a clear advantage to the faster underhand pitchers of the league. Grand Rapids' star Connie Wisniewski led the circuit in ERA (0.96) and shared with Racine's Joanne Winter the wins title (33), while Fort Wayne's Dorothy Collins topped in strikeouts (294) and shutouts (17). More than half of the batters averaged under .200, while the highest marks were recorded by Rockford's Dorothy Kamenshek (.316), South Bend's Bonnie Baker (.286), Racine's Sophie Kurys (.286), Grand Rapids' Merle Keagle (.284) and Kenosha's Audrey Wagner (.281). The Blue Sox finished in third place with a 70–42 mark but lost in the semifinal round to Rockford, three games to one. In her first post-season, Faut went 0–2 with a 1.13 ERA against Racine. In Game 1 of the playoffs, she suffered the loss in a 17-inning pitching duel against Anna Mae Hutchison, when Maddy English knocked in the winning run in a 3–2 game.^[14]

Faut was a pitcher with an analytical mind that allowed her to remember pitching sequences from batter to batter and game to game. In pre-game team meetings, she would memorize the weakness of the opposite hitters and during the game vary the rotation of pitches she used. "Part of my success", she once reflected, "was that in my mind I could record the order of pitches I threw to each girl, so they never saw the same thing twice". She added "I was a mathematical whiz in school. They’d never know what was coming, so they’d start guessing".^[15]

After playing in 1946 for $65 a week, Faut signed in 1947 for $85. The average full-time worker made $1,299 a year in the 1940s, according to one estimate – or about $25 a week. Players in the AAGBBL made between $50 and $125 a week during a three-month, 108-game season.^[6][11]

The first AAGPBL spring training outside the United States was held in 1947 in Havana, Cuba, as part of a plan to create an International League of Girls Baseball. The All-Americans stayed at the Seville-Biltmore Hotel, and they played their games at the Gran Stadium. They trained, played eight days of exhibitions, and were cheered by more than 75,000 baseball fanatics. All the teams were filmed for Fox News going down the steps at the University of Havana.^[5][7][16]

The AAGPBL made the transition from underhand to full side-arm pitching in 1947. Before starting the season, Faut married Karl Winsch, a former Philadelphia Phillies pitching prospect from East Greenville, near her hometown. The couple established residence in South Bend, Indiana, where she worked in the off-season for Ball-Band, a local division of the United States Rubber Company. Pitching in 44 games, Faut came through with a 1.15 ERA to go with her 19–13 record, allowing 56 runs (38 earned) on just 179 hits in a career-high 298 innings. She walked 67 batters and struck out 97, ending third in innings, fifth in ERA and eighth in strikeouts, while tying for fifth in wins. She also posted a .236 average in 56 games, ranking 19th in the league behind Kamenshek, who won her second consecutive title with a .306 mark. Her most durable performance came on July 31, when she defeated Eleanor Dapkus and the Belles in 22 innings by a 4–3 score. Faut spaced 16 hits, walked five, struck out eleven, and contributed two hits to her own cause^[1][11]

In 1947 South Bend earned a respectable fourth place in the eight-team league with a 57–54 record, but was beaten by Grand Rapids in the first round of the playoffs, three to two games. Faut went 1–1 with one save and a 2.37 ERA in the postseason. At the time she was two months pregnant and gave birth to her first son, Larry, in March 1948.^[11][14][17]

The league moved fully to overhand pitching in 1948, which made the game close to regulation baseball. Such change adversely affected the performance of underhand pitchers, because many of them were experienced submariners who could not make the transition to the new pitching style. Consequently, many teams converted their outfielders to pitchers since they were used to throwing the ball overhand with power. Batters, too, had to make adjustments, since underhand pitches tend to rise, overhand to drop. In that season also were incorporated the Chicago Colleens and the Springfield Sallies, and the AAGPBL expanded to a historical peak of ten teams divided into Eastern and Western Divisions.^[5][7]

In 1948, Faut missed the spring training camp to be held in March and reported to the Blue Sox after her postnatal period. She recovered her old form in mid-June, determined to adjust her arm angle on her pitching deliveries. This change to overhand pitching did not mean that a pitcher could not drop down in her delivery. Occasionally, Faut threw a pitch below sidearm to keep opposing hitters off balance with an array of five quality pitches. She still produced a fine season, fashioning a 16–11 record with 165 strikeouts and a 1.44 ERA in 34 games, hurling 250 innings, ranking seventh among pitchers with at least 45 or more innings, ending seventh in ERA and eighth in strikeouts. The smaller ball and overhand delivery made her curveball pitch more effective. That season, Grand Rapids' Alice Haylett went 25–5 with a league-best 0.77 ERA, while Racine's Joanne Winter finished 25–12 and led in strikeouts (248). On September 4, Faut pitched her first no-hitter, beating the host Racine Belles, 7–0. Her teammate Lillian Faralla had thrown a no-hitter against Racine on May 11, so two Blue Sox pitchers defeated the Belles with two no-hitters in the same season.^[11]

South Bend, with Marty McManus at the helm, ended third (57–69) and lost to Grand Rapids in the first round of the playoffs, three to two games. In Game 1, Faut pitched 20 innings to beat Haylett, 3–2, in the longest game in AAGPBL post-season history. The Chicks won Game 2 in 11 innings, 3–2, to tie the series, but Faralla hurled a four-hit, 2–1 victory in Game 3. In another extra-inning duel, Haylett took revenge in Game 4, defeating Faut and South Bend in 15 innings by a 1–0 score, while in decisive Game 5 Mildred Earp silenced the South Bend hitters in a one-hit, 1–0 shutout, and Grand Rapids advanced to the finals. For the next year, the Colleens and the Sallies became rookie training teams that played exhibition games and recruited new talent as they toured through the South and East.^[5][14][18]

Faut had mixed results in 1948, because she was forced to set aside from her teammates. Recently married, with a baby to care for, she began handling baseball like a professional job and could not socialize after games. As she recalled in an interview, "I had to go home, take care of my family, cook and clean, and all of those things". Nevertheless, in 1949 she recorded her best career season so far, considered by many historians to be the best individual season for any pitcher in AAGPBL history. Faut posted a 24–8 record with a 1.10 ERA in 34 games, allowing 47 runs (36 earned) on 136 hits and 118 walks, while striking out 120 in 261 innings of work. She led the league in wins and shutouts (12), finished second in innings and third in complete games (20). Only two pitchers gave up fewer earned runs, both of Rockford: Lois Florreich, who finished 22–7 with a 0.67 ERA in 269 innings, and Helen Nicol, who was 13–8 with a 0.98 ERA in 212 innings.^[11]

Often used as a pinch-hitter when she was not pitching, Faut paced league hitters with a .291 average (34-for-117) in 53 games, scoring 14 runs and driving in 21, even though her minimum at bats required did not qualify her for the batting championship. As an added value, she made her first All-Star team as a pitcher.^[19]

Throughout the 1949 season, South Bend, now managed by Dave Bancroft, waged an up-and-down battle with Rockford for first place. The Rockford team, managed by Bill Allington, was a perennial powerhouse populated with great players and winner of four league championships. First sacker Dorothy Kamenshek was a seven-time All-Star and won the league batting title twice; three-time All-Star outfielder Rose Gacioch set several season-records as both a hitter and a pitcher; strong-armed Ruth Richard made the All-Star team in six of her eight seasons and responded by gunning down more baserunners than any catcher in the league, while outfielder Eleanor Callow was a three-time All-Star who holds the all-time career record for home runs (55) and triples (60). Undoubtedly, this lineup would have been a challenge for any pitcher in the league.^[14][20][21]

Although South Bend had a four-game lead in August, both clubs tied with identical records of 75–36 at the end of the year. On September 3, in the final home game of the regular season, Faut hurled her second no-hitter, a 2–0 victory against Fort Wayne. She pitched flawlessly and faced the minimum 27 batters, but still did not qualify for a perfect game, since she allowed an eighth-inning walk to Dorothy Schroeder, who later was erased on a double play. In the playoffs, Rockford eliminated South Bend in four straight games. Faut went 0–2 with a 2.58 ERA in two starts. By edict of league president Max Carey, the playoff victory also made Rockford the regular season champion.^[5][11]

In 1950, the Muskegon team became the Kalamazoo Lassies. By then the advantage began to shift toward the batter. Rookie Betty Foss of Fort Wayne topped the loop with a .346 average, Rockford's Eleanor Callow and Racine's Sophie Kurys tied with seven home runs, and Grand Rapids' Pepper Paire finished with 70 runs batted in. That year, most pitchers were still adjusting to the new 10-inch ball introduced the previous season. Also, the pitching distance, set at 43 feet before 1948 and increased to 50 feet in 1949, was augmented to 55 feet in 1950.^[7]

The new rule did not disrupt Faut; she finished 21–9 behind a 1.12 ERA in 36 games, allowing 64 runs (36 earned) on 175 hits and 104 walks while striking out 118 over 290 innings. She paced the circuit in ERA, edging Rockford's Lois Florreich by a minuscule 0.06%, and trailed Fort Wayne's Maxine Kline in wins (23) and Florreich in strikeouts (171). Faut also led in innings pitched and complete games (29), and joined the All-Star team for the second consecutive year. She contributed at the plate as well, hitting .217 (43-for-198) with 23 runs, 26 RBI and 15 stolen bases. Besides her accomplishments, it would almost be a lost effort for Faut, because South Bend finished in fifth place with a 55–55 mark and dropped out of the playoffs. The Racine team would change its name to Battle Creek Belles for the next year.^[5][14][22]

By the time the 1951 season rolled around, Faut was a successful and established pitcher. That year, her husband Karl Winsch took over as manager of South Bend. It was to be a breakthrough year for the Blue Sox as well. Faut finished 15–7 with a 1.33 ERA in 23 games, striking out 135, while giving up 43 runs (28 earned) on 121 hits and 65 walks in 190 innings. She led the league in strikeouts, tied for seventh in wins, and ranked third in ERA and in shutouts (seven). Meanwhile, Winsch enjoyed an auspicious managerial debut, Nevertheless, when he became manager of the team, it made the situation even stickier and increased Faut's isolation from her teammates. Perhaps to avoid charges of favoritism, Winsch reduced significantly the number of games and innings pitched by Faut in 1950. Most women in the league were unmarried, making Faut odd-woman-out on her team.^[1][8]

Faut reached her peak of the season on July 21, when she hurled a perfect game against the visiting Rockford Peaches at Playland Park. Ahead 2–0, Faut struck out five of the last nine hitters, including pitching ace Helen Nicol to end the game. The season started inauspiciously for Faut; her record in the first half was a good, but unremarkable, an 8–5 mark. Notably, all five losses were by one run. This historic victory set the tone for the rest of the season. While South Bend placed third in the first-half standings, the team finished first in the second half, thus giving them a playoff berth. Their complete season record of 75 and 36 was best in the league that year. The competition she faced in that special game was among the best highlights of her career, because Rockford would end the season battling South Bend for the league championship.^[11]

South Bend defeated Fort Wayne in the first round of the playoffs, two games to one. Faut won two complete games by identical scores of 2 to 1 in the first and third contests. In Game 1, she allowed six hits, three walks and one earned run, while in the clincher Game 3, she struck out nine batters and gave up eight eights in a 10-inning effort. She finally was part of a club that advanced to the finals. In the other series, Rockford swept Grand Rapids in two games.^[1][11]

In the best-of-five championship round, defending AAGPBL champion Rockford won the first two games over the visiting South Bend. In Game 1 the Peaches beat the Blue Sox, 5–4, behind the pitching of Helen Nicol. South Bend rallied to score two runs in the eighth and one in the ninth, but fell short. Following a rainout, Rose Gacioch pitched a six-hitter and slugged a solo home run in Game 2 to help the Peaches win, 7–1. Rockford led all the way, clinching the victory with three runs in the eighth inning.^[1][11]

The final series moved to South Bend for the rest of the event. Faut started Game 3 with her team against the wall, 2 to 0. She responded with a 3–2 victory over Rockford, striking out 11 batters and walking two. The Blue Sox won Game 4 by a 6–3 score, in a contest shorted to seven innings by rain. The series was evened at 2–2.^[1][11]

In decisive Game 5, what was supposed to be a pitchers' duel between Lillian Faralla and Rose Gacioch turned out to be a hard-fought slugfest. Rockford scored one run in the top the first inning, but South Bend bounced back with five runs in the bottom half. Faralla felt tired after two innings and was replaced by Faut, who pitched the reminder of the game, earning credit for the final 10–2 victory. Considering that Rockford had won nine straight games, including the first two games in the championship series, South Bend came away a surprise winner to clinch the club's first AAGPBL title in the league, by combining deep pitching with an opportune hitting. In addition to her 15 victories during the regular season, Faut won four more in the two playoffs. She earned the Player of the Year Award and made her third All-Star team in a row.^[1][11][23]

By 1952 only six teams remained in the league after Kenosha and Peoria were disbanded. That season saw Winsch become more demanding of his players in an extremely heavy-handed way with close scrutiny of each player. Faut again led the league in several pitching categories, but the fact that her husband managed the team created friction between Faut and many of her teammates. Some of the women bristled under Winsch's leadership, so many refused to speak to either the manager or their star pitcher. Nevertheless, Faut overcame internal conflicts to command the circuit with a 20–2 mark in 23 starts for a .909 winning percentage, setting the all-time single season for this category. She allowed 31 runs—only 19 earned—on 111 hits and 42 walks while striking out 114 in 184 innings for a career-best 0.93 ERA. In addition, she led all pitchers in ERA, 0.51 ahead of Battle Creek's Gloria Cordes, and also in strikeouts, 23 ahead of Fort Wayne's Nancy Warren, while tying Fort Wayne's Rose Gacioch for the most wins, which was enough to win the pitching Triple Crown. At the plate, she hit a solid .291 average to finish in seventh place.^[1][14]

Faut missed the Player of the Year Award (by one vote) to Fort Wayne's first-bagger Betty Foss, who led the batters in runs (81), hits (137), doubles (26), triples (17) and RBI (74), was second in stolen bases (80), and hit .331 to finish second in the batting race behind her sister and teammate Joanne Weaver (.344). Faut failed to make the All-Star team, but pitched in the All-Star Game with South Bend as the host team.^[24]

Dissension within the South Bend team peaked just before the season ended, when infielder Charlene Pryer was disciplined following a dispute with Winsch. The incident occurred when he suspended Pryer from the team after she responded slowly to his order to pinch-run late in a game. In protest, five South Bend teammates joined Pryer in a walkout, leaving Winsch's team short-handed for the playoffs. Pryer was reinstated at the club, but she decided to retire for good. South Bend finished with a league-best record of 76–36, then eliminated Grand Rapids in the best-of-three series (2–0). Faut was the winning pitcher in the first contest in a 2–1 complete game, in which she got out of a no-outs, bases-loaded jam in the ninth inning, surrendering just one unearned run. South Bend handily defeated the Chicks in the second game, 6–1, with Faut delivering two RBI and relieving in the ninth to seal the victory. Rockford disposed of Fort Wayne in the other series, two games to one.^[14][25]

The 1952 championship series was a repeat of the previous year with South Bend again facing Rockford. It was a contest rocked by controversy. Faut loss the first game, delivering a sub-par performance when she surrendered an uncharacteristic seven runs on 13 hits. She was pulled in the seventh inning after giving up a two-run homer. The second game ended in another Rockford victory and a South Bend protest. Because their playing field was being readied for football, the Peaches had moved the right field fence in to 190 feet, 20 feet shorter than the league minimum. Consequently, the league disallowed the victory and forced a replay of Game 2. South Bend won it in 12 innings with Faut getting the victory when she pitched a scoreless final four innings in relief. As in the previous season, Faut was the winning pitcher in the decisive Game 5, hitting two triples and driving in two runs while turning in a 6–3 complete game performance. She was 2–1 with a 5.40 ERA in the playoffs, allowing over a hit per inning. It was the second league championship for South Bend and the second time Faut pitched the deciding game.^[1][8]

In 1953, the Battle Creek team became the Muskegon Lassies, and by the end of the season, it too, folded. Faut came back for her final year in the AAGPBL. Her team was weakened considerably by the player losses at the end of the previous season, and Faut was worn down from all the dissension. South Bend would finish the season second from last, compiling a 45–65 record. In spite of everything that had gone wrong, Faut still turned to post a 17–11 record and produced a league-best 1.51 ERA in 29 games, though league offensive levels were increasing. By her final season, only overhand pitching was allowed, the ball was a lively cork-centered ten inches, and the basepaths were seventy-five feet. More importantly from a pitching perspective, the pitching rubber was moved back to fifty-six feet, thirteen feet farther away than in 1946. At the same time, fences were moved in to allow for more home runs.^{[1][5][7][26]}

In her last season, Faut led all pitchers in ERA for the fourth year in a row and tied for the most wins with Eleanor Moore of Grand Rapids, who went 17–7 with a 2.00 ERA. In addition, Faut topped the league with 143 strikeouts to win the Triple Crown pitching for a second time. She also finished third in shutouts (5), seventh in innings (226), and tied for the third in complete games (24). On September 3 of that year, she hurled a perfect game against the Kalamazoo Lassies, 4–0, to become the only pitcher in the league's history to throw two perfect games. She helped herself with the bat as well, hitting a solid .275 (87-for-316) with 11 doubles, one triple, and a career-high four home runs, while driving in 38 runs and scoring 33 times in 98 games. In addition, she was included in the All-Star team for the fourth time, and once again won the Player of the Year honors, although South Bend finished fifth and missed the playoffs. Making that, she joined Doris Sams as the only two-time Player of the Year winners in AAGPBL history.^[8][11]

On September 6, 1953, the Blue Sox management and around 1,500 fanatics honored their longtime diamond ace with a Jean Faut Night before a game at Playland Park. After collecting four hundred dollars in gifts, Faut ended her baseball career that evening with a 3–0, nine-hit defeat to the visiting Grand Rapids Chicks.^[8][11]

Faut retired from baseball, frustrated by the tension caused by her husband being the team's manager. The 1954 season ended with only five teams remaining: Fort Wayne, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Rockford and South Bend. The AAGPBL folded at the end of the season.^[5]

Life after baseball

Faut became a competitive bowler after her baseball retirement. Divorced from Winsch in 1968, she married again in 1977 to Charles Eastman, a resident of Rock Hill, South Carolina who worked as a salesman for Textron Corporation. He died in 1993 after 26 years of marriage. After that, Faut excelled as a recreational golfer. An active grandmother with four grandchildren, she still lives in Rock Hill, South Carolina.^[11][27]

Jean Faut is part of the AAGPBL permanent display at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at Cooperstown, New York, which was opened in 1988 in honor of the entire league rather than individual baseball personalities.

Career statistics

Pitching

Batting

Collective fielding

^[14]

AAGPBL perfect games

^[14]

Sources