Novelist Oona Short and I were developing a children’s book a few years ago about women in baseball. Or was it a television series? Whatever. It was a great idea and I’m sorry it never came to anything. Oona also writes about baseball and is included in a great anthology called, Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend: Women Writers on Baseball edited by Elinor Nauen. Oona’s short story, “The Truth About Paradise” can be read online at Slow Trains.

All of this came to mind when I saw the NY1 headline that pioneer in women’s baseball from Brooklyn has died. This from NY1.

Betty Trezza, 81, was a shortstop in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which inspired the movie “A League of Their Own.”

She was recruited at the age of 17 and played seven seasons for the Racine Bells.

Her career highlight came when she singled home the winning run in the sixth game of the 1946 championship series.

Trezza died Tuesday of a heart attack at her Brooklyn home.