Betty Tucker

Who is Betty Tucker?

Eulah Elizabeth "Betty" Tucker was a pitcher who played from 1946 through 1949 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5' 4", 123 lb., she batted and threw right-handed. A native of Detroit, Michigan, Tucker received an invitation in 1946 to participate in the AAGPBL spring training held at Pascagoula, Mississippi. After making the league tryout, she was allocated to the Peoria Redwings. A hard-thrower underhand pitcher, Tucker struggled through the many stages of the league, including shifting from underhand to sidearm to overhand pitching, although she hurled on awful expansion teams that did not give her much run support.

After a year in Peoria, Tucker opened 1947 with the Fort Wayne Daisies and then found herself on the move again, this time to the Rockford Peaches and then the Grand Rapids Chicks. The next year she joined the Chicago Colleens, and returned to the Redwings in 1949, her last AAGPBL season. After that, Tucker pitched in 1950 for the Rockola Chicks of the rival National Girls Baseball League, which was based in Chicago, and remained underhand pitching through 1953. At the time, many AAGPBL players also joined the NGBL because of better salaries and in some cases for not being on the road as much was also important.