When: Thursday, March 15 at 3:00 p.m.

Where: Irvin L. Young Memorial Library

Bob Kann, author and performer, will be presenting “Joyce Westerman and the All American Girls Professional Baseball League: Play Ball!”  This presentation is based on his book Joyce Westerman: Baseball Hero, the story of a young girl who grew up on a farm in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin.

As a kid, Joyce cleaned the barn, picked vegetables, and helped her father cut down trees. But what she really loved to do was play baseball. She played at recess and with friends whenever she could, and she even joined her aunt’s softball team when she was just 12 years old.

When Joyce graduated from high school, she went to work at a factory in Kenosha. But then World War II broke out, and chewing-gum tycoon P. K. Wrigley started a women’s baseball league to replace men’s baseball while players were away fighting. Women from all over the country tried out for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Only a few were good enough to make the cut, and Joyce was one of them. For eight years, she traveled around the US playing ball, even winning the league championship in her last season.

This program is free and open to everyone.