Faye Dancer - Professional Career

Professional Career

Dancer entered the AAGPBL in 1944 with the expansion Minneapolis Millerettes, a helpless team who had a poor fan support and lacked of victories. In their inaugural season, the team finished dead last with a 23–36 record in the first half of the calendar and a 22–36 record in the second for an overall record of 45–72. Despite little encouragement, Dancer posted a .274 batting average with 58 runs and 48 runs batted in. Her 90 hits included 44 for extra bases and two grand slams. In search of a new horizon, the Millerettes moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1945 and were renamed the Daisies. During the next three seasons, Dancer became one of the most talented and colorful players of the league. She always entertained the crowd, thriving on their attention, with her spontaneous cartwheels and backflips en route to the center field. She also herself in the community, had fun, and gave the fans their money's worth on the field, not only at outfield, but also at first base or as an emergency pitcher. In 1945, Dancer dropped to .195 with 44 runs and 29 RBI, but posted a league-best three home runs. The next year he rebounded with a .250 average, 56 runs, and 43 RBI. In 1947, after 29 games with the Daisies, she was traded to the Peoria Redwings. Dancer finished the season with a combined average of .237, 51 runs and 26 RBI. In 1948 for Peoria batted .272 with a career-high 89 runs, six home runs, 34 RBI, and ranked second behind Sophie Kurys with 30 stolen bases. A lethany of injuries forced her to retire following that season.

Dancer tried a return with the Redwings in 1950, but a herniated disk from a sliding injury and a chipped vertebra forced her permanent retirement after just 49 games, though she hit .207 with 25 runs, 34 RBI, and amassed 108 stolen bases – by the time a league season record. She never appeared in any All-Star Team or played in the playoffs.

During the offseason Dancer worked as an electronics technician in the Howard Hugues Aircraft Company. Following her baseball career, she labored for a power generator company in Santa Monica for 35 years and also opened an electronics business with her fellow player and longtime friend Pepper Paire.

The AAGPBL folded in 1954, in part because Major League baseball was televised, but there is now a permanent display at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum since November 5, 1988 that honors those who were part of this unforgettable experience. Dancer, along with the rest of the AAGPBL players, is now enshrined in the venerable building at Cooperstown, New York. She joined more than seventy-five other former AAGPBL players for the opening of the exhibit, where her baseball glove and spikes are on permanent display, as well as her most famous photo that depicts her hustle and all-out play in 1948, while sliding into third base to avoid a tag. Still, the void the league filled during wartime was inspiration enough for the aforementioned film, which brought a rejuvenated interest to the women's baseball.

Dancer lived in Santa Monica until moving in with her brother Richard to Los Angeles, California in 1990. Shortly after that, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Within a month of diagnosis, she underwent surgery to remove her left breast along with 18 lymph nodes and lost her longtime job.

In 2001, the Sacramento River Cats team held a ceremony in which Dancer threw out the first pitch to Pepper Paire. Dancer insisted on throwing the full distance from the pitcher's mound to the plate. I don't want none of the 10 ft stuff, because I can still throw it far, she joked. After that she received chemoteraphy treatment.