Irene Hickson

All-American Girls Professional Baseball League

Born: August 14, 1915
Chattanooga, Tennessee

Died: November 24, 1995 (aged 80)
Racine, Wisconsin

Batted: right

Threw: right

debut

1943

Last appearance

1951

Teams

Racine Belles (1943–1950)
Kenosha Comets (1951)

Career highlights and awards

All-Star Team (1943)
Two championship teams (1943, 1946)
Four playoff appearances (1943, 1946–1948)
Championship batting title (1943)
Most walks received in a single game (five, 1946)

Irene Hickson (August 14, 1915 – November 24, 1995) was a catcher who played from 1943 through 1951 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5 ft 2 in (1.57 m), 116 lb., she batted and threw right-handed.

At age 27, Irene Hickson became one of the oldest players signed by the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League for its inaugural season. Although averaging .171 lifetime, she was known as an opportune hitter with runners in scoring position during the late innings. Most importantly, Hickson was a solid fielding catcher with a strong throwing arm, and had a reputation as a good handler of pitchers. On the playing field, she collected 2,388 putouts and 561 assists in 621 games, committing only 130 errors in 3,079 chances for a .958 career fielding average. A member of two champion teams, she won the batting title in the 1943 championship series and in 1946 set an all-time record with five walks received in a single game.

Hickson was born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee. An all-around athlete, in the mid 1930s she pitched and caught for semi-professional softball teams in Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina. She was credited for hitting 25 home runs in 1939 and also formed part of several State Championship teams.

Besides this, in 1938 Hickson became the only girl boxer to fight in Chattanooga. She also compited and won every field and track event ever held at the Warner Park Zoo, including 50-yard dash, relay race, throwing, long jump. and horseshoes. Being a woman and coming from a low-income family, she found a part-time job as a spinning doffer at a yarn processing company. But her ambition was to play ball as long and as well as her idol Ty Cobb and be a catcher like Mickey Owen of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

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