Milwaukee has a strong baseball history with the Brewers and the Braves. However, many people probably have not heard of the city's professional women's team that won a championship.The Milwaukee Chicks raised the trophy in 1944 after winning the All-American Girls Baseball League (AAGBL) championship. They beat the Kenosha Comets in a seven games series.At the time, those two teams and the Racine Belles, were part of a six-club professional baseball league that spanned the Midwest. Throughout the years, the league would expand and add more teams. The AAGBL is the same one that inspired the movie A League of Their Own. Of course everybody knows about the Rosie the Riveter and filling in the factories during wartime. This is another way they kind of served their country but also played the sport they loved," Mary Shea, an amateur baseball historian and associate member of the All-American Girls Baseball League Players Association," said.The league lasted from 1943 to 1954. It was founded by Philip Wrigley, the chewing gum magnate. "There were concerns by Major League Baseball owners that, well the baseball season could be suspended because of the war. There ended up being a drain on talent, with players going off to war. Like Joe DiMaggio went to war. So they wanted to have people remain interested in baseball during that time," John Nondorf, an image researcher for the Wisconsin Historical Society, said.The Chicks only played in Milwaukee during the 1944 season. They left for Grand Rapids, Michigan, the next year.They didnt have great fan support. They didnt have local financial support. They didnt have support from the media," Nondorf said.Despite lacking support from the city, the Chicks still put together a winning season. One of the standouts players was the 'Iron Woman' Connie Wisniewski. She helped carry the Chicks in the championship series. She won four of the five games she started. She ended the season with a 23-10 record and a 2.23 ERA. While this was a professional baseball league, there were a lot of key differences between the women's and the men's games.The women played on smaller fields and with differently sized baseballs. At the beginning of the AAGBL, pitchers threw underhand. As the years progressed, they switched to overhand. The most notable difference was that women had to wear skirts and attend charm school.So they not only had to know how to turn a double play, they had to know how to apply their eyeliner properly and which fork to use," Nondorf said.The goal was to make the sport more attractive to fans. "(Players had to learn) to walk correctly. In fact, they would put a book on their head and learn to stand straight," Shea said.However, the effectiveness of those efforts is difficult to determine. Low attendance can likely be attributed to other factors. The Chicks had to share a field with the Brewers, who played in the American Association. The Chicks played during the day, and the Brewers got prime time slots. Also, tickets were $0.95, which was the same as the Brewers. Since the Chicks games were shorter, fans didnt want to pay the same amount. Plus, fans already had a baseball team to support.It did better in the smaller cities," Shea said. That is why the team left. Milwaukee was just too crowded. Other teams in the league included the Battle Creek Belles, Chicago Colleens, Fort Wayne Daisies, Grand Rapids Chicks, Kalamazoo Lassies, Kenosha Comets, Milwaukee Chicks, Minneapolis Millerettes, Muskegon Belles, Muskegon Lassies, Peoria Redwings, Racine Belles, Rockford Peaches, South Bend Blue Sox, and Springfield Sallies. These teams didn't all play at the same time. Some joined the league and then disbanded or moved to other cities.How the Chicks came up with their name is a convoluted story. The team didn't have an official name to begin the season. The Milwaukee Journal called them the Schnitts, which is a German word for little beer. The Milwaukee Sentinel called the team the Brewerettes. Neither of those names stuck.During the season, there was a popular movie called Mother Carey's Chickens. The team's manager was future Hall of Famer, Max Carey. So the team named themselves the Milwaukee Chicks after the movie and their manager.Some of the players, like Connie Wisniewski and Dorothy Mickey Maguire Chapman, had successful careers. In fact, there is a softball field in Ohio named after Chapman. However, as her son Richard Chapman said, she didnt talk about her career much.A lot of (former players) say the same thing. You know, when they retired and the league folded, they went on with life and onward and all that kind of stuff," Chapman said.Watch the story to see more photos of the 1944 Milwaukee Chicks team... The time Milwaukee's professional women's baseball team won the championshipBut all those athletes still left their mark on sports and American history.You know a lot of people say they were pioneers of their day, and you know what? That is true," Chapman said.They paved the way for future generations of athletes.In fact, women's professional baseball is coming back to the United States. The Women's Pro Baseball League will debut in the northeast and feature six teams. Locally, girls who want to practice and play baseball can join the Wisconsin All-Star Girls Baseball group.Its about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for TMJ4 on your device.Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more.Report a typo or error ...read more read less