REGINA – She’s a legend in the world of baseball and her story is even featured in the classic movie A League of Their Own. On Saturday, the City of Regina commemorated the achievements of Mary “Bonnie” Baker.
Baker joined the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in 1943, while her husband Maurice fought in World War II.
She dominated in the catcher position, playing in 930 regular season games and being named to multiple all-star teams.
In 1950, she became the only woman to ever hold the roles of both player and manager simultaneously, before the league ruled women couldn’t be managers.
But Baker was never one to brag, in fact she kept her success hidden from her own relatives for decades.
“She never talked about that with us kids. Most us of didn’t know she played baseball until we were in our thirties,” said her nephew Gary George.
Baker started playing baseball at Whitmore School as a young girl, but a diamond in Central Park was where she fell in love with the sport.
“When she got to play at Central Park with an actual ball team, to her that was probably her dream,” said her daughter Chick Baker.
After her time in the professional league, the catcher won the batting title at the World Ladies Softball Championship in Toronto.
“She was always playing ball. She was playing ball before I was born, of course, and played ball for years after I was born,” said Chick.
Baker was a trailblazer for female athletes in the years to come.
“She was living the life when ladies weren’t expected to do the kinds of things she was doing,” said her nephew, Jim McFaul
Originally, her family hoped to have a bench added to Central Park to commemorate Baker’s success, but what they received was so much more. On Saturday, a six-sided mural was unveiled in the park, highlighting Baker’s career. A granite obelisk will also adorn the park, bearing her name.
“I think there’s a lot of people right now that wouldn’t recognize that name. But with this monument, that’s going to change,” said councillor Shawn Fraser.
“She did a lot for women in sport in Canada, not just Regina and was very modest about it. She needed to be recognized. It’s long overdue,” said mural painter Carly Jaye Smith.
Baker passed away in 2003, but her daughter said she would have loved to see the park so full of life: “This would be the biggest honour of her life.”
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