Biography story about lizzie murphy

Known as the “Queen of Baseball,” Lizzie Murphy of Warren, Rhode Island was the first woman to play the game professionally. Murphy grew up as an athlete and was proficient in running, swimming, and skating, in addition to baseball. At age 12, she quit school and went to work in the local mills. By age 15 Murphy was playing for mill teams such as Warren Shoe Company and Warren Silk Hats. At 17, she became a professional player, competing with a semi-pro team based in Rhode Island. In the 1913 Warren, Rhode Island directory, 19-year old Lizzie Murphy’s occupation was listed simply as “ball player.”

In 1918, her baseball career advanced when she signed with a semi-pro team out of Boston called the Traveling All-Stars. The All-Stars competed throughout the United States and Canada, averaging about 100 games a year.

During an early career appearance with a local semi-pro team in Warren, Murphy became the first female holdout in baseball history. The team collected $85 in gate receipts that day —

it was standard practice to split that total among the players. However, Lizzie received no payment after the game. She continued to attend practices that week as if nothing had happened, never mentioning the “forgotten” payments. The owner advertised Murphy’s next appearance at an upcoming contest in Newport, RI, knowing that his female star would draw a large crowd. Murphy had a plan though and refused to board the bus before the Saturday contest unless the owner paid her $5 per game (over $100 by today’s standards), in addition to her share of the gate receipts. “No money, no Newport,” she’s famously quoted as saying. The manager was forced to oblige and pay Murphy her fair share.

Local newspapers reported glowingly about Lizzie’s baseball talents. “[She] fielded her position in perfect fashion, whose pegging to the bases was quick and accurate, a batter with a sure eye and plenty of muscle, and a base run

To date, there has only been one woman who played baseball with a team of major leaguers in a big-league ballpark. Her name was Mary Elizabeth Murphy and on August 14, 1922, she played for a team of “all-stars” in an exhibition game against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Lizzie Murphy’s team beat the Red Sox, 3-2.1

That game was played in honor of a popular former Boston baseball star, the recently deceased Tommy McCarthy, a future Hall of Famer. It was originally intended as a benefit for the ailing McCarthy, but he died on August 5, and it became a benefit for his family. It was supposed to include Babe Ruth, who had to bow out with an abscessed leg. Yet Murphy was herself pretty well known in New England at the time.

This was an era when women were making great strides in a number of areas. It was in August just two years earlier, in 1920, when the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, granting women the right to vote. Women were active in sports, and newspapers of the day often featured sports page headlines regarding women’s tennis, swimming, and other sports.

Lizzie Murphy was a novelty, for sure, and a gate attraction. She was also a very good baseball player. A Rhode Island native, she’d played with a number of baseball teams for some years, including the Providence Independents. In 1918, she signed with semipro team owner Ed Carr of Boston, who announced on her signing, “No ball is too hard for her to scoop out of the dirt, and when it comes to batting, she packs a mean wagon tongue.”2 With Ed Carr’s All-Stars, she played a hundred games a summer, reports Barbara Gregorich in her book Women At Play.3 Murphy played in games throughout all the New England states and the eastern provinces of Canada. She had a 17-year career and became known as the “Queen of Baseball.”

At Fenway Park, though, it was to be Queen for a day.

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Mary Elizabeth Murphy was born on April 13, 1894, in Warren, Rhode Island, a town on a

American baseball player

Baseball player

Mary Elizabeth Murphy (April 13, 1894 – July 27, 1964), known as "The Queen of Baseball", was the first woman to play baseball against major league players, in 1922. She played baseball for seventeen years as a first baseman; she also played on several all-star teams and was the first person of either sex to play on both American and National league baseball All-Star teams.

Early life

Murphy was born April 13, 1894, probably in Warren, Rhode Island, though some sources indicate that she was born in Canada. Her parents were Mary (née Garan) and John Murphy; her father was a mill hand and also a semi-pro baseball player. Lizzie was athletic and was a runner, skater, and swimmer, besides playing baseball. By age 12, she had quit school and gone to work at the Parker Woolen Mill as a ring spinner. In her spare time, she played baseball with the Warren Silk Hats and the Warren Baseball Club. By age 15, she was playing on the local men's business amateur league teams, such as the Warren Shoe Company.

Career

By the age of 17, Murphy was playing professionally and demanding to be paid when she played. She first signed with the Providence Independents and then in 1918 she signed with Ed Carr's Traveling All-Stars, a semi-professional team out of Boston. Carr's was a barnstorming team which traveled throughout Canada and New England playing up to 100 games a year. She also played in the women's leagues, playing for the Bloomer Girls for 30 years. When she