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Rockford Peaches pitcher Mary Pratt of 'League of Their Own' fame dies at 101

Mary Pratt pitched for the Rockford Peaches, the team profiled in the 1992 movie 'A League of Their Own.'

Mary Pratt, who played for the Rockford Peaches and Kenosha Comets in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, has died. She was 101.

Pratt died on Wednesday. Her nephew, Walter Pratt, told The Patriot Ledger she passed away peacefully at a nursing home.

Pratt pitched in the women's league from 1943-47. The league was profiled in the 1992 movie “A League of Their Own,” starring Tom Hanks and Geena Davis. 

She was believed to be the last surviving member of the original 1943 Peaches. The league said in a tweet that Pratt's “stories, her energy will be missed for a long time.”

"There was a league rule, rather unique at the time," Pratt wrote on the AAGPBL website. "In order to maintain a high level of competition within the structure of the League, players could be shifted or traded at the discretion of League officials. It was that ruling that resulted in my being sent from Rockford to Kenosha during the early season of 1944.  

Credit: AP
FILE - In this Aug. 3, 1999, file photo. former women's professional baseball players Mary Pratt, left, of Quincy, Mass., and Maddy English, right, of Everett, Mass., are joined by their friend Marie Cronin, center, at the opening of the New England Women's Sports Hall of Fame in Saugus, Mass.

Pratt also taught physical education for 46 years. The Bridgeport, Connecticut, native was a coach and referee in several sports.

She was inducted into the Boston University Hall of Fame and Boston Garden Hall of Fame.

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