Betsy 'Sockum' Jochum obit

'She made history': South Bend Blue Sox's Betsy 'Sockum' Jochum dies at 104

 

She was not on the list.

SOUTH BEND — Local baseball legend Betsy “Sockum” Jochum, died Saturday, May 31, at Southfield Village. She was 104.

To many, she taught physical education at Muessel School for 26 years.

Modesty prevented her from talking about her earlier life as a local baseball star. She didn’t mention her groundbreaking life as a member of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) and the South Bend Blue Sox from 1943 to 1948.

Then came the movie “A League of Their Own” in 1992. More than 300 players were in the limelight.

"Nobody believed us (that we played pro baseball) until the movie came out," Jochum told The Tribune in 2015 during a reunion of AAGPBL players.

Over the next 30-some years, Jochum and the other players were embraced for their trailblazing role in women’s sports.

Through the years, she was inducted in the South Bend Cubs Hall of Fame (at the time it was the Silver Hawks), South Bend Community Hall of Fame and the Ohio Baseball Hall of Fame. Her baseball uniform is in a Smithsonian Museum display. She was part of the AAGPBL Baseball Hall of Fame exhibit in Cooperstown, N.Y.

She was a pitcher, outfielder and star batter. She won the batting crown in 1944 with a batting average was .296. She was a remarkable runner and threw the ball like a rocket. The Sockum nickname came from her hitting skills. She had a career .271 batting average and scored 70 runs with an additional 35 runs batted in.

When Jochum traveled to Washington, D.C., in October 2004 for the opening of the Smithsonian Museum of American History's exhibit "Sports: Breaking Records, Breaking Barriers," which included her uniform and other memorabilia she had donated, she told The Tribune, "While we were there, some woman came up and grabbed my hand and said, 'Oh, I want to thank you for what you've done for women in sports.' And I said, 'My pleasure.'"

A baseball card from the All-American Girls Baseball League featuring Betsy Jochum of the South Bend Blue Sox, at the Northern Indiana Center for History. The women were in South Bend for a reunion of the players of the league.

Jochum was born Feb. 8, 1921, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Frank and Katherine Jochum. She had an older brother and younger sister. She was a standout in sandlot ball and got a chance to try out for the new league that Philip K. Wrigley created during World War II. At the time, she was playing some ball and working in a dairy.

She was selected to play for the Blue Sox and made $50 a week, which she said was more than what her father made.

“It was the greatest feeling in the world to get a ticket to Wrigley Field (for the second round of tryouts),” Jochum told The Tribune in 2012. “When I got picked to play in the league, it was amazing. I was actually going to get paid for playing a game. Girls didn’t do that back then.”

She told a Tribune reporter that the money was great but playing was better. Through her playing years, she had a great fan base and played games in Havana, Cuba, and in major league stadiums.

Instead of being traded to Peoria, she quit baseball and earned a degree from Illinois State and began teaching. She continued to participate in sports such as bowling.

Marilyn Thompson, retired director of marketing and community relations for The History Museum, kept in contact with Jochum. They visited in May. “I showed her some photos from the Blue Sox night at Four Winds Field. Some of our staff members were wearing replica uniforms for the night. She said it was the wrong color of blue. And she was right.”

Thompson recalled that Jochum and other Blue Sox players were greeted as celebrities during a Fourth of July parade and at a Notre Dame softball game. “She always wanted to talk about the game and stats, and not about herself. She wanted to encourage young girls and women.”

When asked what advice she would give sports-oriented girls and women in 2018, Jochum told The Tribune, “Follow your dream, never give up and keep on trying.”

Kristie Erickson, deputy executive director for The History Museum, said Jochum was a longtime supporter of the museum going back to the Courthouse Museum days and enjoyed the AAGPBL exhibits and events. "She told girls to follow their dreams."

Erickson said the museum planned a 100th birthday event during COVID-19 for Jochum with drive-by visits, balloons, cards and chocolates. Erickson said the museum, which is the national repository for the AAGPBL, is planning a special display in her honor.

Former Tribune sports reporter Al Lesar wrote several stories about Jochum.

“I liked talking to her," he said in a telephone interview. "I saw a lady who was a trailblazer, a player. She made history." A visitation will be held from 1 to 2 p.m. Saturday, June 7, followed by a Catholic funeral service at 2 p.m., at Kaniewski Funeral Home, 3545 N. Bendix Drive. Burial will take place at a later date in Arlington Memorial Gardens, Cincinnati, Ohio.