death_date death_place bats birth_place team image_size position birth_date image article_title name throws
25 january 1979 elgin , illinois right elgin , illinois all-american girls professional baseball league 200px infielder 13 march 1928 charlene barnett.jpg charlene barnett
 charlene barnett right
charlene barnett

charlene barnett -lsb- ″ barney ″ -rsb- -lrb- march 13 , 1928 -- january 25 , 1979 -rrb- was an infielder who played from through in the all-american girls professional baseball league .
she batted and threw right-handed .
born in elgin , illinois , charlene barnett filled a consistent role during her four seasons in the all-american girls professional baseball league .
a three-time champion team member , she was a versatile infielder , playing mainly at second base , while adding deep defense at third base and shortstop .
considered a light hitter , she combined her usual brilliant defense with a decent bit of offense for a hitter placed at bottom of the batting order .
barnett entered the league in 1947 with the grand rapids chicks , playing for them one year .
she hit a .115 batting average as a rookie , appearing in 33 games as a backup for alma ziegler -lrb- 2b -rrb- , ernestine petras -lrb- 3b -rrb- and doris tetzlaff -lrb- ss -rrb- .
grand rapids , managed by johnny rawlings , defeated the south bend blue sox in the first round of the playoffs , three games to two , and disposed of the racine belles in the final series , four games to three , to claim the champion title .
unfortunately , barnett opened 1948 with the chicago colleens , as the league shifted players as needed to help some teams stay afloat .
the colleens , managed by experimented dave bancroft , were the worst in the strong eastern division , getting roughed up as a last-place expansion club with a 47 -- 76 record , ending twenty nine and a half games out of the first place spot .
barnett was a regular at second base , appearing in a career-high 106 games , while batting .165 with a .941 fielding average .
as a result , from 1949 through 1950 the colleens became a rookie development team that played exclusively exhibition games .
then barnett found herself on the move again , but this time she found a most positive environment after joining the rockford peaches from 1949 to 1950 .
with bill allington at the helm , the peaches were the most successful team in league history , winning four championships titles in twelve seasons , including three in a row between 1948 and 1950 .
in 1949 , barnett played at second base for rockford as part of a good-defense infield that included dorothy kamenshek -lrb- 1b -rrb- , dorothy harrell -lrb- 3b -rrb- and alice pollitt -lrb- ss -rrb- .
she executed 36 double plays , while committing only 20 errors in 448 fielding chances for a solid .955 fielding average .
in 104 games , she batted .159 and stole 30 bases , driving in 13 runs while scoring 37 times .
in that season , rockford pitchers lois florreich -lrb- 0.67 -rrb- and helen fox -lrb- 0.98 -rrb- allowed less than one earned run per each nine innings , while the peaches had a high powered offense led by outfielders eleanor callow and rose gacioch and first sacker kamenshek .
rockford swept south bend in the best-of-seven first round , and defeated grand rapids in the best-of-five final round , three games to one , to clinch the championship .
in 1950 , barnett continued to provide good services during her last season , when she posted a career-high batting average -lrb- .221 -rrb- and managed his usual defensive work rate -lrb- .943 -rrb- .
first place rockford beat the kenosha comets in the first round , three games to one , and followed the next step .
the journey became a tough one .
in the final best-of-seven series , rockford battled with the fort wayne daisies throughout the tournament .
after victories of rockford in the first two games -lrb- 3 -- 1 and 7 -- 2 -rrb- , fort wayne tied the series -lrb- 7 -- 3 -rrb- .
rockford responded by winning game 5 -lrb- 4 -- 3 -rrb- , while the last two contests were blowouts with fort wayne winning game 6 -lrb- 8 -- 0 -rrb- and rockford taking game 7 -lrb- 11 -- 0 -rrb- to win the championship .
fox won three of these games , including a shutout in the final game .
in the series , barnett combined for a .333 average -lrb- 9-for-33 -rrb- with four rbi and four runs in 11 games , committing just two errors in 40 chances -lrb- .950 -rrb- .
following her baseball career , barnett became a flight attendant .
in 1988 , nine years after her death at age 50 , charlene barnett became part of `` women in baseball '' , a permanent display based at the baseball hall of fame and museum in cooperstown , new york , which was unveiled to honor the entire all-american girls professional baseball league .
