OLYMPIA, WASH — Gov. Jay Inslee has issued a proclamation in honor of an 86-year-old woman who played one season of professional baseball in the National Girls Baseball League in 1945.
Inslee was joined Tuesday by Dorothy Roth, who played with the Parichy Bloomer Girls in Forest Park, Ill. Roth, who signed a bat and baseball for Inslee, also received a Silver Spotlight award from the Washington Health Care Association. The award honors members of the “Greatest Generation” who live in assisted-living facilities in the state. Roth lives at an assisted living facility in Marysville.
The National Girls Baseball League was a competitor to the All American Girls Professional Baseball League, which was represented in the 1992 movie “A League of Their Own.”
The former teacher threw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Seattle Mariners game last summer.
Pictured: Grandview Village resident Dorothy Roth, who played one season of professional baseball in the National Girls Baseball League in 1945, signs a bat for Gov. Jay Inslee, in Olympia, Wash., on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2014. Roth, 86, received a “Silver Spotlight” award from the Washington Health Care Association. RACHEL LA CORTE — AP Photo