Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that can help answer the question.
Query: How many women's teams for baseball existed during World War 2?
The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) was a professional women's baseball league founded by Philip K. Wrigley which existed from 1943 to 1954. The AAGPBL is the forerunner of women's professional league sports in the United States. Over 600 women played in the league, which consisted of eventually 10 teams located in the American Midwest.[1] In 1948, league attendance peaked at over 900,000 spectators. The most successful team, the Rockford Peaches, won a league-best four championships. The 1992 motion picture A League of Their Own is a mostly fictionalized account of the early days of the league and its stars.
Eccles made her international debut at 16 in the 2014 Women's Baseball World Cup. She appeared in one game and pitched four scoreless innings as the Canadian team finished in fourth place. In 2015, she competed in the women's baseball tournament in the 2015 Pan American Games. It was the debut appearance of women's baseball in the Pan American games, and the Canadian team won the silver medal. The team would again take silver at the 2016 Women's Baseball World Cup, with Eccles going 1–0 with a 0.00 ERA over 8 2/3 innings and recording five strikeouts.
2004 — USA Baseball sanctioned the first official national women's baseball team; the team competed in the 2004 WWS (in Japan) and in the 2004 Women's World Cup of Baseball
Since many men were on the battlefield during the Second World War, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL), in place of Major League Baseball, was created in 1943 to provide entertainment of people exhausted by the war. It was such a success that the number of people who attended women's baseball games reached almost 1 million in 1948. Yet, when the war ended and Major League Baseball players came back home, female baseball players were obliged to fill the role of housewife at home. AAGPBL lost its audience, struggled with finances, and ceased to exist in 1954.
Women have a long history in American baseball and many women's teams have existed over the years. Baseball was played at women's colleges in New York and New England as early as the mid-nineteenth century; teams were formed at Vassar College, Smith College, Wellesley College, and Mount Holyoke College. An African American women's team, the Philadelphia Dolly Vardens, was formed in 1867.
In 2005 and 2006, Descombes participated in the World Series Disney World Tournament in Orlando, Florida, as an honorary coach for the Australian Women and Girls, U11-15, baseball teams, the Aussie Hearts. In recognition of her contribution, in 2007 the Aussie Hearts sponsored her to go to Australia where she conducted many clinics and showed her AAGPBL PowerPoint presentation to hundreds of Aussie women ball players. By 2008 she was invited to be a guest coach for the Aussie Hearts at the US Women's Baseball Tournament, during the dedication of the opening of the Kenosha, Wisconsin baseball field, former home of the AAGPBL Kenosha Comets. The Aussie Hearts won the Tournament. After that, she joined the Aussies again in 2010 at the Phoenix Tournament in Hong Kong, China, where the Hearts team claimed the gold once again.
During World War II, over 500 baseball players, including super-stars like Ted Williams, Stan Musial and Joe DiMaggio, were drafted. This left major league rosters depleted and severely diminished the level of talent in the league. The owner of the Chicago Cubs, Philip K. Wrigley formed a committee to come up with ideas to keep baseball financially afloat during the war. The result of that committee was the organization of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which operated from 1943 to 1954. At the height of its popularity, it had teams in twelve cities. One of the most successful of the teams in the league was the Rockford (IL) Peaches, which won four championships. The Peaches, and the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, were commemorated in a 1992 movie, "A League of Their Own", starring Geena Davis.
Women had the legal right to serve in the Soviet Armed Forces throughout the post Second World War period, with many all-female units existing as far back as World War One. By the early 1990s, 100,000 women made up 3% of the Soviet Armed Forces.
During the Second World War, the Soviet Union had a female military strength of over one million women  who served as snipers, machine gunners, and tank crew members. Very few of these women, however, were ever promoted to officers.
Simone Wearne (born 5 December 1980 in Melbourne) is a pitcher for the Australia women's national baseball team. In the 2006 Women's Baseball World Cup she was named in the All-Star team as a pitcher. She was a member of the Australian team which won the 2002 Women's World Baseball Series. She is the sister of professional baseball infielder Scott Wearne. She now (2013) plays and coaches teams for a baseball team called the Springvale Lions. She is also coaching the women's national team, Victoria Blue, alongside Jade Hough.
In 1930 a women's league playing the full game was formed in Australia, in the New South Wales areas of Tamworth and Armidale, which ran until halted by World War Two. Photographs of women's teams also exist from New Zealand from the same period and during the war Maori women took up the game. After the war in 1956 The "Belles of St Mary’s"—an Australian women's rugby league team—played games in New South Wales—but even as late as the 1960s Women's rugby was banned in Samoa.
The Pakistan women's national baseball team () is the national team representing Pakistan in international women's baseball tournaments and competitions. The team debuted at the 2016 Women's Baseball World Cup in South Korea and finished 7th overall.
Ullrich's career took place during World War II. With many baseball stars leaving to serve the United States, it was questioned whether Major League Baseball would continue during this period. Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that it would, and therefore teams needed players to fill the spots of players that had left. Ullrich was one of the many that played Major League Baseball during this period. Unfortunately for Ullrich, when the war ended players returned to their teams. Like many others, Ullrich found himself out of the Major Leagues.
Edith went on to play for semi-pro baseball teams until she started softball in the 1930s. At that point women were pushed out of baseball into softball. Houghton later played with other women's pro teams such as the Hollywood Girls and the New York Bloomer Girls. In 1942, during World War II, Edith volunteered for the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services). Although nominally a clerk, she was accepted into the department's baseball team. The Navy newsletter wrote that "enlisted WAVE Houghton... can make any ball team in the country."
In 2004, India participated in Women's Baseball World Series. The team was also scheduled to participate in the 2004 Women's Baseball World Cup but withdrew before the tournament. India would made its debut in the Women's Baseball World Cup in 2008.
The 2003 Women’s World Series was hosted by Australia and was played August 25–30 on the Gold Coast in Queensland at the Australian Baseball Federation national training site, Palm Meadows Baseball Complex. Japan was to host the 2003 event originally, but the SARS virus closed that venue in June 2003. Teams from the United States, Australia and Japan accepted. Japan won the 2003 Women’s World Series defeating Australia 4-2.
Baseball's first professional team was founded in Cincinnati in 1869. The first few decades of professional baseball were characterized by rivalries between leagues and by players who often jumped from one team or league to another. The period before 1920 in baseball was known as the dead-ball era; players rarely hit home runs during this time. Baseball survived a conspiracy to fix the 1919 World Series, which came to be known as the Black Sox Scandal. The sport rose in popularity in the 1920s, and survived potential downturns during the Great Depression and World War II. Shortly after the war, baseball's color barrier was broken by Jackie Robinson.
The Tobacco State League was a Class D American minor baseball league that played for five seasons (1946–1950) in Organized Baseball in the state of North Carolina. It was one of many low-level minor leagues that flourished immediately after World War II before disbanding in the 1950s. Founded as a six-team circuit in 1946, the league sported eight teams for the final four years of its existence, although one of its teams, the charter member Smithfield-Selma Leafs, was forced to drop out during the closing weeks of the TSL's final 1950 season. With the exceptions of Lumberton (Chicago Cubs) and Red Springs (Philadelphia Athletics), its members were unaffiliated with Major League Baseball farm systems.
During World War II (1942 onward), the park was the home field for several women's baseball, softball and fastball teams, including the London Supremes who played in the Michigan–Ontario Women's Fastball League into the 1950s. In 1943 and 1944, the London Army Team won the Canadian Sandlot title.
Baseball's first openly all-professional team was founded in Cincinnati in 1869. (There had been teams in the past that paid some players, and some that had paid all players but under the table.) The first few decades of professional baseball were characterized by rivalries between leagues and by players who often jumped from one team or league to another. The period before 1920 in baseball was known as the dead-ball era; players rarely hit home runs during this time. Baseball survived a conspiracy to fix the 1919 World Series, which came to be known as the Black Sox Scandal. The sport rose in popularity in the 1920s, and survived potential downturns during the Great Depression and World War II. Shortly after the war, Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier.
With the entry of the United States into World War II, several major league baseball executives started a new professional league with women players in order to maintain baseball in the public eye while the majority of able men were away. The founders included Philip K. Wrigley, Branch Rickey and Paul V. Harper. They feared that Major League Baseball might even temporarily cease due to the war because of the loss of talent,[2] as well as restrictions on team travel due to gasoline rationing.[3]
The USA Baseball Women's National Open brings together more than 100 of the top female baseball players in the country to compete against each other for the chance to earn a spot on the Women's National Team Trials roster. These players are split into six teams, competing in games and participating in positional workouts while being scouted and evaluated by the Women's National Team staff. Following the conclusion of the event, the 40-woman Women's National Team Trials roster is announced, followed by National Team Trials and Training, as well as the World Baseball Softball (WBSC) Women's Baseball World Cup.
The 2019 USA Baseball's 14U and 16U Cups are open-invitation tournaments composed of 32 teams. The 14U and 16U Cups will involve 16 teams each. Each team is guaranteed four games (weather permitting). The events are held in Cary, North Carolina, at the USA Baseball National Training Complex. USA Baseball will award 32 teams the right to participate based on an application approval process.
In 2004, Croteau was selected to be the third base coach for the United States Women's National Team, which captured the gold medal at the 2004 Women's World Cup of Baseball in Edmonton. In 2006, Croteau was promoted to become the manager of the Women's National Team which won the Women's World Cup in Taiwan. She became the first woman to manage a women's baseball team to the gold medal in any international baseball competition.
Chelsea Forkin (born 14 July 1989 in Perth, Western Australia) is an Australian softball and baseball player. As a softball player, Chelsea has won 3 Australian National Championship titles with the Western Australian Flames and 1 title with the Queensland Heat. During her baseball career, she competed at the 2003 Under 14 Australian National Baseball Championships, one of only two girls competing. As a 15 year old, she represented Australia at the 2004 Women's Baseball World Series in Uozu, Japan and the Inaugural Women's World Cup of Baseball in Edmonton, Canada. At the age of 16, Chelsea left the sport of baseball to play softball, where she is a utility player. She went on to represent Australia in softball at the junior and senior national level. With the Junior National Team she competed at the 2007 ISF Junior Women's World Championships winning a Bronze Medal. Her first appearance for the Senior National Team was later that year, in a series against China at The Redlands in Queensland. Chelsea's first Senior World Championship appearance was in 2010 in Venezuela, where the Aussie Spirit finished 6th. Chelsea currently has 2 bronze medals from the 2012 ISF XIII Women's World Championships and 2014 ISF Women's World Championships. In 2016, she will be playing for the Dallas Charge in the National Pro Fastpitch League and also representing Australia at the 2016 ISF Women's World Championships in Surrey, Canada.
Australian women's sports had an advantage over many other women's sport organisations around the world in the period after World War II. Women's sport organisations had largely remained intact and were holding competitions during the war period. This structure survived in the post war period. Women's sport were not hurt because of food rationing, petrol rationing, population disbursement, and other issues facing post-war Europe.
The Toronto Blue Jays agreed that several games including the championship game of the 2001 Women’s World Series would be played in the Toronto SkyDome. This proved to be an irresistible venue for attracting Japanese and Australian teams to North America. Australia selected their national women's team from a tryout process woven into their women's first Australian women's national baseball championship. The Australian Baseball Federation selected and trained the team which entered the 2001 Women's World Series. Baseball Canada also selected and trained a women's national team in 2001. Canada dropped out of international competitions after a disappointing fourth-place finish and did not resume play until the 2004 Women's World Series in Uozu City, Japan.