It was hours of playing in the hot sun, batting, running, fielding, pitching. It was hours on the road, driving town to town, game to game, all over the West.
It was practice and more practice, and thighs bruised black and blue from sliding into bases.
And they loved it — oh, they loved it.
They were the Utah Shamrocks, a women’s fast-pitch softball team that ruled the diamonds of the Beehive State decades ago. And just like the young ladies depicted in the famous baseball movie, these Utah athletes also had “a league of their own.”
Whether batting or fielding, they played for “the love of the game,” recalls Donna Poll of South Weber, a member of the Shamrocks for 18 years, beginning in 1949. “It was just our thing to do, that’s all.”
