Video featuring women's pro baseball league's reunion in Kenosha earns Emmy nomination

A video filmed in Kenosha about the trailblazing women's professional baseball league's 80th anniversary is in a league of its own.

"Kenosha County's Field of Dreams : All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) 80th Reunion," has been nominated for a Chicago/Midwest Emmy award. It is in the category of "Outstanding Achievement for Nostalgia-Short & Long Form Content."

The regional Emmys program will be held Nov. 2 in Chicago.

The documentary was produced by Discover Wisconsin's Uniquely Wisconsin in partnership with Kenosha County. Uniquely Wisconsin crews interviewed several former players from the AAGPBL during their Aug. 3-5, 2023 reunion weekend in Kenosha.

The gathering included an opening ceremony at The Stella Hotel and Ballroom where Kenosha County Executive Samantha Kerkman presented players with a proclamation declaring the three days in honor of the Kenosha Comets and the AAGPBL.

Kerkman said she was "overjoyed" when she learned from Mark O'Connell, executive director of the Wisconsin Counties Association, about the Emmy nomination. The association and Discover Media Works offer the "Uniquely Wisconsin" brand of "docu-series" to counties around the state to help promote the things that make them special, she said.

"In the story about the ladies ... it is truly about a field of dreams, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and their 80th reunion. It's so special," said Kerkman, who also had provided the voiceover for the video.

Filmed locally

During the filming, the crew captured the women's attendance at historic Simmons Field in Kenosha during an exhibition game between the Women's USA National Team and American Girls Baseball, which donned Kenosha Comets uniforms for the friendly matchup.

Kenosha Kingfish players then honored the women prior to a Kingfish home game. Mary Moore, 91, a former AAGPBL member who played second base in her prime, threw out the first pitch.

The retired players and some of the actresses who portrayed AAGPBL players in the 1992 box office hit "A League of Their Own" also signed autographs for fans.

For the video, the women recalled how they were recruited to play the game at a high level during World War II, when many men, including major league baseball players, went off to fight overseas. The women's pro baseball league, founded by then-Chicago Cubs owner Philip Wrigley, operated from 1943-54, starting with four teams — the Comets, Racine Belles, Rockford (Illinois) Peaches and South Bend (Indiana) Blue Sox.

"When you would hear their stories (of how) they played good ball, it was a (pastime) during the war when (soldiers) were out fighting for our country," Kerkman said. "People could have a sense of normalcy when it came to baseball."

Discover Mediaworks President and CEO Mark Rose said he and the group of nine others who worked on the video were "incredibly honored" by the Emmy nomination.

"In all Uniquely Wisconsin stories, we begin the conversation by partnering with counties to tell stories that they bring to us. No one knows the history of Kenosha County, or any county for that matter, better than those with roots that run deep in a community," Rose said. "We take their lead and work alongside people like County Executive Kerkman and her team to best represent the people, the stories and the history. And this story is an amazing part of not only Kenosha County, but also all of Wisconsin and our entire nation."

It is the second nomination for Uniquely Wisconsin, which won an Emmy last year for the feature on Marathon County's "Farm to Table Pizzas: The Little Red Barn."

Aimee Crosby, the AAGPBL's website chair who served on the 80th reunion committee, said the organization and the players were excited to know that their story was nominated for one of television's highest honors.

"We worked to bring the best reunion to Kenosha and we're honored to have Uniquely Wisconsin document it because we believe in keeping their trailblazing story alive," she said.

Crosby shared the news with Kenosha Reunion Chair Tracy Sunday, whose grandmother, the late Pleasant Prairie native Joyce Hill Westerman played for several AAGPBL teams, including the Racine Belles. They were pleased because the local reunion had honored Westerman, who died in 2021 at age 95.

"These women truly are 'A League of Their Own,'" she said.