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Biography: Rose "Rosie Gaspipe" Gacioch

People of Wheeling Icon
 ▶  WHEELING HISTORY  ▶  PEOPLE  ▶  BIOGRAPHIES

▼ Rose "Rosie Gaspipe" Gacioch Quick Links

 ▼ Biography  |  ▼ Video   |  ▼ Rosie's Baseball Card   |   ▼ Library Resources


Women's Baseball Great and All-Star

August 31, 1915 – September 9, 2004

Rose Gacioch. Courtesy Center for History at the Northern Indiana Historical Society.

Rose Gacioch (1915-2004) was a skilled athlete who spent her formative years playing baseball and other sports at Pulaski Field at 46th Street in South Wheeling. During WWII, while working in a local factory, Rose heard that the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (organized by Chicago Cubs owner P.K. Wrigley because so many male major leaguers were away at war) was holding a tryout at Pulaski. She made the team and excelled, becoming one of the league’s best players as a right fielder and pitcher for the Rockford Peaches. A three-time all-star, Rose hurled a no-hitter in 1953. The inspiration for Rosie O’Donnell’s character in the 1992 feature film, A League of Their Own, Rose was profiled in the book, Women at Play by Barbara Gregorich. For some forgotten reason (perhaps because non-Poles couldn’t pronounce her name) she was widely known as “Rosie Gaspipe” in Wheeling. (Seán Duffy for Legendary Locals of Wheeling)

Read Rosie's Wheeling Hall of Fame biography.


YouTube Video:

Home Video of Rockford Peaches Playing, circa 1945 
Documentary of the Making of the Feature Film "League of Their Own" 
(Credits to Ron Johnson) (Credits to Columbia Pictures, 1992)


Baseball Card

Rose Gacioch's AAGPBL (All-American Girls Professional Baseball League) Baseball Card.
[© 1996 Larry Fritsch Cards, official baseball card of the AAGPBL Players’ Association]
 - from the collections of the Ohio County Public Library Archives

Official Card of the AAGPBL Player's Association, Larry Fritsch Cards. Rose Gacioch. Official Card of the AAGPBL Player's Association, Larry Fritsch Cards. Rose Gacioch.


Related resources in our library

LOCATION: ▼ Regular Stacks (circulating) ▼
Book The origins and history of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (Fidler, Merrie A., 2006)
CALL NUMBER:  796.357 F449o 2006
Book A Whole New Ball Game : the story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (Macy, Sue, 1995)
CALL NUMBER:  J 796.357 Macy 1995
Book The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League : a biographical dictionary (Madden, W. C., 2005)
CALL NUMBER:  796.357 M263w 2005
Book Legendary Locals (Duffy, Sean; Carney, Brent, 2013)
CALL NUMBER:  975.414 Duff 2013
Video Icon Remembering Rosie Gacioch (Lunch With Books Series, 2011)
CALL NUMBER:  DVD 796.356 G115
LOCATION: ▼ Wheeling Room (non-circulating - public access) ▼
Book Wheeling Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony [2005] (Wheeling Hall of Fame Board, 2005)
CALL NUMBER:  (Vertical File) VF Wheeling Hall of Fame

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