EAST GREENWICH, R.I. (WPRI) — Wilma Briggs, a Rhode Island native who became a star in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, has died.
The players association said Briggs passed away on Monday. She was 92.
Briggs grew up on a farm in East Greenwich and would go on to play baseball from 1948-1954. She led the league with nine home runs during the 1953 season, then hit another 25 in her last season.
The league grew in popularity during World War II after many MLB players were deployed, but fell apart just as Briggs, then 23, was at the top of her game.
Briggs ranks second all-time for home runs with 43, behind Eleanor Callow’s 55. She was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 2013.
