Viola Thompson [Griffin] (January 2, 1922 – December 31, 2017) was a pitcher who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Listed at , , she batted and threw left-handed.
A hard-throwing, underhand pitcher, Thompson had a brief but solid career during her four years in the AAGPBL. Since the only organized ball for women in the country was softball, the AAGPBL created a hybrid game which included both softball and baseball. Over the 12 years of history of the league, the rules were gradually modified to more closely resemble baseball. Throwing underhand, Thompson was unable to make the transition to full sidearm in 1947 and overhand pitching in 1948. Throwing multiple underhands, Thompson went on to play in the National Girls Baseball League of Chicago where she played until 1951.
Early life
Thompson, the daughter of Henry Justice and Mae Abercrombie Thompson, was born and raised in Anderson County, South Carolina, where she attended school through high school. She attended Anderson Girls High School and graduated in 1939 and played softball there. Anderson Girls High School would later become part of T. L. Hanna High School. She was born into a large family with six brothers, all but one of whom served in the military, and four sisters. Viola Thompson and all of her siblings either played softball or baseball. Several of her siblings played tennis, some played basketball, and her brother Carlisle, later went on to become a boxer in the Golden Gloves amateur league. Her sister, Fredda Acker, would go on to be named Miss America in 1947. Her sister Margaret went on to become Miss South Carolina USA in 1960. Their father, who worked in the local textile mill, encouraged Viola and her brothers and sisters at a young age to actively participate in different sports. Upon graduation, she moved to Greenville, South Carolina, where she worked in the textile mill and played amateur softball for the company's team. She pitched in the textiles league for both men's and women's softball teams and was also the athletic director of the mill she played for.
While at Greenville, Thompson met Elizabeth Mahon, a talented player with the same passion for baseball, with whom she started a close friendship. Eventually, Thompson played in Greenville on the same team with Mahon. By then, a talent scout offered Thompson and Mahon an invitation to come to the newly formed AAGPBL tryouts, which were to be held at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois. With the prospect of making the $60 per week that was being paid to the members of the established teams, which was a vast sum of money then, the two Greenville girls decided to try their hand in the new circuit, obtaining full-time jobs in the AAGPBL for the 1944 season. Thompson was assigned to the Milwaukee Chicks, while Mahon joined the Minneapolis Millerettes, becoming the only South Carolina ballplayers in AAGPBL history. Mahon died in 2001 at the age of 82.
Baseball career
In her rookie season, Thompson posted a 15–12 record and a 2.88 earned run average as part of a pitching rotation that included Connie Wisniewski (23–10, 2.23) and Josephine Kabick (26–19, 2.66). The Chicks, with Max Carey at the helm, won the pennant and defeated the Kenosha Comets in the championship series. Although the Chicks won the championship, they had no local financial backing and could not compete with the American Association Milwaukee Brewers. In fact, the Chicks were forced to play all seven games of the series at Kenosha's Lake Front Stadium because the Brewers were using Borchert Field in Milwaukee. In addition, the high ticket prices charged for AAGPBL games failed to encourage significant fan support. Due to lack of community support and skepticism of journalists, the Chicks moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan prior to the 1945 season.
Thompson slumped to 11–19 in 1945, even though she collected a low 1.90 ERA in 260 innings pitched for the renamed Grand Rapids Chicks. Nevertheless, she rebounded the next year with the South Bend Blue Sox and went 15–6 with a 2.90 ERA in 31 games. She appeared in only one game for South Bend during the 1947 season as the league moved entirely to sidearm pitching. Her younger sister, Fredda Acker, joined her on the team as an overhand pitcher in that season but never appeared on the All-American roster, perhaps to safeguard her award-winning looks. Organizers of the AAGPBL did not want Viola's sister Fredda to join the league once she was crowned Miss America for publicity purposes. Their minds were changed once they saw how well Fredda could play.